3 thoughts on Washington Huskies’ weird road loss to the Indiana Hoosiers
By Ethan Lee
Saturday afternoon, Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies suffered a pretty frustrating loss on the road against the Indiana Hoosiers. For some rather significant parts of this game, UW gave Washington football fans a bit of hope that they might be able to contend with what is clearly one of the best teams in the Big Ten this season.
But, because of errors, some truly bizarre plays, and impressive performances from the Hoosiers, Washington simply wasn’t able to keep up with Indiana in Bloomington. The Hoosiers ended up winning 31-17 in a game that seemed pretty important for Fisch and his Huskies.
This was an opportunity for Washington to go on the road, play in a venue other than their home stadium, and somehow come away with a win. Instead, another frustrating and somewhat odd loss for the Huskies once again. I’ve got a few thoughts. I suppose y’all do as well. Let’s start going over them
The Huskies’ third-down defense was not stellar in this matchup
Man, this really seems to be a problem for the Washington Huskies right now. Some credit should absolutely be given to Curt Cignetti and the Indiana Hoosiers. All things considered, they look like a complete team. They’re pretty dang good, even without their starting quarterback available to elevate the ceiling of what the Hoosiers can accomplish.
Against Washington, the Hoosiers managed to convert on eight of their 15 third down attempts. That’s good for 53.3 percent, folks. For comparison’s sake, Washington was good on just THREE of 11 third down conversion attempts.
That disparity is a pretty big problem.
Indiana was able to control the clock a bit. While I don’t ultimately put a ton of stock in time of possession as a key performance indicator for success, it does certainly seem plausible that Indiana was able to wear down the Huskies’ defense with this sort of offensive success.