The Washington Huskies (3-0 Pac-12, 3-0 overall) will look to stay undefeated when they on the Stanford Cardinal (1-2, 1-2) this Saturday at 1:00 p.m. PT, in the Huskies’ fourth straight home game. The Huskies are now ranked No. 23 in both the AP Top 25 and the coaches’ poll, after overcoming a 21 point deficit to beat Utah, 24-21. The Cardinal blocked an extra on its way to a dramatic 24-23 win over Cal. Here are three things to watch during this Saturdays game.
HUSKY DEFENSE
The Husky defense leads the conference in scoring defense at 23.0 points a game. A stat that head coach Jimmy Lake was sure to point out during his weekly press conference last Monday. The Dawgs defense is third in rushing yards allowed per game at 151.3 and first in passing yards allowed per game at 162. The Stanford offense is ninth in the conference averaging 120.7 yards a game.
Cardinal running back Austin Jones had a career 21 carries for 85 yards and scored two touchdowns in Stanford’s win over Cal. The 5’ 10 sophomore from Bishop O’ Dowd high school is elusive and will be challenging for the Huskies front line of Zion Tupuola-Fetu, Tuli Letuligasenoa, and Josiah Bronson.
Tupuola earned his third straight weekly Defensive Line Man of the Week award after the Utah game. After notching two sacks in each of the Huskies’ first two games Tupuoa-Fetu had three sacks in the Utah game.
The Huskies front three should execute head coach Jimmy Lake’s plan to make the Stanford offense by stopping the run. Quarterback Davis Mills is a big accurate passer at 6’4 but not much of a runner. Mills completed 24 of 32 passes for 209 yards and a touchdown against the Bears.
CAN THE HUSKIES RUN THE BALL WHEN THEY WANT TO
The good running teams at any level are able to run the ball when they want. The Huskies have rushed for 588 yards so far this season. Sean McGrew leads the Huskies saw called stable of running backs with 167 yards on 37 attempts for an average of 6.0 yards per carry. Kamari Pleasant is literally behind him with 138 yards on 30 attempts to average 4.6 yards a carry. Pleasant has three touchdowns to McGrew’s two. The Huskies are averaging 196 yards per game and are just 20/44 on third down conversations. The Stanford defense is giving up an average of 229.0 yards per game. Look for the Huskies to beat their season-high of 267 rushing yards they racked up in game one against Oregon State
CAN DYLAN MORRIS CONTINUE TO GROW
Husky quarterback Dylan Morris earned his second straight Freshman Of The Week honor award after leading the Huskies to a miraculous comeback. After throwing three interceptions two in the first half and the 3rd deep in the third quarter, Morris led the Husky offense on a 12 play 88-yard game-winning drive that ended with a 16-yard touchdown pass to TE Cade Otton with 16 seconds left in the game. The question is how much of a confidence boost was the drive for Morris. Every quarterback can look at one great drive that catapulted them to the next level. Was last week’s drive against Utah that drive for Morris?
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