Huskies Lose a SHOCKER to Cal 20-19
I have been around Husky football for the better part of 27 years. I have seen a LOT of things in Husky Stadium.
I saw the retirement of head coach Don James in Husky Stadium - just days before my freshman season began. I saw Corey Dillon set an NCAA record for the most yards in one quarter in Husky Stadium (I had 148 yards rushing that game too - just FYI). But on Saturday, September 7, 2019 I saw something that I have never seen in all of my years as a Husky. At 7:51 pm the Washington Huskies vs the California Bears football game was brought to a screeching halt by Mother Nature.
Lighting strikes at Husky Stadium on Saturday night - in more ways than one. Photo credit: John Howie
A 2 hour and 39 minute extreme weather delay put a damper on the start of the Cal vs UW game Saturday night. Lightning lit up the night sky all around the greater Seattle area for over 2 hours, creating a light show unlike many have ever seen in this city. Myself included. What ensued when the teams finally took the field at 10:30 PM PST, was a late night full of shenanigans in Husky Stadium.
For starters, the Washington Husky receivers could not hang on to the football. Husky QB Jacob Eason’s passes went in and out of the hands of Aaron Fuller, Chico McClatcher, Andre Baccellia and Salvon Ahmed in just the first half of the game. No one receiver had a monopoly on the bounty of dropped balls, and it didn’t get much better in the second half. The Husky defense, while stout in the first half, found it difficult to bring the Cal Bear’s ball carriers to the ground in the second half. Sloppy tackling would prove to be a bugaboo for the Dawgs as the game went on, and the Bears RB’s Chris Brown Jr, and Marcel Dancy took full advantage. Dancy, a redshirt Jr, left Husky defenders in his wake on a 20 yard TD scamper in the 3rd quarter, showing just how far the Husky tackling had digressed as the game crept into the wee hours of Sunday morning.
Huskies running back Salvon Ahmed was explosive all night. But his 119 yards on 21 carries wasn’t enough to catapult his Husky squad to victory on this historic evening.
Husky QB Jacob Eason was not able to capture the magic that he displayed against Eastern Washington just a week ago, finishing the game with 162 yards, completing 18 out of 30 passes with one INT.
As the Dawgs lick their wounds for a couple of days, falling to 1-1 on the season (0-1 in conference), they have a lot of questions to answer for themselves this week. Who is going to be the leader on this Husky defense? How do they fix the dropped balls issues? Can they close out a quality opponent when the moment arises? Hopefully they will figure out the answers to some of these questions before the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors take the field at 4:30 PM in Husky Stadium next Saturday.
Watch as Husky Head Coach Chris Petersen addresses some of his concerns and talks about the state of the Dawgs in his post game press conference.
