Day After: 3 Observations From Minnesota Loss

From Saturday night's 27-24 loss to Minnesota, the University of Washington football team surprisingly had so many things go wrong, one could spend a number of days trying to get a handle on it all.

Rushing. Blocking. Tackling.

None of it worked.

Mostly, the UW looked like a predictable and beatable team because of its shortcomings and potentially is headed for a long season rather than a promising one that had an advantageous schedule in hand because some of these issues really aren't readily fixable.

Three observations from a chilly and rather late evening from Husky Stadium:

1. GROUND GAME IS GROUNDED

It's hard to remember a time when a UW offensive unit had so much difficulty rushing the ball, but a month into the season this has become a major issue that affects everything.

Against the Gophers, the Huskies gained a paltry 40 yards on 27 carries for a 1.5-yard average. The longest run by a tailback was 6 yards.

While Fisch's team has lost four runners to injury, his offensive line has underperformed to disturbing levels. It doesn't open any holes. Doesn't look very physical.

While the Huskies got away with this against three non-conference opponents, Big Ten teams are going to make them pay a hefty price such as Minnesota did. By just teeing off on a one-sided offense.

"They brought a lot of pressure," Fisch said. "They brought a lot of safeties. They brought second pressure. They brought the linebackers."

2. DRAWING THE LINE

The Huskies had four returning starters on the offensive line, leading to plenty of optimism, especially after churning out 165 yards of rushing per game in 2025.

The average teeters at 107.3 right now.

Whereas the UW averaged 34 carries per outing last year, it's down to 28 each time out now -- and 10 go to quarterback Demond Williams Jr., with most of them scrambles rather than called plays. He got sacked 7 times by the Gophers, the most since Oregon teed off on him for 10 in 2024 as a first-time starter.

Twice the UW moved John Mills from left guard to left tackle in the second half against Minnesota to try and change things up. The Huskies still await the return of veteran center Landen Hatchett from his recovery from a broken wrist. Heading into next weekend's USC game, the line remains a huge problem.

3. TACKLING WAS SUBPAR

The strength of this Husky team is supposed to be the defense, a group that would enable the offense more time to fix its issues. However against the Gophers, this UW stop unit stopped tackling with any notable ferocity.

Linebacker Jacob Manu finished with just 2 tackles and he was averaging 7 coming into this game. Even playmaker safety Alex McLaughlin missed badly on a run that ended up going 45 yards. The Huskies logged just one late sack.

"Disappointed in our tackling today," Fisch acknowledged. "We are a much better tackling team. I was surprised we weren't able to get them down."

He has a lot to fix in a short amount of time before the Huskies play at USC on Saturday.

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