Washington beat the Beavers 69-27 behind 530 rushing yards. Holy moly that was a fun game to watch. Let's get straight into this recap.
John Ross gave the Huskies great field position to start the game with a 62-yard kickoff return while wearing his new number 11. Ross switched his number in order to play on the defensive side of the ball due to the "Myles Jack Effect" as our Anthony Cassino has dubbed it.
Ross' kick return gave Miles a short field to work with, and in seven plays the Huskies had a touchdown via Bishop Sankey. Thanks to another short field due to a good pass rush, Bishop Sankey finished the second Washington drive with his second touchdown of the evening. The first quarter ended with the Huskies winning 17-0.
After another field goal (I'm not even talking about the Oregon State offense because there hasn't been any in the first half) Miles lofted a 28-yard pass just beyond the defense to Kevin Smith. Upon further review, Smith got his booty down in the back of the end zone while clutching the football in his vice-grips. 27-0 Washington at the half.
The shutout was in jeopardy when Brandin Cooks broke a Gregory Ducre tackle, then a couple more Husky tackles and then ran a long ways towards the endzone. It was, luckily for Washington, overturned when it was determined that Cooks stepped out of bounds a long ways from the endzone. Oregon State did eventually score a touchdown, but at that point it was Washington 48-6 after the missed PAT.
How did 48 points happen? Another Bishop Sankey touchdown and a pick-six by Shaq Thomspon. There was also another set of two plays that I really enjoyed (that was later duplicated):
This happened later:
Lots of touchdowns in the fourth quarter happened. So, yeah.
Instant Reaction Dots:
- Washington came out to play from the start. There was the kick return by John Ross. What followed that was Washington scoring on their first three drives offensively for 17 points while allowing a total of 50 yards for the first three Oregon State drives.
- Penalties were a non-issue. I'm gonna type that again just because of how hard it is to believe: penalties were a non-issue for the Huskies. Holy crap.
- Cyler Miles wasn't perfect, no. Nobody should expect him to be perfect. He did well enough for UW to win big. He made plays with his legs and made throws to receivers who got open.
- Special teams looked really, really good altogether until the kickoff return touchdown by Victor Bolden. I don't know if you have backups to backups going in on kickoff units, but I did see Callier in there.
- I was talking on Twitter with Hank Jones, a guy who covers the NFL draft. He sees Marcus Peters as a first round NFL draft pick one day. Today we saw why. two picks and a strip with a recovery.
- Washington has a really deep stable of running backs. Bishop Sankey is a 2nd round NFL draft prospect. Dwayne Washington looks like a promising running back for the future. Callier was originally a starter of Sankey, remember? He has to have some ability. Oh and Deontae Cooper. DEONTAE COOPER.
- I started crying when Deontae Cooper scored his touchdown in the third quarter. Every one of you knows his story. He has fought back from three separate ACL tears to play football again. Not only that, but he is considered by many the most upbeat member of the entire football team. The moment couldn't have been better. First he had a big run down the left sideline, followed by the touchdown. That may have been the hardest-earned touchdown of the entire season. Then, he did it again.
For those of you who were following my Twitter stream, you know I was going absolutely nuts.
This hits me especially hard, as last month I tore the ACL in my left knee and have surgery scheduled for next month, as soon as the quarter ends. I have been trying to write a piece on ACL injuries but I never realized just how hard it was going to be to write that. Cooper really gives hope to those suffering from one of the most dreaded injurie for almost any athlete, but especially basketball, soccer and football players. Deontae, you are awesome.
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