The Washington Huskies snapped their 2-game losing streak with a 26-21 win over the USC Trojans at Husky Stadium. It was a back-and-forth affair, after the Dawgs dominated the 1st half, that came down to a couple of late redzone stops by the defense. Head coach Jedd Fisch will be happy with the win and overall performance, even with the occasional penalty and subpar QB play in the 2nd half. Washington are now on the verge (1 win away) of bowl eligibility with 3 games left in the regular season.

RB Jonah Coleman was the star performer on offense and paced the Huskies with 104 yards on 23 carries and 2 TD’s. It’s remarkable how good he is in the redzone. Both TD runs emphasized his vision, underrated speed and will to get into the endzone. In a conference full of distinguished running backs, he’s certainly up there.

QB Will Rogers chipped in with 262 yards on 25/39 passing attempts and 0 TD’s. It wasn’t his best game in a Husky jersey, but better than his lackluster performances against Indiana and Iowa, especially because he didn’t turn the ball over.

Kicker Grady Gross also hit a pair of field goals. A good sign since he’d been in a bit of a slump lately.

Freshman wide receiver Keith Reynolds, who hasn’t been used much, made two very impactful plays. One in the 1st half, a 50-yard kickoff return that setup UW’s offense in good field position and led to their second TD, and one in the 2nd half, a handoff on a jet sweep from the 4 yard line that he took in for 6 and proved to be the game-winning TD.

While the offense scored just enough points to win, it was the defense that guided the team to victory, including two massive redzone stands late in the 4th quarter.

Linebacker Carson Bruener was simply outstanding. He racked up 12 tackles, a couple of pass breakups and 2 interceptions, a performance worthy of Big Ten defensive player of the week.

The Huskies played a masterful 1st half that might’ve been the best performance of the season. All 3 areas of the team were effective and contributing.

The offense was on fire in the 1st half, scoring on 4 out of their 5 drives for 20 points, which is their 2nd highest total this season. Back in Week 2, against Eastern Michigan, they put up 21 points in the 1st half. The reshuffled offensive line held up great, protecting Will Rogers and giving him plenty of time to throw the ball. They also blasted open quite a few holes for Jonah Coleman to rumble through.

For whatever reason, USC HC Lincoln Riley went with a pass heavy attack in the 1st half that played right into the strength of the Washington defense. The pass rush did just enough to disrupt USC QB Miller Moss, while locking down a solid Trojans WR corps. Although, at times, it felt like Moss had an eternity to scan the field and let the routes develop behind the OL. At halftime, the six USC drives went punt, interception, missed FG, touchdown, punt and interception. The 2nd half went much differently for both teams.

After leaning so heavily on Miller Moss, Lincoln Riley went with a much more balanced attack that proved to be a handful for the Huskies. It ended up being the right decision.

RB Woody Marks didn’t have much of an impact in the 1st half, but came to life in the 2nd half and made the most of his carries – finishing with 123 yards on 22 carries and 1 TD. He was a battering ram who gave Steve Belichick all kinds of problems and, possibly, was the best player on their offense. The announcers kept mentioning how USC wasn’t utilizing him enough and I tend to agree. He’s more than skilled enough to be a focal point of the USC offense.

The 3rd quarter was especially poor for the Dawgs as they gave up a pair of TD drives to let the Trojans back into the game and gave them the lead heading into the 4th quarter. There was a particularly brutal 4th down conversion on USC’s first drive in the 2nd half.

Washington played solid defense and gotten USC into a precarious 4th-and-9 early in the 3rd quarter. The Trojans went for it, as they didn’t have much choice and needed a spark/points. Well, they sure got the jolt they wanted after WR Makai Lemon got off the line of scrimmage quickly, turning Ephesians Prysock around in the process and streaked towards the endzone with Miller Moss finding him for a 37-yard TD. Safety Vincent Holmes has to share some of the blame as he was presumably the over-the-top help for the defensive back, but took a poor angle to the ball and whiffed completely.

This juiced up the entire Trojans team with the defense then stopping UW on 4th-and-7 on the very next drive, which then led to a quick strike 4-play, 70-yard TD drive with the score giving USC the lead.

