Huskies Lost Apple Cup in Trenches, Not Just on Goal-Line Play

The UW line play wasn't as physical as Washington State.

Washington State quarterback John Mateer runs through the UW defensive line in the Apple Cup. / Steven Bisig-Imagn Images

On Saturday afternoon in downtown Seattle, the football honeymoon for Jedd Fisch and his University of Washington coaching staff officially came to an end at 4:05 p.m., once all zeroes registered on the Lumen Field scoreboard clock.

All it took was a five-point Apple Cup loss to Washington State in one of the games the Huskies weren't supposed to lose this season to turn what had been a progressively hopeful college football story into something sour.

Or did you not notice the guy who almost immediately once the game ended went on a message board and called for Fisch to be fired?

It didn't help that the coach's rebuilt Husky team had every opportunity to rescue this one with just over a minute left to play by coming within a yard and a half of the south end zone in SoDo and a game-rescuing touchdown, only to be turned away.

Yet this rivalry game was not lost at the goal line by the man in charge, who still made sure to take full responsibility for calling a puzzling quarterback option play that had no chance, this while revealing he originally had selected a pass play to Giles Jackson before waffling and taking a timeout to readdress the situation.

No, as was feared before the season began, Fisch's team lost this one up front. The goal-line failure was just a microcosm of what took place throughout the game -- with the Huskies desperately trying to pull this one out late behind the lead block of its best offensive lineman, starting right tackle Drew Azzopardi, only to have the play blown up by the more physical Cougars, namely linebacker Kyle Thornton.

"We need to do a better job of blocking it and executing it," Fisch said. "Clearly, it didn't work."

From the opening drive, WSU came out and aggressively set the tone in this match-up by moving 66 yards before running out of downs at the UW 9. The guys from the Palouse kept dual-threat sensation John Mateer pocket protected to near perfection, permitting just a lone sack to a Husky team that had rung up 8 in its two previous games.

The UW, in fact, tried something different on defense, opening the game with a three-man front of seniors Voi Tunuufi, Jacob Bandes and Sebastian Valdez, one more in a three-point stance than usual. They started three linebackers in seniors Alphonzo Tuputala and Carson Bruener and true freshman Khmori House, again one more than usual.

For some reason, the Huskies chose not to use playmaking edge rushers Zach Durfee and Isaiah Ward at all until the second series and seemed to rotate them with the three-man interior line thereafter. Unless he was at less than full strength, Durfee watching from the sideline made little sense.

Most glaring for a UW trenches letdown was the third-and-20 play near the end of the first half where Mateer charged up the middle, veered left and scored on a 23-yard run with no defensive linemen coming anywhere close to putting a hand on him, which was good for a 17-13 WSU lead. Mateer led the Cougars in rushing with 16 carries for 62 yards and 2 TD runs, and he completed 17 of 34 passes for 245 yards and another score, which doesn't happen unless his guys are winning the battles up front.

"It's unfortunate that he broke a third-and-20 for a touchdown," Fisch said. "That's the difference at the end of the half and the end of the game."

Sixteen penalties were called on the Huskies, five on their defensive linemen, with Valdez, the Montana State transfer, drawing three of them, two on offsides calls. That would seem to indicate some level of frustration up front.

Offensively, the UW had reoccurring issues at center -- Portland State transfer D'Angalo Titialii lost his grip on the ball and flubbed a snap for a 3-yard loss and twice was called for false starts, all miscues coming in the second half. He later was spelled by sophomore Landen Hatchett, who also pulled game snaps at left guard.

Starting left tackle Soane Faasolo went down in a heap on the final play of the first quarter, awkwardly falling backward over his quarterback after Rogers dropped a snap and recovered it for a 5-yard loss. Possibly injuring an ankle, the 6-foot-8, 325-pound Faasolo had to be helped off the field and the situation didn't look promising for him at all -- he was unable to put any weight on his injured appendage. Yet he returned to play the last series of the opening half and finished the game, though it's unclear how effective he was.

While the Huskies have plenty of gifted skill players, it's still unclear how their offensive and defensive linemen will fare in the trenches against burly Big Ten competition, beginning with visiting Northwestern next Saturday.

If the Apple Cup was any indication, Fisch's team needs to muscle up fairly quickly or the losses will pile up.

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