Washington Huskies suffer humbling road loss against Iowa Hawkeyes

Another game outside of Husky Stadium, another frustrating loss for Jedd Fisch and the Washington Huskies. Saturday afternoon (Saturday morning for folks out on the West Coast) at Kinnick Stadium, Washington fell by an infuriating score of 40-16.

Despite the fact that Washington had some solid momentum after beating the No. 10 Michigan Wolverines last week (a team that plays a similar brand of football to Iowa), the Huskies had no real way of slowing the Iowa Hawkeyes running game or stopping the Iowa front seven. Oh, and costly mistakes proved to be a big problem for UW on Saturday.

And the Huskies truly looked like a completely different team this week on the road as opposed to what they were last Saturday at home in Husky Stadium.

Iowa Hawkeyes crush Washington Huskies with dominant 40-16 blowout victory

Iowa Hawkeyes running back Kaleb Johnson was unstoppable, which is impressive if you’re an Iowa fan but infuriating if you like the Huskies. Saturday afternoon, Johnson ran for 166 yards and two scores on just 21 carries.

If you got flashbacks to that road loss to Rutgers, I wouldn’t blame you. 

While Johnson has been the bulk of the Hawkeyes’ offense for much of the season and Iowa lacks a true passing attack, Washington wasn’t able to stop quarterback Cade McNamara from being efficient as he completed eight of 14 passes for 108 yards and two scores. It’s not an overly impressive statline, but it was enough to help the Hawkeyes win by 24 points.

And once again, Washington’s offense struggled to get into the end zone. A week after having a strong showing against Michigan’s defense, Washington quarterback Will Rogers only managed to throw for 195 yards on 22 of 34 passing. Rogers did throw a touchdown, but he also tossed an ugly interception. 

So don’t be surprised if you see more and more calls for Demond Williams to be given more control of the offense moving forward. Rogers has been pretty solid for most of the season up to this point, but there will be plenty of fans who will likely want to see what the future looks like for the Huskies, even if Rogers is the quarterback who is best prepared to help UW win right now. 

But Rogers’ fumble, his difficulty evading Iowa’s pass rush consistently, and his interception are going to be on the minds of a lot of Washington fans going forward.

In addition to all of the other issues, Washington also committed a half dozen penalties for 54 yards. Which, it’s worth noting that penalties are among the problems that have consistently plagued the Huskies this season.

Read more: