Grading Jedd Fisch’s Washington Huskies in their loss to the Penn State Nittany Lions
By Ethan Lee
Well, once again, we’ve seen Jedd Fisch’s Washington Huskies struggle to compete on the road this season. Last weekend, Fisch and the Huskies went up to take on the Penn State Nittany Lions. And instead of finding a way to compete for a full game against one of the best teams in the country, Washington lost.
In frustrating fashion, the Huskies were humbled. The game sucked. There wasn’t really anything redeeming about it. Washington lost a game and it looked like the Huskies really didn’t even belong on the same field as the Nittany Lions.
Now, in their last three road games, Washington has lost by an average of 22.3 points. So, yeah, a home game would certainly be welcomed by Washington Husky football fans. Because road games? They’re awful. And Washington definitely doesn’t really compete well anywhere other than Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium.
At least not this year.
So, let’s take another quick look at that loss from last week ahead of Washington’s final home game of the season, shall we? Let’s go ahead and grade the Huskies in their loss against Penn State.
Washington’s offense hit rock bottom against Penn State
Let’s go ahead and give Washington’s offense a solid failing grade for the way the Huskies performed on the road in Happy Valley. A solid failing F grade. Nothing really redeeming here. UW was able to gain just 193 yards of offense in that 35-6 loss.
It’s probably been said before and it’ll be said again, but the offense was offensive. It hurt my eyes and broke a few folks’ hearts. It just flat out wasn’t good. And it’s a huge reason why this loss was so frustrating for UW fans.
Will Rogers struggled, completing 10 of 13 passes, but he threw for just 59 yards and tossed an interception. Demond Williams Jr. completed six of his 10 passes for a total of 60 yards while also picking up 38 more yards on the ground thanks to a total of 10 carries. Jonah Coleman didn’t have much better luck as he only had 24 yards on 11 carries.
Bad day for the offense. All around. It wasn’t fun.
Washington’s defense was worn down by the second quarter
The Penn State Nittany Lions have seen some ups and downs all throughout the season when it comes to their defense, but they really didn’t struggle much against Washington’s defense. And so, we’re going to give the Huskies a D- here. It just wasn’t much better on this side of the ball given that Penn State was able to do pretty much whatever it wanted.
The Huskies had a few decent moments on defense early on, but by the second quarter, the Nittany Lions looked unstoppable. By the end of the game, Penn State racked up 486 yards and the Nittany Lions accomplished that in a pretty balanced way: 220 passing yards and 266 rushing yards.
Penn State was 10 for 13 on third down attempts (Washington happened to convert on just four of 13 third down attempts).
The Nittany Lions averaged 6.9 yards per play, 6.7 yards per carry, and 11 yards per completed pass. There just wasn’t much fun had on this side of the ball on the road in Happy Valley. No fun at all.
Special teams was solid, which is good, I suppose
Let’s go ahead and give them a B- because all six of Washington’s points came from Grady Gross, but there should have been another three points on the board for the Huskies. Field goals aren’t fun. Never kick field goals again, please.
Gross was good from 24 yards and then hit again on 35, but he missed on 45. While Gross was solid and consistent a season ago, it really seems like he’s got the yips this season. But hey, he hit on two of the three field goals he attempted. So, that’s something.
Jack McCallister was solid in punting. On the two punts UW had him handle, McCallister averaged 43.5 yards and had one punt go 52 yards.
Not bad.
As a whole, things could have been a bit worse for Washington, but things could have also been much better. The Huskies are abysmal in playing in places other than the Husky Stadium and I, for one, hope they get that resolved before next season gets underway.
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