It was a rough one for the Huskies, a 28-25 loss that dropped them to 5-4 and left plenty to pick apart on both sides of the ball. The second half offered a little life, but the early damage was already done, and the overall feel was frustration more than anything else.
The passing game finished at 5/10, and even that number feels generous without the second-half push. Demond Williams went through a brutal stretch at one point, missing eight straight throws, and several of those were put squarely on him.
One of the worst came on a 3rd and 10 at the Husky 2 yard line, a throw that looked an awful lot like intentional grounding. Still, the offense did settle down later, with Williams leaning on his most reliable targets - Lawson, Roebuck and Naone - as the Huskies nearly staged an improbable comeback.
But the same issues kept showing up: Williams holding the ball too long, missing deep throws, and not seeing open receivers.
The wideouts did their part when the ball got there. Lawson kept rolling with 5 catches for 89 yards, Dezmen Roebuck added 4 receptions and a touchdown, and Baron Naone continued to look like a dependable safety valve.
The line also gave up just one sack. Even so, this still wasn’t close to where the passing attack should be in year 3 of the Fisch era.
The ground game never really got off the ground, and the grades reflected that. The rushing offense came in at 2.5/10 overall, with the running backs at 4/10 and the offensive line at 2/10.
Jayden Limar opened with a strong drive, but after that, the backs stayed stuck in neutral. Brian Bonner finished as the next leading rusher with 4 carries for 9 yards, and once Limar’s 7.3 yards per carry is set aside, Bonner and Trey Cooley were both at 2.3 yards per carry.
That simply wasn’t enough against Penn State.
Defensively, the Huskies had their moments, but the big plays hurt them. The pass defense was graded 4.5/10 after allowing 240 yards and giving up a long touchdown, with three players finishing with more than a 10 plus yards per carry average. The one saving grace was that things were mostly contained in the second half, but that still doesn’t erase the damage from the explosive plays.
The run defense checked in at 4/10, and the tackling was a problem from the start. Carson Hansen punched in Penn State’s first touchdown after some poor tackling, then finished with 114 yards.
Cam Wallace added a 46-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter, and Hansen later broke off a 36-yard gain on the Nittany Lions’ final drive. The run defense did tighten up for stretches after halftime, but when it needed one stop late, it couldn’t get it done.
Special teams was one of the few clear positives. The unit earned an 8/10 after Robles drilled all three of his field goals from 29, 31 and 48 yards.
Hunter Green was excellent again, averaging 48.5 yards on four punts with a long of 63, and he keeps building what has become one of the best punting seasons in Husky history. Zay Robinson was held in check as a returner, getting just one punt back for 10 yards, and no kickoffs were returned.
Overall, it was a strong day for the specialists.
Coaching landed at 2.5/10, and that’s where the frustration really boiled over. Jedd went away from Limar after the hot start, kept calling shot plays that weren’t working, and watched the offense bog down in the same first-half funk that has followed the Huskies around all season.
The second half did show a more settled group with some momentum, but then came the 12 men on the field penalty after a stop and coming out of a timeout. In that spot, it was beyond annoying.
It was absolutely inexcusable.
At this point, the offense still looks like it’s fighting itself nine games into the season, and the regression under Fisch has been hard to ignore. The hope is that things improve, but the bigger truth seems pretty clear now: this may just be what the team is.
In Other News...
Jedd Fisch Sees A New Playoff Challenge For Washington
The College Football Playoff is headed for another major overhaul in 2027, and Jedd Fisch thinks Washington should welcome the shift. The Huskies coach said at a news conference that moving from 12 teams to 24 gives more programs a real path into the bracket, while also forcing the sport to rethink how the regular season is built and how teams are tested before December arrives.
Fischs comments come as the new setup promises a different kind of race for the Huskies, one shaped less by the old conference-title-weekend model and more by the week-to-week strength of schedule. For Washington, the change adds another layer to a future already being defined by tougher nonconference planning and the broader demands that come with trying to stay in the national mix. [Read more 🡒]
Washington Just Landed In A Big Ten Reality Nobody Expected
The first Big Ten season with the former Pac-12 schools was supposed to bring more fireworks, more tempo and more of the wide-open football that followed Washington into the league. Instead, the early returns have looked a lot more familiar to old-school Big Ten observers: defenses are dictating terms, scoring has dipped and offenses across the conference are still trying to find answers against some of the leagues toughest fronts.
For Washington, that shift matters because it changes the weekly math. The Huskies came in expecting a different kind of test, but the conference has already shown how quickly a struggling attack can become a problem, with several programs making changes on the offensive side and the leagues scoring pace lagging behind recent seasons. Even with the new blood, the Big Ten still looks like a place where every possession gets squeezed, and Washington is learning there may be less room for error than anyone imagined. [Read more 🡒]
Washington Showed The Depth Huskies Fans Have Been Waiting For
The Huskies got a useful early-season look at their depth in Seattle, where a 77-64 win over Mississippi Valley State gave Washington more than just a comfortable final margin. Parker Friedrichsen supplied 17 points, Ryan Beasley added 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Steele Venters chipped in 15 as the Huskies spread the scoring around and kept enough pressure on the Delta Devils to stay in command.
For a team looking to show it has more than one way to win, the mix was encouraging, especially with AJ Abrams scoring 20 for Mississippi Valley State to keep the visitors in range for stretches. Washington did not need a singular star takeover to settle this one, and that kind of balance is exactly the sort of development Huskies fans have been waiting to see as the season starts to take shape. [Read more 🡒]