Happy Monday Dawg fans, and welcome to today’s Dots.
Saturday’s game against UCLA could well be the last time any regular-season college football happens at the historic Rose Bowl. The Dawgs have made memories in Pasadena going back 100 years, with UW’s first appearance at the annual Rose Bowl Game in January 1924. Although UW has played in the Rose Bowl Game the fourth most of any team (behind USC, Michigan, and Ohio State) with a 7-7-1 record across 15 appearances, the regular season games there against UCLA have largely been forgettable — the only previous wins in Pasadena coming in 1989, 1995, and 2018.
The Huskies ended this Rose Bowl era in a memorable way, pummeling UCLA 48-14 and giving the best road performance of Jedd Fisch’s tenure. There’s been gnashing of teeth over UW’s ability to play to their potential on the road since Fisch took the reins. On this night at least, the Dawgs handled their business away from home.
True, it was against a 3-7 UCLA team in turmoil, with a starting QB coming out of concussion protocol. But you could also look and see a scoreline and stats were very similar to how #1 Ohio State did against the Bruins one week prior in Columbus. UCLA’s 3 losses before UW were to Ohio State, to #2 Indiana, and to a decent but mercurial Nebraska team.
The Huskies offense took a couple drives to get going, much like the previous week against Purdue, and was helped by their defense who forced two fumbles in the first half, gave up just one TD all game, and kept dynamic Bruin QB Nico Iamaleava contained before knocking him out of the game altogether. UCLA finished with 150 yds passing and 57 yds rushing.
UCLA’s disastrous fake field goal attempt and Alex McLaughlin’s scoop-and-score made the game 20-0 just before halftime, and created a margin that felt too big for the Bruins to overcome. That play and Dezman Roebuck’s punt-return fumble that became an easy TD for the Bruins were strong evidence that the chaos of Pac-12 After Dark still exists.
In the absence of Denzel Boston and limited plays for Jonah Coleman, freshman Dezmen Roebuck caught 7 passes for 96 yds and a TD, while sophomore Adam Mohammed carried 21 times for 108 yards, his first 100-yd game as a Husky.
The Husky defense has allowed more than 20 points just 3 times in Big Ten play this season.
The Dawgs now turn their attention to Oregon who come to Husky Stadium after a convincing win against USC.
- Christian Caple, On Montlake: “Washington’s 48-14 win at UCLA would be fine Rose Bowl farewell” && “The Day After: Final thoughts from Washington’s 48-14 win at UCLA” — ”UCLA quarterback Nico Iamaleava didn’t complete a pass longer than 11 yards, was 0-for-3 on passes thrown more than nine yards downfield, and his average depth of target when throwing between zero and 9 yards was just 3.3; … There just wasn’t anything happening for the Bruins downfield.”
- Mike Vorel, Seattle Times: “Washington Huskies’ progress isn’t pretty, but it’s still progress“
- Women’s Soccer: “Penalty Kicks Send Washington To Elite Eight Over No. 7 Virginia” (GoHuskies.com)
- Men’s Soccer: “Lofy Scores Wonder Goal To Send Huskies To Sweet 16” (GoHuskies.com)
Go Dawgs!! Beat Oregon!