The #15 Washington Huskies traveled to the Bay Area to take on a banged up Stanford Cardinal team, that has struggled all season long.
Coming into the game, the Huskies were a 15-point favorite over Stanford, as the Cardinal had a 2-3 record and many unanswered questions.
In the end, the Huskies suffered a devastating 23-13 defeat, which definitely will revamp their postseason goals going forward this year.
From the start of the game, the Huskies struggled to get into sync, where on the opening drive, Stanford marched down the field on the Husky defense.
Methodically, Stanford coach David Shaw controlled the time of possession on the night, and slowed down the Huskies pace and rhythm.
It seemed as if the Huskies were “stuck in mud” most of the game, and were a step slow to everything on both sides of the ball.
At halftime, the Stanford Cardinal led 13-10 and were in complete control of the game. The Husky defense couldn’t slow down the the Cardinal offense.
On offense, the Huskies sputtered for most of the night. Junior quarterback Jacob Eason was out of sync in the passing game, and was under duress on several key plays.
What didn’t help was the wide receivers’ inconsistent play the entire night, with constant drops in critical times, when Eason needed help.
At one point late in the third quarter, senior wide receiver Aaron Fuller was the only actual wide receiver to have a completion in the game.
The entire season, the Huskies had success in the run-game, but tonight the Huskies were only able to garner 88-yards off the ground.
Redshirt freshman running back Richard Newton left the game with an apparent leg injury, and was taken to the locker room on a cart.
Simply put, the Huskies fell victim to a classic “trap game” scenario and were not able to get it going at any point of the game.
One shocking aspect to the game is that Stanford had a backup quarterback entering the game and several backups on the offensive line.
This was an absolute head scratching, flat performance for the Huskies, and arguably the worst loss of the Chris Petersen era at Washington.
There is no rest for the weary, as the Huskies travel to Tucson next weekend to take on the Arizona Wildcats who are now 4-1 on the season.
It’s no secret that the desert historically has not been kind to the Huskies, so they will need to regroup rather quickly this week.
Not too much to recap as the Huskies simply just didn’t have it tonight, and Stanford had the perfect game plan against the Huskies.
The Huskies haven’t won down on “The Farm” since 2007, and after tonight’s loss, one has to wonder when that streak will end?
Next up for the Huskies is the Arizona Wildcats, next Saturday night, October 12th at Arizona Stadium with a kickoff time of 8:00 p.m PST.
