Huskies Get Wind Behind Their Backs, Hold Off Utah
The giant American flag hanging in the east end zone twisted and turned in every direction for most of four quarters. Small swells formed on Lake Washington. Players watching from the sideline pulled on heavy hooded coats to deal with the elements.
Welcome to the wind tunnel that was also known as Husky Stadium.
On Saturday afternoon, the place produced a game filled with plenty of turbulence followed by smooth sailing —that is, depending on which side you were on and when — and the University of Washington football team finally buckled in, rode out the bumps and touched down with a 35-28 victory over Utah.
The outcome permitted the fifth-ranked Huskies (10-0 overall, 7-0 Pac-12) to keep all postseason possibilities alive, such as the Pac-12 championship game and a College Football Playoff berth, with two games left in the regular season.
Again the Huskies, in winning their 17th consecutive game, were all about offense and not much in the way of defense at times, and they even made things much tougher on themselves by coming with a huge second-half turnover that inexplicably ended up in disaster.
In the third quarter with his team up 33-28, junior linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala alertly stepped in front of a Bryson Barnes pass and rumbled 76 yards with a clear path to the end zone and a two-score lead — only to squander a sure touchdown when he absentmindedly thought he had scored and let go of the ball on the 1 for a fumble.
"It's a little hard," fellow UW linebacker Carson Bruener said. "He's definitely going to feel it for a little bit. I talked to him earlier and he said, 'I dreamed of this scenario to get a pick-6,' and he had it in the bag. It's a football game. Things happen."
As was the tenor of this outing, Bruener broke through to drop Utah running back Ja'Quinden Jackson for a safety on the very next play and provide the final margin. So the Huskies at least got two of the potential six points back.
The Huskies finally overcame their own foibles and a very determined team from Salt Lake City (7-3, 4-3), outlasting the Utes like they did their previous six opponents, all by 10 points or fewer.
"You prefer to make it easier, but in most games we've felt in control," said UW coach Kalen DeBoer, who earned his 100th coaching victory at three schools and is 21-2 in Montlake.
UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. continuing his push for the Heisman Trophy, completed 24 of 42 passes for 332 yards and 2 scores, both to Rome Odunze, who had 3 catches for 111 yards. Running back Dillon Johnson had his third 100-yard rushing game as a Husky, finishing with 104 yards and a score on 23 carries.
On this day in the aforementioned difficult conditions, the first three drives for the teams combined yielded just three plays out of 14 that produced positive yards on the ground or through the air and each possession ended with a punt. No one could make anything happen in the early going.
"The wind was crazy," said UW cornerback Jabbar Muhammad, a Texas import. "It was kind of off and on. You never really knew when it was going to be high. It was raining at one point. Then it got sunny. It started reminding me of Texas a little bit with the way it was kind of got indecisive with the weather."
Finally, the Huskies seemed to get acclimated to the breezy field on their second possession. Beginning on their 23, they picked up 18 yards on a pass to Germie Bernard over the middle, followed by Tybo Rogers' 22-yard run going to the right. A 13-yard pass to Johnson moved the UW closer and a pass-interference call on a pass intended for tight Jack Westover put the ball on the 2.
With 6:06 left in the first quarter, Penix did the scoring honors, keeping the ball and running around the left end from 2 yards out, capping a seven -play, 77-yard drive for a 7-0 lead. That seemed to open the gates some.
Utah likewise settled in and drove to the end zone in six plays, with Jackson scoring standing up from 2 yards out. The touchdown was set up by Barnes' 41-yard pass to Devaughn Vele that badly beat UW cornerback Elijah Jackson and put the Utes on the Husky 22.
Devaughn Vele got free for 65 yards on this second-quarter pass, with UW safety Dom Hampton (7) giving chase.
Steven Bisig/USA TODAY Sports
Back the Huskies came, only they settled for a 41-yard field goal from Grady Gross with 19 seconds remaining in the opening quarter and the home team led 10-7.
Into the second quarter, Utah reclaimed the lead on a 6-yard pass from Barnes to tight end Miki Suguturaga, capping a 13-play, 75-yard drive for a 14-10 edge.