WR Zachariah Branch had been pretty quiet up to that point, but he was finally able to shake loose for a huge 42-yard reception. Outside of the Lemon TD, it was the longest catch a Trojans WR made. Credit has to be given to the Washington defense for limiting the explosive plays.

Carson Bruener’s 2nd interception late in the 3rd quarter was key as it squashed USC’s momentum and swung it back in Washington’s favor, with the corresponding drive ending in Keith Reynolds 1st Husky TD.

Will Rogers was under fire for most of the 2nd half, which neutered the passing attack. The pocket wasn’t clean and he had to evade pressure on almost every one of his drop-backs. This affected his accuracy greatly and led to him overthrowing his receivers multiple times. OC Brennan Carroll had to pivot to running more, which was the right call. Although, the holes from the 1st half dried up and the sledding for Jonah Coleman was tough. He wasn’t nearly as effective as he was in the 1st half.

Washington had 6 drives in the 2nd half and only scored on one of them, which proved to be the difference.

The real fireworks began early in the 4th quarter when USC went on a 15-play, 77-yard drive with them burning about 9 minutes on the clock and getting all the way down to the Washington 1 yard line, mostly through the ground game – 12 of the 15 plays were runs. The drive came to an end after USC went for it on 4th-and-goal from the 1 and were stopped cold. RB Woody Marks took the handoff and was stuffed by an unblocked Khmori House, who saw the opening and busted through for a tackle for loss. It was a massive mistake by the Trojans OL.

At that point, all the Huskies needed to do was put together a 5 minute drive to kill the clock. They chewed up about 3 and a half minutes and were on the verge of converting a 3rd-and-1, and being able to run the rest of the clock down, but an untimely illegal substitution penalty, after a USC timeout no less, stalled the drive and forced them to punt. The Trojans were given about 90 seconds to put together a game-winning TD drive.

Miller Moss was able to lead them down to the Washington 14 with a chance to win the game and break Husky hearts. Thankfully, the pass defense stepped up and forced 3 straight incompletions to seal the game for UW. It was good to see the defense buckle, but not break in two crucial redzone situations. Hopefully that will give them a major confidence boost heading into the final stretch of the season.

Up next for Washington is a trip to Happy Valley, Pennsylvania to play the 6th-ranked Penn State Nittany Lions. They are coming off a tough home loss to 4th-ranked Ohio State and will be pissed off.

James Franklin is a good coach, but can’t seem to beat the best of the best (3-17 against top-10 opponents). Which some fans let him know after the loss to the Buckeyes. He didn’t take too kindly to the criticism and yelled back at them. There isn’t much worse for a program than consistently losing in the biggest, most important games. Failing to live up to expectations is a coach’s worst nightmare.

That being said the Nittany Lions have a stellar defense only giving up 15 point per game – 8th lowest in all of college football.

DE Abdul Carter is projected to be a top-10 pick in the upcoming NFL draft and will need to be game-planned for as he could ruin the day for the Huskies and Will Rogers with his speed and power off the edge.

Safeties Jaylen Reed and Zakee Wheatly are their top-2 leading tackles with 50 and 46 respectfully.

Linebacker Kobe King mans the middle of the defense and is 3rd on the team with 41 tackles.

All 3 levels of the defense has playmakers and yards/points will be at a premium.

On offense, their RB’s Kaytron Allen (536 yards on 113 carries and 4 TD’s) and Nicholas Singleton (498 yards on 81 carries and 3 TD’s) are the foundation and setup their nominal passing attack.

QB Drew Allar (1786 passing yards on 129/184 passing attempts with 12 TD’s and 5 interceptions) is solid, but they aren’t very explosive through the air.

TE Tyler Warren is by far their best receiver with 606 yards on 51 receptions and 4 TD’s. Their 2nd leading receiver, Harrison Wallace III, only has 24 catches for 395 yards and 2 TD’s. It’s safe to say they don’t have many dynamic playmakers in the WR corps, so stopping the running attack is paramount for Washington.

Beaver Stadium is one of the most intimating places to play, especially at night. Having over 110,000 people screaming at you can’t make it easy to hear or focus, so it’s going to take an effort equal to the 1st half against USC, except over both halves, to go into Happy Valley and pull off the shock upset.

GO DAWGS!