In the Washington Huskies' 41-24 loss to the Iowa Hawkeyes, defensive coordinator Ryan Walters' unit had its worst performance of the season, allowing 465 yards of offense, the most in any game this season, and the second-most since the former Purdue head coach took control of the unit ahead of the 2025 campaign.
The game featured several uncharacteristic mistakes, with more than 20 missed tackles, receivers running free all over the field, and plenty of lapses in communication that felt very unlike a Walters-coached unit.
"It was a lot of communication and eye violations on calls that we've executed at a high level from day one," Walters said on Tuesday. "Guys kind of went into panic mode instead of relying on their training. That's a learning
experience, and we're excited to get back out and compete."
With the struggles Washington's offense has had throughout the season, it could be viewed as a bad sign of what's to come in the second half of the schedule as the Huskies have lost three straight games, but it felt more like an aberration given what the defense has looked like since he arrived.
"I haven't seen our guys play like that since I've been here," Walters said. "That part is encouraging. I think the guy's response yesterday in the meetings and response yesterday at practice, it kind of gives you a confidence, belief that that won't get repeated."
"I think our response to (Iowa's) physicality has to be better. Uncharacteristic mistakes mentally because of the surprise in how physical and how downhill Iowa's playing; you've got to give those guys credit," Walters added. "I think our guys will learn from it; you can point to answers and corrections, so anytime you can give guys resources or point to where we made mistakes and how we can be better, and give them answers, that calms them down and gives them answers moving forward."
According to the defensive coordinator, that starts with him, after stating that he didn't prepare his unit well enough for the physicality that Iowa plays with. Against his former team, it feels unlikely that he'll make the same mistake.
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington's defense must correct glaring mistakes ahead of Purdue
