Washington never seemed right tonight. From the onset they played sloppy but still came off the field with a 14-10 lead at the half. Arizona made some adjustments at the half and outscored the Huskies 17-7 in the third quarter and dominated time of possession in the second half working a short passing game consisting of mostly bubble screens which the Huskies could not figure out how to stop till the end of the game when all the chips were on the line.
Washington came into the game with a simple game plan. Stop the Arizona running game which they did and put the game in the hands of QB Nick Foles who was only making his second collegiate start. What they forgot to add was a pass rush for most of the night. Foles had all the time he needed last night. He was 39-53 for 384 yards and two very unfortunate interceptions which caused Arizona the game.
What was incredible huge was the first interception that Mason Foster picked off the foot of an Arizona receiver and returned for a 37 yard touchdown to give Washington the lead back with 2:37 left in the fourth quarter. Washington went for the two point conversion and Locker hit Jermaine Kearse in the corner of the end zone to stretch the lead to three points.
The Washington defense that had been picked apart by Nick Foles in the second half was able to prevent the Arizona offense from getting into FG range to tie the game and force it into overtime. Marcus Trufant intercepted a Foles pass on fourth down to end that drive. Jake Locker came into spike the ball and Washington won a game it had no business winning.
The Wildcats dominated time of possession 39:19 to only 20:15 for Washington. The Wildcats out gained the Huskies 461 to 256 yards! Jake Locker was only 12-23 with one interception for a total of 140 yards. He did run for a season high of 92 yards. Jake was responsible for over 90% of the Washington offense tonight. What was key for Jake and Washington was a 56 yard TD run in the first quarter plus three TD passes and the pass for that important two point conversion.
Washington scored 36 points tonight with only one trip into the red zone! Lets just say they made the most of their opportunities when it really mattered on offense. Chalk this victory up to a team that didn't quit all night. The defense was on the field all night but a big key in the victory was stopping Arizona four times and limiting them to field goals. UW couldn't stop the pass all night but in the red zone they stuffed the run. They held Arizona to only 77 yards on the ground. In the end that was a huge key to the win.
Next up for Washington is Arizona State in Tempe. The Sun Devils turned the ball over six times to WSU but still came out with a 27-14 win earlier today in the Palouse.