3 huge questions after Washington Huskies’ road loss to Rutgers
By Ethan Lee
Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies almost completed a thrilling comeback in Big Ten play last Friday. And yet, that just simply didn’t come to fruition. Fisch suffered his second loss of his tenure as the head coach on Montlake and it really seemed like he got outcoached in the 21-18 loss.
Washington is now 3-2 overall on the season and the Huskies are sitting at 1-1 in Big Ten play. A sluggish start really didn’t do the Huskies any favors and the inability to slow Rutgers’ rushing attack in the first half put the Huskies in a difficult situation in the second half.
Now, roughly halfway through the 2024 Washington football season, Fisch and the Huskies have to start answering some tough questions if they hope to make it to a bowl game. They’ve got to find some answers for some of the issues they’re experiencing.
And hopefully someone somewhere has answers to three questions that I have about this mess of a loss to Rutgers.
No. 1: Why on earth couldn’t the Washington Huskies convert on third down?
I don’t have an easy fix for this one, but this has to be an area that Jedd Fisch and Brennan Carroll address sooner rather than later, right?
Third downs have been a mess all season for Washington’s offense, but it was particularly bad Friday night against Rutgers. Washington converted on just two third down attempts. There were, in fact, a DOZEN third down attempts.
Washington’s offense was solid in other categories. The Huskies have well over 500 yards of offense, quarterback Will Rogers was on fire in the second half, and running back Jonah Coleman repeatedly ripped off huge runs.
But the Huskies simply couldn’t convert third downs. And that’s worrisome to me. Of course, having an average distance to go of 7.3 yards on third downs? Yeah, that’s a problem that there isn’t necessarily an easy solution for, I suppose. I’m glad I get to ponder these sorts of questions instead of trying to solve them.
No. 2: What will the offense’s identity be moving forward?
There are a lot of things to like about the Huskies on offense, but it feels like Fisch and Carroll are still figuring out exactly what it is they want this offense to be. And maybe that’s the case! They haven’t been in Seattle all that long and the offense has a ton of new faces all over in the starting lineup.
Will Rogers was an Air Raid quarterback at Mississippi State, the Huskies are utilizing Jonah Coleman somewhat effectively as he transferred in from Arizona, and more or less the offensive line was essentially built from scratch.
There are some fascinating pieces in place in Seattle and the Huskies are able to do multiple things really well, but the offense still feels rather disjointed for long stretches of games. It doesn’t help that Fisch and Carroll seem to like swapping quarterbacks in the middle of drives, which is odd.
It doesn’t help that they don’t run the ball with Coleman in various different crucial short yardage situations. The offense is a work in progress. It’s averaging nearly 470 yards of offense per game, but it’s scoring just 25.2 points per game.
So, what will the offense be moving forward?
No. 3: Will the defense be able to hold up against more talented Big Ten running backs?
The Big Ten is known for having dynamic running backs and great defenses. And that’s kinda what we saw from the Rutgers Scarlet Knights on Friday. Rutgers running back Kyle Monangai was seemingly unstoppable, even though the rest of the Scarlet Knights’ offense really wasn’t anywhere to be found.
Still, on 25 carries, Monangai ran for 132 yards and a touchdown. While the Huskies knew what was going to happen for Rutgers on offense, there wasn’t much they could do to stop it. And there are going to be more teams like that up ahead for the Huskies.
This coming weekend, Washington will play the Michigan Wolverines. And what Michigan is doing as a team this season is functionally the same as to what Rutgers did Friday night. Good, sound defense. An offense that is physical and wants to run the ball, and then a willingness to slow the game down and punt periodically. Oh, and Michigan’s defense is more talented than what Rutgers has.
Iowa is going to do the same thing, more or less, but they might have the most talented running back in the country.
Washington better be prepped for that. Will the Huskies be able to account for the Big Ten’s running attacks this season? Or, will UW’s solid defense just get gashed on occasion and is that something we just need to accept?
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