The Good
It was good to have Myles Gaskin back. After having sat out the last two games with a shoulder injury, Gaskin was back to his old ways and ran the ball 28 times for 148 yards and a touchdown. That’s. A. Great. Game. He did appear to reaggravate his shoulder injury in the second half, but continued to play and finished out the game. The coming bye week should help assure that Gaskin will be good to go for senior night against Oregon State. There’s pretty much no way he would miss that game.
Hunter Bryant is back. He played in his first game of the season and finished the night with one catch for 9 yards. Bryant was expected to be Jake Browning’s primary target heading into this season, so I’m sure it only means good things for the offense to have him back. Also, given that he’s only played in one game, that implies that he can play in at least three more games this season without burning his redshirt... We’ll HOPEFULLY have four more games, including the Pac-12 championship game, so maybe he sits for the Oregon State game.
Greg Gaines is the man. See his first career interception below:
HUSKY BALL ☔️#PurpleReign
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) November 4, 2018
@Pac12Network pic.twitter.com/xy8qCCPnAA
And while we’re at it, this too:
6️⃣0️⃣ minutes. All out Washington football.#PurpleReign
— Washington Football (@UW_Football) November 6, 2018
Gallery: https://t.co/kr2O5EHGZc pic.twitter.com/v9v8XTghZe
What a guy!
Three picks by the defense. In addition to Gaines’ pick, Byron Murphy and Taylor Rapp both hauled in picks of their own. Murphy’s came on the first play of the 2nd quarter on 3rd and 5 at the Stanford 30. Rapp’s pick came on the final play of the game and sealed the win for the Huskies, as he brought down K.J. Costello’s Hail Mary attempt in UW’s end zone. Also, this wasn’t a pick, but quick shout out to walk on DL Josiah Bronson from Kent (via Temple) for his first career sack.
The offense’s fast start. The Huskies’ first three possessions went like this: 8 plays, 73 yards, Touchdown, 14 plays, 80 yards, Touchdown, and 6 plays, 26 yards, Touchdown. It’s hard to start a game better than that.
Peyton Henry made both of his field goals. Nice work kid! Hopefully he’s gaining more and more confidence in his abilities as the season progresses.
The Bad
The offense after the first quarter. After their blazing hot start, the Huskies’ offense was only able to conjure up two field goals in the final 42 minutes and 20 seconds of game time. Luckily, that’s all they needed for the win, but a few more points would sure have made Husky fans breath a little easier as Stanford started to mount their come back late in the game. That said, there’s no doubt that with a 21 point lead heading into the second half Coach Pete and Hamdan purposely took their foot off the pedal and played a much more conservative game plan.
Stanford’s yards per play statistic was pretty high. They managed to average 6.3 yards per play on offense. It’s actually pretty tough to give up that kind of number but still pull out the win. Credit the Dawgs’ defense for bending but not breaking... at least not too much. The vast majority of these yards can be attributed to Stanford’s new found success throwing the ball this season, due in large part to a capable QB in K.J. Costello and some huge targets he throws to. That said, a banged up UW secondary featuring multiple younger DBs like Elijah Molden and Keith Taylor played admirably given the circumstances.
The Unknown
Kamari Plesant’s health. He left the game with an apparent injury and never went back in after that point. This is something to keep an eye on as neither Gaskin or Salvon Ahmed are playing at 100% themselves.
Which true freshmen will play next? Kyler Gordon, Julius Irvin, and Dominique Hampton, all freshmen DBs, played some snaps in this game. This was the first time Irvin or Hampton had seen the field this season, and the second time for Gordon. The group combined for four total tackles, with all three getting at least one. Expect to see at least a couple more, if not a few more true freshmen get a shot at playing time against Oregon State on the 17th.