Huskies Get Drenched, Embarrassed In the Wisconsin Rain

Against woeful Wisconsin, the University of Washington football team went into Camp Randall Stadium looking for a knockout and never saw it coming, catching an uppercut punch above the temple and hitting the mat hard.

In an absolute downpour on Saturday in Madison, the Huskies went down 13-10.

To a Badgers team that lost its starting quarterback on the second series.

To a team that most of the way went with a one-time, fourth-string freshman signal-caller who was making his college debut, got pulled and returned.

To a lower-level Big Ten team (3-6 overall, 1-5 Big Ten) that entered with a six-game losing streak and had lost to the Huskies in each of the four previous outings from Pasadena to Seattle to Madison.

This might have been a program low for the Jedd Fisch era of UW football.

"Altogether not a very good day for the Huskies," the coach said.

The favored Huskies (6-3, 3-3) had no discernible offense and watched helplessly as Wisconsin's Nathaniel Vakos decided this one with a 32-yard field goal with 1:58 left in the third quarter.

It's hard to tell which was more uncomfortable: heavily favored Wisconsin losing 44-8 to the UW in the 1960 Rose Bowl or this one.

National rankings and any suggestion of playoff hopes for the UW disappeared into this miserable Midwest monsoon.

Seven minutes into this one, the Huskies took the Badgers' starting quarterback Danny O'Neil out of the game when he came up lame on a keeper and took a furious helmet-to-helmet hit from safety Rylon Dillard-Allen.

That forced short-handed Wisconsin to turn to freshman Carter Smith, the son of a former major-league pitcher. He handed off the first dozen or so times he took the snap.

The Huskies had to be thinking they were going tear this guy apart and then go after his team and then go home with a decisive win.

With the game tied at 3, the Huskies looked like the far superior team when special-teams specialist Anthony Ward came off the right edge in a hurry and blocked a punt, putting the UW on the Wisconsin 1.

Anthony Ward celebrates after blocking a punt during the second quarter against Wisconsin. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Two plays later, wide receiver Denzel Boston made a sensational one-handed, 1-yard touchdown catch to put his team up 10-3.

However, that's when everything really started to go wrong for the Huskies, not better.

A short time after his go-ahead score, Boston came up limping after a punt return and had to be driven out of the stadium on the cart, though he returned in the second half.

About the same time, running back Jonah Coleman noticeably limped off the field and never came back, finishing with just five rushes for 2 yards. He got hurt on a screen pass.

The UW offensive line quickly became a mess, too.

Center Landen Hatchett, with an injured hand, was replaced by Zach Henning. Right tackle Drew Azzopardi, who had a leg injury, was swapped out for first Soane Faasolo and then Paki Finau.

"Obviously it hurts," left tackle Carver Willis said. "You hate to see your boys go down. I was in that position a few weeks ago. It sucks."

The first quarter ended up scoreless with neither team able to do much at all. Demond Williams wasn't sharp in any manner.

For Wisconsin's O'Neil, a San Diego State transfer, he could run the ball but he couldn't throw it. On his second series, he couldn't run it any longer either.

O'Neil took one around the left side for 21 yards but appeared to pull something and was staggering when the UW player who answers to "Batman" led with his head to bring the QB down. Yet Dillard-Allen, after a review, was cleared of any targeting wrongdoing.

The quarterback left and never came back.

In came Smith, who primarily handed off. He struggled through five series before giving way to senior Hunter Simmons, who had started four earlier games without any success, late in the second quarter.

Bryce Butler gives Jacob Lane a celebratory push after a UW sack. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

The teams traded 42-yard field goals in the second quarter, with Vakos putting Wisconsin on the board first and the Huskies' Grady Gross matching it.

Following Gross's 3-pointer, the UW held their hosts to a 3-and-out series. With the ball at the Wisconsin 17. Ward ran past a blocker to slap down the punt by the Badgers' Sean West, which the punter himself recovered on the 1.

It was Ward's second career punt block after picking one up at his previous stop in Arizona and returning that one for a touchdown.

After a run didn't work, Boston made a slick, one-handed catch of a Demond Williams Jr. throw in the end zone, beating cornerback Rico Hallman, a much-decorated 41-game starter, and the Huskies led 10-3.

Inside the final minute of the first half, Wisconsin replaced Smith at Wisconsin quarterback with Simmons.

This is how bad it was for the Badgers: Simmons completed his team's first pass of the game inside the final minute of the opening half.

Coming out for the third quarter, both teams were greeted by an absolute downpour. The rain was practically blowing sideways. The home team initially handled it better than the Huskies, who shouldn't have been spooked by it considering they're Northwest based, but they probably spend too much practice time in Dempsey Indoor.

On the UW's first second-half possession, Williams fumbled the ball away while scrambling, setting up the Badgers on the UW 7. It was a disastrous mistake.

Wisconsin's Gideon Ituka is tackled by Huskies cornerback Ephesians Prysock. | Jeff Hanisch-Imagn Images

Wisconsin tied the game at 10 in two plays, with Smith, getting another shot at the controls, running 5 yards and then 2 more for the points with 6:26 left in the quarter.

After a change of possessions, the Badgers took the lead at 13-10 on Vakos' 32-yard field with 1:58 left in the quarter.

The rain was coming down harder.

The fourth quarter was devoid of any sustainable offense and any more points by either team. Gross had a field goal blocked. Everything came to a merciful end for the UW when Williams was dropped for a 1-yard loss on fourth-and-6 play from his 41.

"I feel like we never really got into a rhythm today offensively," Fisch said.

Williams finished with a team-high 61 yards rushing on 19 carries while completing 20 of 32 passes for 134 yards and a touchdown, with an interception.

By contrast, Wisconsin's Smith hit on just 3 of 12 passes for 8 yards while running 15 times for 47 yards and his score.

It now appears that it's time for the Huskies to play out the string with three regular-season games left and see what sort of mid-level bowl game they can find.

Losses to bad Wisconsin teams won't necessarily bring much in the way of postseason rewards.

"They all hurt the same," edge rusher Zach Durfee said of the loss. "But this one hurts a lot."

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