Washington Huskies come up short 31-26 against Stanford – 6 Takeaways
1. Huskies defense starts slow and ends slow
Washington’s defense started slow for the second week. This time it came back to bite them. The Cardinal was able to control the ball in the first half, scoring on all four possessions. Running back Austin Jones had 72 of his 138 yards with two touchdowns in the first half.
Just as important as his first half production, Jones had 11 carries on the Cardinal’s final14-play drive. UW couldn’t stop Stanford at the end of the game. The visitors converted three third downs, including two of 10 yards or more. The Huskies will have to toughen up their defense next week against Oregon.
2. No pressure
Coming into this game, the Washington Huskies defense built a reputation this season for terrorizing their opponent’s quarterbacks with a fierce rush. They had 10 sacks in the first three games. On Saturday, Stanford quarterback Davis Mills wasn’t sacked at all, and the Huskies defense only made two plays for negative yardage.
Without Ryan Bowman in the lineup, Stanford was able to concentrate on Zion Tupuola-Fetui’s side. As a result, ZTF was mostly a non-factor. Bowman’s replacement Sav’ell Smalls wasn’t much help either on the outside. If the Huskies expect to beat the Ducks next week, they must get to the quarterback.