Where does Washington football go following their embarrassing loss to the Montana Grizzlies?

The Washington football program’s highly anticipated season opener ended up becoming their most embarrassing loss in program history. The Huskies entered this game as the easy favorites over the Montana Grizzlies, only to lose to the top-10 FCS team 13-7.

There may have been a few notable plays like a few near-interceptions on defense, but overall the Huskies performance was abysmal. The team who hadn’t played in front of fans since 2019 couldn’t put anything together.

Following the game, a lot of blame was put on the shoulders of quarterback Dylan Morris. Morris had a solid opening drive (3/4 passes for 28 yards) that drove the offense down to the one-yard line where he ended up scoring a touchdown on a sneak play.

Every drive after, the offense looked unprepared. Morris had several passes dropped and saw himself without his top four receivers in Terrell Bynum, Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan, and Ja’Lynn Polk (who caught one pass before leaving the game with an injury).

I even had the suggestion that if the Huskies felt severely short-handed at receiver that they should put in defensive back Kyler Gordon at wide receiver. Gordon played wide receiver along with cornerback in high school. Deemed the most athletic player on the team, Gordon could have certainly made plays for the offense.

But the lack of supportive talent wasn’t all to blame for Morris’ struggles. He threw several passes way behind his receivers and looked confused at what Montana’s defensive front was showing him. Morris also ended up throwing three interceptions, one of which that gave Montana the win to end the game with 40 seconds left on the clock.

The playcalling was stale, the defense couldn’t get any pressure on the Grizzlies offense, and the offensive line gave up three sacks and allowed multiple pressures.

Where does the Washington football program go from here?

The blame has to be on head coach Jimmy Lake. Fall camp led us to believe that this team could be a Pac-12 Championship contender but game one tells us the opposite. As much as Lake’s staff hirings continue to concern fans, Lake has to take the responsibility for not having his team prepared on game day and for not making the necessary adjustments in-game to come out with the win.

Next week the Huskies head to Ann Arbor to play the Michigan Wolverines, who beat Western Michigan 47-14 in their season opener.

The Huskies have a lot of work ahead of them if they want seriously want to contend against the Wolverines at this point. They have to get creative on offense and physical on defense. Coach Lake can’t be hesitant to put in five-star freshman Sam Huard if Morris fails to carry the offense again.