Huskies Get Run Over on the Road Again in Big Ten

The UW comes out flat, trails throughout against Hoosiers.

Indiana's D'Angelo Ponds (5) returns an interception 67 yards for a touchdown as the UW's Kahlee Tafai gives chase. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

BLOOMINGTON, Indiana -- So much for the benefits of a bye week. On a cloudless day in the Midwest, the University of Washington football team showed up unprepared rather than rejuvenated.

The Huskies gave up a sack on the game's first play and committed penalties on the second and fourth snaps. Everything went downhill from there as the Huskies said bye bye early on to unbeaten and 13th-ranked Indiana and lost 31-17.

Even with ESPN College GameDay turning up the temperature, with network personality Pat McAfee running around the stands shirtless and Hoosiers fans wildly waving Curt Cignetti towels, the UW (4-4 overall, 2-3 Big Ten) came in sleep-walking on their third foray into Big Ten territory, all losses.

"I told the guys they've got to divorce the outcome and marry the process, marry the moment," Husky coach Jedd Fisch said. "This process of getting better is challenging."

Pat McAfee enjoys himself during the Indiana-UW game in Bloomington. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

This game was reminiscent of the Iowa blowout two weeks earlier -- same flat landscape, same flat Huskies, only the blood-letting came one state over. While they never led, these guys at least kept things from getting totally out of hand.

"I've got four left, four college games left," said Kam Fabiculanan, a sixth-year senior safety and team captain. "I gave that message to the younger guys. If you don't have enough to play for, play for the team, play for the W on your chest."

If the UW's first offensive series wasn't bad enough, the second possession made Fisch's guys pay dearly for their inattentiveness.

On first-and-10 at the Indiana 31, UW quarterback Will Rogers took the snap, looked left and threw one for Denzel Boston in the flat that was meant to be a double pass.

It was Western Union time. The play was so obviously telegraphed that Hoosiers cornerback D'Angelo Ponds jumped the route, intercepted the ball in full stride and didn't stop running until he had covered 67 yards on the return, good for a 7-0 Indiana lead at 7:41 of the opening quarter.

When it came to Ponds, the Huskies took on too much secondary water with this guy and drowned.

Early in the second quarter, the 5-foot-9, 170-pound sophomore from Miami, Florida, went up with Boston, who was 7 inches taller and 40 pounds heavier, won that battle and came down with the ball, his second pass theft, at the UW 46.

Two plays later, the Hoosiers (8-0,, 5-0) went up 14-0 when replacement quarterback Tayven Jackson, son of a one-time Washington State cornerback, hooked up with Omar Cooper on a 42-yard touchdown pass. Cooper beat UW corner Elijah Jackson to the ball, made that Jackson miss on the tackle and went in standing up with 13:24 left in the opening half. Indiana's Jackson completed 11 of 19 passes for 124 yards in his first start of the season, replacing the injured Kurtis Rourke.

The Huskies, having trouble scoring in its past two games, responded with a 6-play, 75-yard drive to keep this one interesting. Jonah Coleman broke a 46-yard run, stepping out of tackles and stiff-arming Hoosiers to put the ball on the Indiana 19. Giles Jackson, no relation to any of the aforementioned Jacksons, took an end-around handoff and scored from the 6, reaching the ball over the goal line on the dive. With 10:34 left in the quarter, the UW trailed just 14-7.

Coleman would finish with 104 yards on 19 carries, his fourth time with 100 or more in eight outings.

The half ended with both teams trying to tire the other out. Indiana held the ball for 19 plays before settling for a 19-yard field goal by Nicolas Ridcic as the clock ran out, giving the Hoosiers a 17-7 edge at the break. The Huskies took some solace in that it held the home team to consecutive runs of 3, 2, 0, 0, 0 yards, the last three at the 1, to force the kick rather than give up six points.

Indiana's Terry Jones Jr. (12) celebrates a fourth-down stop of the Huskies in Bloomington, with UW quarterback Will Rogers seated. / Rich Janzaruk/Herald-Times / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

As was the case at Iowa, the UW had issues up front, particularly on the left side of the offensive line. They opened with redshirt freshman Soane Faasolo at tackle and junior Gaard Memmelaar at guard, two players dealing with nagging injuries before the bye. Redshirt freshman Kahlee Tafai and sophomore Landen Hatchett replaced them on the second series. The four players rotated in different combinations thereafter.

The Huskies came out of intermission the way they should have emerged from the bye -- alert, opportunistic and productive.

On the first play, Indiana's Jackson had his pass to the right deflected up in the air by UW corner Thaddeus Dixon and defensive tackle Jacob Bandes came up with a look-what-I've-got interception at the Hoosiers 24. Just nine seconds had come off the clock.

Four plays later, freshman quarterback Demond Williams Jr. faked a handoff to Coleman, tucked the ball under his arm and scored running around the right end from 8 yards out with no one on defense anywhere near him. It was Willams' first Husky touchdown, one of probably many more to come, and the UW finally looked totally committed, trailing just 17-14 at the 12:45 mark of the third quarter.

Unfortunately, it was just a brief respite for the visitors from Montlake, a fleeting glimmer of hope that didn't last long at all. Indiana came right back and moved the ball 75 yards in 14 plays for Justice Ellison's 5-yard scoring run to pad the lead back to 24-14 with 5:03 left in the period. Ellison led all rushers with 123 yards on 29 carries.

Things got worse. In the fourth quarter, Myles Price returned a punt 65 yards to the UW 14, with Adam Mohammed's saving tackle preventing an immediate score. Five plays later, Jackson the Hoosier quarterback did the honors from 2 yards out, putting his team up 31-14 and effectively putting this one away with 8:55 left.

A 23-yard Grady Gross field goal closed out the scoring.

"When things don't go our way, you've got to find a way to come out of it," Coleman said somberly. "It's kind of hard because things happen pretty fast. We've just got to keep going."

In the Big Ten, all roads for the UW lead to misery.

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