Just another thrashing by the University of Washington, 59-14. It’s not even worth much of a recap; we were up 7-0 after one quarter, broke it open to make it 35-0 at halftime, and after a quick Browning TD to Ross to start the second half, the starters were pulled and the backups played like backups.
Jake Browning tied a school record with 5 touchdowns in this game (seems like a record he’s destined to break just as soon as we play a team capable of hanging with us in the first half of a game). Two to Pettis, two more to Ross, and a nifty little tunnel screen broken by Chico McClatcher for 30 yards. All in all, a very efficient day for Browning, who’s already got 8 touchdowns on the season (half of his total from last year) and is completing 75% of his passes after two games. He’s in charge, he’s calm under pressure, and he’s going to have to be on a lot of pre-season Heisman lists for 2017 if he keeps it up. Hell, if he can do this against real football teams, he might even enter the conversation THIS year!
The running game, again, didn’t really bust out like you’d expect, though Gaskin had a better day than last week. He only ran for 67 yards, but had a 5.6 average per carry, and he broke into the endzone for the first time this year. It might be a concern for some, but I look at it this way: we know this team can run the ball – it’s got the same offensive line as last year – and we know Gaskin is a stud. His numbers will come in time. What we didn’t know coming into this season is how much Browning and the passing game overall would improve. I’d MUCH rather see this team throw the ball around the field, get into a nice little groove with Ross coming back, and a couple of our seniors from last year gone, than pound the ball for the sake of pounding the ball.
Besides, let’s face it, our non-conference schedule is doing us no favors. If we want to continue to be highly ranked – and pull this conference up from the muck (with teams like Wazzu, Cal, and the Arizona schools stinking up the joint) – we need to put up high-scoring, impressive wins against these duds. You’re not going to do that by force-feeding a running game; you’re going to do it by spreading everyone out and getting that passing game going.
Believe me, when Browning has the reputation of a gunslinger that he’s just starting to instill, teams will refrain from loading the box so much and we’ll be able to get our yards on the ground.
On the defensive side of the ball, I haven’t seen a unit this stifling since the 2013 Seahawks. I’m serious, we might have 8 or 9 guys on that side of the ball playing on Sundays when it’s all said and done. For a college defense to be this good – outside of the SEC – is unheard of. We’re going to take the Pac-12 by storm! I’ve seen a little bit of these other schools, and there’s nothing impressive about the lot of ’em!
I mean, the way we’ve played through these first two weeks, on the defensive side of the ball particularly, reminds me of all those times teams like Stanford, Oregon, Stanford, LSU, Stanford, USC, and Stanford that have just dominated us over recent years. At best, they’d still be toying with us, only to put the clamp down. That’s going to be us this year! Finally, we get to be the aggressors! I cannot fucking wait for September 30th.