Huskies Get Lost in the Desert Again, Lose to ASU 45-38

The UW suffers second consecutive defeat to scuffling Sun Devils.

TEMPE, Ariz. — On a confusing day in the desert, the University of Washington football team got lost in the sagebrush and the cactus and search parties were still out looking for these guys as dusk settled.

The Huskies were supposed to be the strong ones, too.

Instead, they suffered a humbling 45-38 defeat to a short-handed Arizona State entry that showed up without its head coach, lost its starting quarterback in the second quarter and really had no business winning.

Yet the Sun Devils came out on top, moving up and down the field against a UW defense that couldn't stop anyone in a two-thirds-full Sun Devil Stadium. They broke a tie at 38 with a game-winning, 2-yard touchdown pass from backup Trenton Bourguet to wide receiver Elijhah Badger with 7:27 left to play.

Somehow no one scored for either team over that last half a quarter.

"They key is they can be upset," said Husky coach Kalen DeBoer, now saddled with 8- and 7-point losses at the season's halfway point. "But we've got to make sure we move on because there's a lot of football to be played. We're a 4-2 team and we're disappointed at what's happened the last two weeks."

The UW might have suffered from an identity crisis. With the hosts choosing to wear garish mustard-colored uniforms, the Huskies showed up dressed in their purple shirts. They should have treated this like a home game, but that didn't happen. The clothes didn't make the team.

The Huskies also regained the services of junior safety Asa Turner, out for a month with a leg injury, only to lose him again in the second quarter to a targeting call. 

When Turner left, he took Sun Devils quarterback Emory Jones with him. Turner hit the Florida transfer with his shoulder and Jones lay face down before showing concussion symptoms when he was helped off the field. 

The Huskies led 10-3 and was watching as ASU changed quarterbacks, and had every reason to believe this game might turn easy for them.

It got a lot harder.  

Emory Jones took a hit while sliding that ended his day in the second quarter :: Joe Rondone/USA TODAY Sports

The UW defense, already thin to begin with, opened with a pair of new starters in redshirt freshman Elijah Jackson at cornerback and sophomore Jacob Bandes at defensive tackle, replacing Davon Banks and Tuli Letuligasenoa, who were both in uniform and played sparingly, which is what safety Alex Cook did. 

Likewise wide receiver Giles Jackson left the game and was unavailable. The Huskies went through three running backs and were down to redshirt freshman Sam Adams II at the end.

"We knew we didn't have a lot of depth, as far as experience, and that's showing up," DeBoer said. "A lot of what we practice during the course of the week, it's not those guys on the field, because we're pretty dinged up."

Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. who has a well-publicized injury history from Indiana, even got T-boned by two Sun Devils near the end of the fourth quarter and was down for a long time before coming out for a single play. He was able to return but everyone on his sideline at first held their collective breath. He tried to be resolute about everything.

"We know we've got a lot to work on and we're going to get that fixed," Penix said. "We don't like to lose."

The nation's leading passer, Penix threw for 300-plus yards for the sixth consecutive game. He connected on 33 of 53 passes for 311 yards, but he didn't have a touchdown pass this time.

Running back Cam Davis, who didn't finish the game, led all Husky rushers with 77 yards on 9 carries and scored on three short touchdown runs. 

ASU's Xazavian Valladay, a Wyoming transfer, led all ground-gainers with 23 carries for 111 yards and a score, and he also caught a pass for another TD. 

In the second quarter, the Huskies turned so young on the field they went one defensive series with true freshman Tristan Dunn and redshirt freshman Makell Esteen at the safeties, true freshman Jayvon Parker at defensive tackle and Jackson at corner.

If there was anything familiar to this outing, Penix and Company reminded Husky fans once more that's it's inadvisable to show up or tune in late. They scored a touchdown on their opening drive for the sixth consecutive game.

This time, they moved 75 yards in a dozen plays with a surgeon's precision to score on Penix's one-yard sneak behind center Corey Luciano. The drive took 4:31 off the clock. It was Penix's first UW touchdown.

