Huskies Make It Hard for Defenses to Focus on One Receiver

Chris Lawson has benefitted as other teams try to spotlight on Dezmen Roebuck.

Huskies wide receiver Dezmen Roebuck (2) catches a 4-yard touchdown pass at Purdue. | IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

At times this season, the University of Washington football team has wondered if it could find enough bodies to fill certain positions.

Running back comes to mind, as does the center position, and briefly wide receiver has been an issue.

While the first two roles continue to pursue replacement help or build depth for the coming game against Penn State on Saturday afternoon, its an entirely different story for the Husky pass-catchers.

It's pick your poison.

Looking back at the UW's grind-it-out 17-10 victory over Nebraska, Chris Lawson emerged as a focal receiver who came up with the goods to have a career day against a top-flight defense, finishing with a dozen catches for 155 yards and the game-winning score on a 25-yard pass.

One of the reasons for his elevated stats was the Cornhuskers went out of their way to limit the catches for Dezmen Roebuck, the UW's leading receiver, according to receivers coach Kevin Cummings.

"Any team that game-plans for us, the first person they're going to talk about is Dez and how do we make sure we to try and take him out of the game?" Cummings said. "I think there was a little bit of that in there."

Consequently, Roebuck finished with 5 catches for 25 yards in what was low-level production for him.

In the game before at Purdue, the opposite was true as the 5-foot-11, 190-pound sophomore was one of the more potent and well-rounded offensive threats in the UW's 38-26 victory in West Lafayette.

Roebuck came up with 5 catches for 97 yards and a late 4-yard touchdown catch to help put that game out of reach. He also ran the ball five times for 16 yards on the fly sweep to keep the Boilermakers off balance.

Chris Lawson tries to elude an Iowa tackler in the 41-24 loss. | Dave Sizer photo

With the schedule about to get significantly tougher with Penn State and Indiana visiting Husky Stadium this month, the trick will be to get both Roebuck and Lawson operating at optimum receiving levels at the same time.

"I've challenged Dez in different ways for him to have some more success in those games so we talked about that watching film the next day," Cummings aid. "I do think teams are looking at Dez because he's so explosive for us."

Rashid Williams dives for what was thought to be a touchdown, yet he stepped out at the 2 in the Apple Cup. | Dave Sizer photo

Taking it one more step, the UW could stand to get Rashid Williams, the third starting receiver, more involved, as well. He comes off games of 3 catches for 35 yards at Purdue and just 2 receptions for 9 yards at Nebraska.

It wasn't too long ago that the Huskies used to send receivers Rome Odunze, Jalen McMillan and Ja'Lynn Polk onto the field and dare anyone to try to zero in on stopping one guy in particular and not get hurt by one of the others.

Pick your poison.