Instant Reactions: Huskies dominate second half against Georgia State

That first half should not have happened. Georgia State is so young as a football program that if it were a person it would not yet have entered kindergarten. The Washington Huskies went into the second half trailing 14-0. That should never even come close to happening. 14-0 in the Huskies' favor would have been disappointing to Huskies fans, and yet it was reversed.

Marcus Peters had three first half interceptions, though one was incorrectly called back by a pass interference penalty. Those plays combined with pass rushing from the top two sack men in the country, Hau'oli Kikaha and Danny Shelton, kept the game within two scores.Georgia State was actually moving the ball well against the Washington defense, and the Husky offense couldn't do anything. I spent most of the first half creating a gif that will be at the bottom of the article, and you will likely want to discuss it.

Then the second half happened, and everything changed. All of a sudden, the entire secondary was shutdown. The offense was able to move the ball seemingly at will after its first drive coming out of the break. All of the sudden the Husky offensive line was shoving Panther defenders back three to four yards at the line of scrimmage on every run play.

The defense had the same exact transformation. Every defender flew to the ball, and gang tackles became the norm. The Hudson twins had sacks on back-to-back plays. Things just changed for the entire team.

Coach Pete after the game, "For whatever reason, we just didn't show up to play."

No, that wasn't quite the normal recap, but Anthony Cassino had a whole string of recaps by quarter, go read those.

Time for a few quick Instant Dots:

• No injuries. That is one of the most important things a team and fan can hope for when a team is going against a "cupcake" early season opponent. Several players were rested because they were a little bit "nicked up," most notably John Ross.
• Jeff Lindquist had two rushing touchdowns on read option keepers. Miles is supposed to be the wheels, but Lindquist looked really good running the ball. Troy Williams even got to keep the ball and run with it once, and didn't look out of place running the read option keeper.
• Marcus Peters: future NFL wide receiver.
• There will be a whole lot of hand-wringing over the first half, and it probably deserves it. The second half though, should have alleviated a chunk of those worries. When this Husky team needs to get going, we now know it can definitely get going. Don't expect this kind of start against Stanford.
• Dante Pettis took a stranglehold on the punt return job. He's got more than just a little bit of wiggle. The Husky return teams are led by two really talented return men.
  

• Cyler Miles throwing motion dot gif http://t.co/RRHnmFSb7F

  — Ben Knibbe (@KnibbeBen) September 21, 2014