The Huskies let them enjoy the upper hand for six plays. On 2-and-15 from the Utah 34, Penix set up in the pocket, spotted Odunze running step for step with nickelback Tao Johnson and let his receiver take the ball away from the defender. With 6:59 left in the half, the Huskies led 17-14. Odunze scored his 10th touchdown of the season.
Six plays? Utah's response was so what. The Utes needed just two plays to move back in front, with Barnes dropping a pass in the left flat to two-way player Sione Vaki, known mostly as a strong safety. Vaki eluded a tackle by linebacker Ralen Gorfoth and ran through the rest of the Husky defense for a 53-yard score to stun their hosts.
Just over five minutes remained in the first half, more than enough time for at least a couple more touchdowns.
Sioane Vaki, a two-player known best as a Utah strong safety, took this 53-yard pass for a second-quarter score.
Steven Bisig/USA TODAY Sports
Seven plays and a pass-interference call later, the UW reclaimed the lead at 24-21 when Johnson took a Wildcat snap and scored from 7 yards out. It was his 11th six-pointer of the season, coming a week after he had four at USC.
Three years earlier, it took these teams an entire game to put that many points on the scoreboard.
Utah was not done with its first-half point production, with the Husky defense willing to oblige. The Utes went 91 yards in seven plays for another Jackson TD run, this one coming from 7 yards out and 57 seconds left on the clock to give them a 28-24 halftime advantage.
A 65-yard pass to Vele over the top against safety Dominique Hampton in an apparent busted coverage set up the score.
"Our offense was clicking and we weren't," Bruener said. "So when the second half came around, we told them, 'We got you guys, we got your back.' "
The Husky defense, even with its big misstep, proceeded to shut out Utah in the second half.
On its second possession, the UW picked up another field goal from Gross, this one from 38 yards, to pull within 28-27 with 8:02 left in the quarter. The drive stalled when Rogers, wide open over the middle, dropped a second-down pass from Penix.
Following another defensive stop, plus a targeting call on the ensuing punt, the Huskies turned it into a second-half lead that would hold up.
They needed just six plays for Penix to find Odunze for a second score, hitting him as he cut across the end zone with a step on cornerback JaTravis Broughton. Odunze hauled in a 33-yarder this time, coming down with the ball on top of the purple "H" in Huskies painted on the ground, good for his 11th touchdown of the season. An Odunze two-point pass was dropped by tight end Devin Culp, who couldn't keep his feet. With 4:09 left in the quarter, the UW was up 33-28.
Utah was driving to retake the lead, getting as far as the Husky 14 when the Tuputala interception and fumble took place with 30 seconds left in the third quarter.
Barnes, who completed 17 of 30 throws for 267 yards and 2 scores, was under heavy pressure from UW edge rusher Bralen Trice and cornerback Elijah Jackson when he threw the ball right to Tuputala in the left flat, with someone deflecting it.
Tuputala had clear sailing up the sideline, with Barnes the only Utah player who had a chance to stop him, but Jackson blocked the quarterback, who went sliding out of bounds at the 10.
The Husky linebacker inexplicably let go of the ball on the 2-yard line and it came to a dead stop on the 1. Utah offensive guard Michael Mokofisi didn't hesitate to recover it. Meantime, Tuputala received congratulations from several teammates as he headed to the bench before the full gravity of what he had done came over him and he had a shocked look on his face.
"I knew he did it," Muhammad said. "I was probably like 20 yards behind him and I'd seen him do it and I tried to get it, but an O-lineman fell on it before me. I'd seen it and I knew it was coming back the whole time."
With the defense back on the field, Bruener shot a gap and brought down Jackson well in the end zone and put the Husky lead at seven.
Said DeBoer, "There's something to be said about not panicking."
Late in the game, the Huskies had a chance to wrap things up with another Gross field goal and a 10-point cushion, but his 32-yarder was blocked.
Utah's Barnes was left to try and rescue his team, but under heavy pressure he threw a fourth-down pass that ended up in Hampton's hands, and this one was finally over. As the teams left the field, the wind was still whipping fairly briskly.
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