A series of strange game management decisions cast a shadow over Washington's 27-24 loss to Minnesota late on Saturday evening.
The obvious error came before the two-minute timeout with the Huskies down 27-17. Demond Williams Jr. completed a pass to Chris Lawson, who both got out of bounds and earned a first down with 2:27 remaining in the game. That stopped the clock, but only until the chains were reset. Washington then had a substitute come onto the field late, which caused the referees to hold the Huskies' action until Minnesota had the opportunity to match the substitution. Minnesota was able to delay that action long enough to force the clock to wind down to 2 minutes and force a stoppage.
Fisch said after the game that Washington wanted
to get into a certain personnel group to run a play from the red zone: "Yeah, you know, I thought there was a point there that Chris got knocked out of bounds, and it was a first down. So then they were resetting the chains, so they stopped the clock on the first down. And then we wanted to get a touchdown...We wanted to get a certain red zone play in. And we wound up subbing, and the sub came in way too late. And with that, then they got to hold another 10 seconds. So that's my fault. There was a certain personnel group that I wanted in the game for that play, so we wound up having to call it after the two-minute warning."
Of note in that quote is the fact that Fisch said the Huskies got into the play they wanted originally after the stoppage. On the ensuing play, Williams was unable to find an open receiver, but scrambled into the end zone to cut the lead to 3. That would imply that the play Washington wanted to get into so badly that they burned 27 seconds off the clock did not work as intended anyway. Add, say, 20 seconds of that time to the end of the game, and the Huskies would have at least had an outside shot of driving into field goal range to give Tyler Robles an attempt to tie the game. Instead, Washington had 3 seconds backed up on their own 2-yard line and needed 98 yards and a touchdown to keep their hopes alive.
Beyond that instance, Washington struggled once again to run the ball on Saturday. When subtracting seven sacks of Williams, which lost 38 yards, the Huskies ran the ball 20 times for 78 yards, an average of 3.9 yards a carry. Fisch said after the game that Washington needs to be better about staying in front of the chains after saying this week that he was not "overly concerned" about the way the run game performed in the first three games of the year. Minnesota was better than most teams at forcing Williams to stay in the pocket, which Fisch credited to the width of their edge rushers, so the Huskies will not always be so limited on the ground, but the lack of push from the offensive line and poor vision from the running backs have been an issue no matter who the opponent has been this season. Despite that, Washington has not found adjustments to get the run game going beyond throwing more screens and quick passes to their receivers. The Huskies attempted a jet sweep to get some yardage on a crucial 3rd and 2, but Lawson lost yardage on the play and forced a fourth down that Washington miraculously converted when Williams found tight end Baron Naone in the end zone.
On defense, the Huskies will point to at least 11 missed tackles and a lack of pressure on Minnesota quarterback Drake Lindsey, but Washington also reacted to injuries to cornerbacks Emmanuel Karnley and Rahshawn Clark in a bizarre fashion. Both players were available in "emergency situations", according to defensive coordinator Ryan Walters in a sideline interview with Dave Mahler, but neither played on defense on Saturday night even as the game spiraled out of control. Clark was available on special teams, returning all but the first punt and fielding kick returns, so his lack of usage on defense was confusing at best unless he was only cleared to play a certain number of snaps. Elias Johnson started on the outside with both players out but gave up two first-half touchdowns and was benched for second-year corner Ramonz Adams Jr. rather than either Karnley or Clark coming in on defense.
Fisch was not asked about the defensive personnel decisions directly, but did say that both Karnley and Clark should be cleared to play in full next week at USC.
Overall, it felt as though Washington was a team coming off three underwhelming wins that was not prepared for Big Ten play.
Asked about expectations moving forward, Fisch told the media: "I think the expectation is we're in a very competitive conference. And within that conference, we happen to have lost a 27-24 game. So our expectation is we need to try to go 1-0 the next week, and the next week. You know, I'm not going to stand up here and proclaim one way or the other. I think we have a good team. We've had some unfortunate things happen to our team, and so be it. We also have a lot of guys that want to compete and play, and our expectations every single week have to change, but we gotta get better. We gotta, you know, make some plays when the plays present themselves. And we've got to coach in a situation where we can get these guys more opportunities to make those plays."
This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington suffers game management woes in 27-24 loss to Minnesota
