By Andrew Bailie Posted on

The Huskies look to get right ahead of their game with Illinois

After the Washington Huskies’ rough weekend in Ann Arbor, Jedd Fisch used his Monday presser to address the loss to the Wolverines. Washington returned from Michigan battered, bruised, and demoralized. The Huskies’ mood was somber. The team missed an opportunity to make a statement and to put itself in the conversation for the playoffs. Now, they must find a way to shake off the loss, refocus, heal, and learn to play better against Illinois. The Huskies’ offensive line took a beating at Michigan with injuries at left tackle and tight end.

The Huskies’ tight end room takes a hit

According to Fisch, TE Kade Eldridge suffered a season-ending injury in last Saturday’s game. Washington did receive a promising update on TE Quentin Moore. After sustaining an injury on a punt, Moore left the game on a stretcher and went to the hospital as a precaution. He is expected to be okay and appears to have suffered an injury to his neck and head, which knocked him out. Moore is now being evaluated for a concussion, and his status for the Illinois game is unknown. Fisch addressed the depletion of his tight end unit

“Well, it looks like Decker, Baron, and Austin. Those are the three guys, right now, that we’re looking at. And then we’ll see where we are with Q. Charlie, you know, won’t be back this season. And Kade won’t be back this season. So we’ll hopefully have Q back. Maybe he can make it back this week or certainly the next week or two.”

If Moore is unable to return this week, the Huskies have two freshmen tight ends,in Baron Naone and Austin Simmons, who can fill in. Suddenly, UW is thin at tight end for the first time this season. The good news is Quentin Moore is alright and he will return soon.

Despite losing LT Maximus McCree, LT Carver Willis, and LG John Mills could return

The Huskies’ offensive line will need a boost after LT Maximus McCree suffered a season-ending injury against the Wolverines. Soane Faasolo replaced McCree . He will now be tasked with playing left tackle if  Carver Willis is unable to return from injury this week. Fisch is hopeful LT Carver Willis and LG John Mills can return to provide the offensive line a much-needed lift.

Huskies look to clean up the penalties

Even though UW had just four penalties for 23 yards on Saturday, the penalties came at unfortunate times. The Huskies had three ill-timed false starts against the Wolverines in their 24-7 loss. Each of the false starts came when they were driving in Michigan territory. Those penalties contributed to a rough first half for the Huskies’ offense, which scored seven points. Fisch addressed the penalties.

“Those three penalties all resulted in three different drives being stalled out. Two different drives for sure. One which had two false starts on it that we ended up going from easily being in position to try to at least put up three if not seven, to having to punt… We can’t have it. So we have to look to see, is it a cadence conversation? Is it a tempo conversation? Is it one in which where the noise got to us a little bit? I don’t think it’s unusual to have a false start with two at “The Big House”, but I would say that they just came in really, really, really tough times.”

Fixing the false start issue has been a challenge for the Huskies. They will be looking to fix that in practice this week before taking on Illinois. UW must avoid getting its own way on offense with false starts to stay ahead of the chains and finish drives with points.

Jedd Fisch explains QB Demond Williams’ interceptions

QB Demond Williams had an uncharacteristically bad game against the Wolverines. He finished with three interceptions after coming into the game with just one. Michigan immediately turned Williams’ third-quarter interception into points with a touchdown. Then the Wolverines picked him off again and scored a touchdown on the ensuing drive. Jedd Fisch said this about Williams’ interceptions:

“Well, the linebacker back flared to the side of the slant route, and the linebacker followed the back. And then the other one was this kind of a, one guy thought that, the tight end thought he gonna keep running an out route, and the quarterback thought he was going to sit down. Those things happen.”

One of Williams’ interceptions happened because the linebacker jumped the route. The other interception was because of a miscommunication between the quarterback and the tight end. Williams came into the game following an impressive performance against Rutgers, where he finished with 538 yards and four total touchdowns. Unfortunately, Michigan’s defensive coordinator Wink Martindale, was able to fluster Williams and force him to make poor throws. Those interceptions were ultimately the difference in the game. Williams will look at the film and learn from his mistakes as he and the Huskies try for a better result against Illinois this Saturday.

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