ASU, however, returned served with a 53-yard field goal by true freshman Carter Brown, a career long for him and the sixth-longest in Sun Devils history. That capped a 12-play, 40-yard drive.

The Huskies nearly lost edge rusher Zion Tupuola-Fetui on that defensive set when he initially was called for targeting after laying a big hit on Valladay at the UW 35, but a replay spared him.

The UW matched the Sun Devils' field goal with one of its own early in the second quarter, when Peyton Henry converted a 27-yarder and it was 10-3.

Both teams were just getting warmed up. 

After ASU lost Jones midway through the quarter and replaced him with one-time walk-on Trenton Bourguet, the Sun Devils finished off a 10-play, 75-drive by handing the ball to Valladay for an 11-yard TD run and a tying score. The quarterback handoff made no difference. Bourguet finished the game with an efficient 15 completions in 21 attempts for 182 yards and three touchdowns.

ASU forced the Huskies to punt and moved in front for the first time on another Valladay TD, this one coming on a 14-yard Bourguet pass to the wide-open back for a 17-10 Sun Devils advantage.

Things got worse before they got better for the Huskies.

Alex Cook tries to pull down ASU's Daniyel Ngata :: Joe Camporeale/USA TODAY Sports

Three plays into the next UW possession, Penix had a pass deflected high into the air and it came down in the hands of nickelback Jordan Clark, who had no one around him when he raced 38 yards to the end zone. With 2:51 left in the half, Huskies trailed 24-10.

DeBoer felt that play hurt his team as much as any.

"Some plays we made out there, we were just a step slow," the coach said. "And there was a turnover that was kind of the difference in the game, as well."

However, three minutes is way more time than the UW need to pick up some points. Penix had his team in the end zone nine plays later before the first half ran out.

Running back Wyane Taulapapa capped the 75-yard drive with a 1-yard plunge behind the blocking of left guard Jackson Kirkland. The Huskies still had 34 seconds to spare before intermission. Everyone rested with the score 24-17 in ASU's favor.

To. open the second half, the UW played stout defense for the first and probably only time all afternoon. The Huskies forced ASU to punt. For a change, the Sun Devil offense stalled. 

Yet the Huskies helped out the home team when they probably should have punted right back and didn't. They went for it on fourth-and-1 from their 32 and Rome Odunze lost three yards on an end-around play, giving their hosts a short trip to the end zone.

It took the Sun Devils five plays to capitalize and score on a 10-yard TD pass from Bourguet to Badger, putting ASU back up by two touchdowns at 31-17.

There was no reason to think anyone would start playing defense now. 

The Huskies rushed back to tie the game at 38-38 with 12:09 left to play following the third of three short Cam Davis touchdown runs, who scored from 4, 1 and 5 yards out in the second half. This offset a 1-yard scoring run by ASU's Daniyel Ngata setting up the finish.

The Husky defense wasn't up for it. Not only did it not register a sack all game, the secondary got shredded at the worst possible time.

"We need to get a better rush up front to help out the other guys," UW edge rusher Jeremiah Martin said.

The Sun Devils responded with a 10-play, 82-yard drive covering four and a half minutes. Bryan Thompson caught a 32-yard pass and took it to the UW 1, beating Cook badly on the play. After a running play lost a yard, Badger turned Husky cornerback Davon Banks around in the end zone and stepped back and made an easy catch for the game-winner.

The Huskies moved the ball to the Arizona State 31 in the closing moments, before having a bad snap get slapped around and end up being a 30-yard loss. Then Penix took a hit from defensive tackle Travez Moore, who jumped on his back and sort of held him up for edge rusher B.J. Green II who hit the quarterback in the throat with his helmet and got ejected for it. 

The only redeeming thing for the UW all day was Penix being able to come back and play again. He hadn't lasted past six games during any of his four seasons at Indiana, but this was an exception.

"I don't quit on my team," he said.

In the middle of the desert, Penix almost got killed football-wise living up to that credo.

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