While the Washington Huskies have been notorious for struggling to score in the first quarter for the first few games of the season, that wasn’t really the case against the Northwestern Wildcats. In fact, Washington Husky football fans get to see Will Rogers effortlessly dissect Northwestern’s defense in the first quarter of the first Big Ten conference game in Washington’s history.
After a trio of punts to start the game (Northwestern punted, Washington returned the favor, and then the Wildcats punted once more), the Huskies took over from their own 27-yard line. And from there, Rogers and Jonah Coleman got to work.
Coleman started things off with a 3-yard run and Rogers followed that up with an incompletion. It started to look like Washington would be forced to punt once more. Thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Rogers connected with Coleman for an 11-yard gain, getting the Huskies up to their own 41-yard line.
Coleman followed that up with a short 2-yard run and then Rogers dished out another 11-yard pass. And then great things happened.
Watch: Washington Huskies quarterback Will Rogers connects with Denzel Boston for 46-yard touchdown pass vs. Northwestern Wildcats
While some (including myself) have had plenty of questions about Rogers' ability to consistently connect with his wide receivers down the field, the Huskies’ quarterback made it pretty clear that he’s comfortable throwing deep passes.
Against the Northwestern Wildcats, Rogers got the scoring started with this beautiful 46-yard pass to Denzel Boston to put UW up 7-0 in the first quarter.
You’ve got to see this play:
WILL ROGERS THROWING 40+ YARD TOUCHDOWNS IS FUN pic.twitter.com/2awYziMJWB
— The Husky Haul (@HuskyHaul) September 21, 2024
Rogers and Boston just make it look easy! They’re really good at this whole touchdown pass and catch deal. And that’s great to see. While Northwestern is far from being a Big Ten powerhouse program, they did come into this game with a pretty notable defense. And Rogers and Boston had no issues starting the scoring early.