Sweet 16 It Wasn't for UW, Which Piled Up Apple Cup Penalties

The Huskies drew 7 flags alone in the fourth quarter against Washington State.

Thaddeus Dixon drew two of the Huskies' 16 penalties in the Apple Cup. / Skylar Lin Visuals

Seven plays into the Apple Cup, that's when the trouble began for the University of Washington football team -- defensive tackle Sebastian Valdez jumped offsides.

He would not be alone in committing personal miscues. Thereafter the Huskies tried to tie a yellow ribbon around nearly every oak tree in a 285-mile radius, or the distance between Lumen Field and the Palouse.

If Saturday's rivalry game was one big traffic stop, Jedd Fisch's suddenly and inexplicably undisciplined UW players would have been cited for traveling at an excessive speed, illegally tinted windows, improper lane changes, expired license tabs and running a stop sign, and they were just warming up.

At the 116th Apple Cup, won by Washington State 24-19, it seemed as if the UW drew 116 penalties.

The total actually came in at 16, which still was an incredible amount for any football team. Make that an embarrassing number of football infractions for this one.

"We don't play like that," Fisch said. "We haven't played like that. That was very surprising to me."

It also was counter productive in a big way in preventing the UW from winning an important football game against its state rival.

On Saturday afternoon, 11 different Huskies were penalized for seven different types of infractions, which included four false starts, three face-mask calls, three offsides and a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct interactions.

"There was just a lot of penalties," Fisch said. "Really disappointing in 16 penalties."

HUSKY P'ENALTY BOX, APPLE CUP
1. Sebastian Valdez, unsportsmanlike conduct	1st Quarter
2. Sebastian Valdez, offsides	1st Quarter
3. Thaddeus Dixon, facemask	2nd Quarter
4. Tristan Dunn, facemask	2nd Quarter
5. Isaiah Ward, facemask	2nd Quarter
6. Thaddeus Dixon, holding	2nd Quarter
7. D'Angalo Titialii, false start	3rd Quarter
8. Team, false start	3rd Quarter
9. Jordan Shaw, holding	3rd Quarter
10. Drew Azzopardi, false start	4th Quarter
11. Will Rogers, intentional grounding	4th Quarter
12. Keleki Latu, false start	4th Quarter
13. Voi Tunuufi, delay of game	4th Quarter
14. Sebastian Valdez, offsides	4th Quarter
15. Jayvon Parker, offsides	4th Quarter
16. Jayvon Parker, unsportsmanlike conduct	4th Quarter

By quarter, the Huskies drew two flags in the first period, four in the second, three in the third and a whopping seven over the final 15 minutes of play -- the latter figuring out to a penalty almost every other minute.

His team's total lack of control in adhering to the rules of the game left the Husky coach feeling a sense of urgency to correct things.

"I don't have a good answer to what I attribute it to," Fisch said, "but I know I have to get it fixed."

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