Grading the Washington Huskies after road test failure vs. Rutgers Scarlet Knights

Washington Huskies offense gets a D+

Okay look it feels weird to give the offense a D+ after the Huskies put up over 500 yards of offense and didn’t commit any turnovers. The Huskies did indeed show some pretty impressive potential at times against Rutgers.

But, it has to be noted that Washington only scored 18 points despite having 521 yards of offense. The Huskies failed to routinely make it into the end zone and they failed routinely on third and fourth downs in this game.

UW’s third down efficiency was 2-for-12. That’s horrendous. On fourth down, the Huskies were 2-for-4. Which, I guess isn’t awful, but it wasn’t good.

Will Rogers went 26 of 36 passing for 306 yards and two touchdowns. He was efficient and effective and while folks want to say he was routinely completing short passes, that’s not necessarily the whole truth. In fact, Rogers feasted when it came to mid-range passing (anywhere from five to 14 yards down the field) and was proficient in deep passing.

Part of the problem is that Washington really didn’t have much offensive success in the midst of the game. Once the Huskies really let Rogers and company play with some tempo late in the game, things turned around a bit.

There is a discussion to be had about the way Washington should approach its offense moving forward. Maybe letting the 5th-year transfer quarterback with approximately a gazillion yards operate the offense would work out for Washington. I dunno. It’s something to try, right?

Oh! And it’s worth noting that four of the six penalties Washington committed happened on offense! That’s bad!