You knew it was not going to be Fresno States day when the Huskies opening kick to the Bulldogs bounced between two players hit the referee and ended up as a touchback. Things didn’t get much better for the Bulldogs.
The Washington Huskies did pretty much what they wanted to in their 48 to 16 beat down of the Fresno State Bulldogs. The Huskies block party started in the first quarter when they took a 27-0 lead never looked back as the Husky Nations celebrations lasted through the night.
After forcing a Bulldog punt the Huskies first offensive play from scrimmage was a trick play that saw Jake Browning pitch the ball to Dante Pettis who then passed it to Hunter Bryant for a 36 yard gain.
The Huskies scored on their first three offensive possessions of the first quarter, a 28 yard run by Myles Gaskin was followed by a four-yard pass play from Jake Browning to Date Pettis which was followed up by another Gaskin touchdown run of seven yards.
Fresno punted the ball on its next possession and the moment Husky Nation was waiting for came to fruition. Pettis fielded the Bulldogs punt and scampered 77 yards for his eighth career punt return touchdown a NCAA record. Pettis is now tied with Wes Welker (Texas Tech, 2000-03) and Antonio Perkins (Oklahoma, 2001-04) who also have eight career punt returns.
Pettis completed his four touchdown night with a 73-yard reception from Browning in the third quarter. The Husky quarterback had another prolific passing day in which he was 19-22 passed for 255 yards and four touchdowns . Running back Myles Gaskin scored two rushing touchdowns and finished the game with 61 rushing yards on eight attempts. Gaskin moved past Chris Polk (26, 2008-11) and is tied with Jacque Robinson (27, 1981-84) for career rushing TDs.
The win over Fresno State completes the Huskies non-conference season and the team will now turn its attention to next weeks Pac-12 opener at Colorado. Husky coach Chris Petersen knows his team will be playing a good team in a hostile environment.
“We got to play a lot of guys in three games, which is really good. I think we’ve learned some things. I think we’ve made some improvements in some areas. Our pass protection has gotten better, for sure you can see that from last game to this game. We’ve gotten some guys used to bigger roles than they’ve ever had around here. I think it’s been a pretty productive three games. The level of competition changes dramatically now. We are going into a truly hostile environment. We’ve gone a long way, but it’s not going to feel the same as going into Boulder (Colorado). Here we go.”
