Quarterback Elijah Brown led UW’s only three touchdown drives while filling in for an injured Demond Williams. His performance was the lone positive on a night when Iowa walked into Husky Stadium and rocked Washington 41-24.
Friday night’s outing was Washington’s worst performance of the season thus far, and there is plenty of reason to believe things will only get worse. Washington was manhandled on its home turf by a team missing its starting quarterback.
Iowa’s Hank Brown could’ve entered the game
if Iowa needed him, but Jeremy Hecklinski kept him on the sideline by throwing three touchdown passes against an often-confused Husky defense. To make matters worse, Washington was battered by a rushing attack that hadn’t gotten going entering tonight. That changed against UW as Iowa’s Kamari Moulton rushed for 208 yards and two scores on 26 carries.
Early signs suggested the Huskies were in for a long night. They had another horrid start offensively, and Iowa was ripping off chunk plays. There were still reasons to be positive after Iowa was held to field goals. Then Moulton raced for a 56-yard score, and suddenly UW trailed 13-0 with 10 seconds left in the opening quarter.
As the saying goes, it was all downhill from there. Washington managed only a field goal in the first half, while Iowa put together four scoring drives and two punts to take a 27-3 lead into halftime.
Williams was injured on UW’s second-to-last drive of the second half, which ended with a field goal.
Brown entered the second half with an opportunity to show coaches he’d be ready if his name is called in the future. He did that and more. He led consecutive scoring drives, which would’ve been more threatening if Iowa hadn’t scored a touchdown in between them. The final touchdown came on the final play of the game on a pretty ball to wide receiver Chris Lawson. He finished 28-of-39 for 251 yards and three touchdowns.
Dreams of a rally didn’t last long because Iowa’s offense never slowed down. The Hawkeyes answered both of UW’s scoring drives with a touchdown of their own, keeping the Huskies out of reach.
Washington has now lost three straight games and desperately needs a win over Purdue, which will likely be the last game UW is favored in for the rest of the season.
