Washington Game Awards - Eastern Washington

Player of the Game: The Husky defense was an unmitigated disaster, but for the second week in a row Danny Shelton was the bright spot. He finished with 12 tackles, 4 sacks, and 4.5 tackles for loss. He now has 6 sacks on the year, when entering the season he had 2.5 for his career. He's playing at an All-American level right now, and it'd be nice if some of the other defenders would elevate their play to even half of what he's doing.

Play of the Game: Shaq Thompson's 57 yard touchdown run. If you had told me it was Todd Gurley that had checked into the game at running back for UW on that play, I would have believed you.

Goat of the Game: Coach Pete Kwiatkowski, come on down. Vernon Adams set a record for a UW opponent with 7 touchdown passes, and was throwing to wide open receivers way too often. Some of it was on the players, but Eastern made it look so easy that the scheme has to be held mostly accountable, and some of the ways that specific defenders are being used just don't make sense. There's too much talent on UW's defense for that kind of performance.

Stat of the Game: The competition hasn't been the greatest, but the offense has clicked when Cyler Miles has started for UW:

And rushed for 886 yards RT @A_Jude: Huskies have scored 128 points in Cyler Miles' two career starts at QB.

— UW Dawg Pound (@UWSBN) September 7, 2014

Who Stepped Up: Cyler Miles. His stat sheet isn't going to blow you away, but he displayed an ability to convert third downs with both his legs and his arm, and he showed a nose for the end zone with 3 rushing touchdowns. He needs to get better, and the staff needs to cater the offense to his skills more, but he was a noticeable improvement running the Husky offense.

The Game Tipped When: The Husky defense finally kept EWU out of the end zone by forcing a turnover. On the next drive Cyler Miles carried the ball 3 yards into the end zone for his third rushing touchdown of the game to put the Huskies up 14 points.

It Was Over When: The Huskies recovered Eastern's onside kick (and the Eagles also touched it before it went 10 yards) leading 59-52. With only one timeout and the inability to stop the UW rushing attack all game, the Eagles' hopes of the upset vanished when UW took over for the game's final possession.

Surprise of the Game: The Huskies only forced one punt, and EWU scored on all but two of their drives. Yuck.

WTF Moment of the Game: For the second consecutive game, the Husky offensive coaches made an effort to get John Ross involved in the offense early. And for the second consecutive game, they made no effort whatsoever to get him the ball in the second half. Yeah, they moved the ball without him getting touches, but it's generally a bad idea to not put the ball in the hands of your biggest playmaker regularly.