Huskies Outrun WSU to the Finish Line, Claim Apple Cup in 51-33 Point Fest
PULLMAN, Wash. — On a brisk Saturday night in the Palouse, the Apple Cup turned into a spirited dart game. Washington State hit a bulls-eye, only to have the University of Washington football team step up and match it.
Basically, these state rivals simply had no respect at all for each other's secondary and let this dismissiveness show by simply letting the ball fly nonstop — on deep patterns, short lobs and in the most deceptive manner imaginable.
Bobbing for apples? No way, these Huskies and Cougars preferred to spend the evening heaving them at each other until closing time, when the UW was left standing with a 51-33 victory at Martin Stadium.
"What a game," UW coach Kalen DeBoer said. "We knew it was going to be that. We expected it to be crazy, especially in the first half. They'd shown they come out swinging. We weathered the storm."
The outcome likely propelled the 12th-ranked Huskies (10-2 overall, 7-2 Pac-12) into a New Year's Day bowl, either the Cotton or the Rose, depending on what happens to CFP-hopeful USC in the league championship game against Utah. The Cougars (7-5, 4-5) will end in a postseason game somewhere, with the Sun Bowl always a possibility for them.
It would be hard to find a postseason game that doesn't want Michael Penix Jr. and his teammates showcasing their skills. They piled up 702 yards of total offense in their most relentless offensive showing yet.
Penix completed 25 of 43 passes for 484 yards and three touchdowns and ran for a pair. He had a pair of 100-yard receivers in Rome Odunze, who caught 5 passes for 157 yards, and Jalen McMillan, who grabbed 6 for 150, with nearly a third coming in Ja'Lynn Polk, who snared 4 passes for 82 yards. Each scored once.
Odunze and McMillan both went over 1,000 yards in receiving for the season, with Odunze pushing his total to 1,088 and his counterpart now standing at 1,040.
Add to that running back Wayne Taulapapa, who rushed 13 times for 126 yards, his third time over the century mark, and he closed out the scoring with a 40-yard TD run.
Whew.
Penix even seemed to catch a second-quarter touchdown pass himself but it ultimately was ruled a run, yet it was still ultimate trickery from the playbook of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb no matter how you labeled it.
Trailing 17-14 in the second quarter, Penix threw a ball to McMillan on the right side who stopped and fired the ball back left to his quarterback, who scored from 30 yards out on what appeared to be a pass play. Replays showed each toss was delivered backward. Make that a TD run for Penix.
"I'm a quarterback," McMillan said, not knowing right away after the game that he wasn't credited with a TD pass. "My arm hasn't been put to use for a while. ... What? They did? The play worked, so as long as we got a touchdown."
Michael Penix was virtually unstoppable in the Apple Cup.
James Snook/USA TODAY Sports
Penix is now headed to his first bowl game of his college football career after suffering four season-ending injuries at Indiana and spending that time at home in Florida.
"It's amazing," he said. "It's all the work we put in all season and it's paying off. We have a great group of guys who fight all the way to the end, all 60 minutes."
Penix and WSU quarterback Cam Ward could have been holding court and furiously competing in darts or pool at the Coug Tavern, let alone in something now known as Gesa Field at Martin Stadium, the way they went at it. They just took turns blowing up defensive backs and wowing the Pullman turnout.
Ward completed 33 of 52 passes for 322 yards and a pair of touchdowns and ran for another.
The Cougars got a good bounce go their way to start the night off. Capping the first offensive series of the game with many more to come, sophomore place-kicker Dan Janikowski put his foot into a 51-yard field goal that caromed off the crossbar and through for a 3-0 WSU lead not quite three minutes into the game. The three-pointer was Jankowski's career best by eight yards.
For just the second time this season, the Huskies didn't score on their first possession. They got as far as the WSU 35 before punting and pinning the Cougars back on their 2.
After forcing a 3-and-out, the UW took advantage of the subsequent great field possession at the WSU 44 and got on the scoreboard four plays later when Penix sent the ball to Polk on a crossing pattern and the receiver slipped away from a defender for a 26-yard touchdown and it was 7-3.
The Cougars next pulled their own trick play out of the hat in the first quarter when they called for a gutsy fake punt on fourth-and-1 at their own 34. Nobody expected it on the UW side and nobody stopped it.
Punter Nick Haberer, a lanky 6-foot-5, 238-pound Australian, lobbed one over the middle for Daiyan Henley, normally a defensive standout and a starting linebacker, and he picked up 36 yards and a first down at the UW 30, leading to Ward's 14-yard TD run and a 10-7 lead.
This just set everything in motion offensively at breakneck speed.
Penix found Odunze deep for a 47-yard scoring pass, badly beating cornerback Derrick Langford Jr., and the UW went back in front 14-10.
The Cougars needed just two and a half minutes to match that with Ferrel getting wide open in the right flat, grabbing the ball and scoring for a 17-14 Cougars advantage.
The UW took just over a minute and four plays to respond when Grubb called for what amounted to a double-lateral run by Penix. The Huskies led 21-17 and there was still 9:41 left in the first half.
Rome Odunze scored on a 47-yard touchdown pass, and added a 5-yard TD run later
James Snook/USA TODAY Sports
WSU retook the lead when Ward lobbed one over the head of Husky cornerback Jordan Perryman and into the arms of running back Nakia Watson, who dashed 15 yards into the end zone and the Cougars were back in front at 24-21.
The clock still showed 5:07 left to play, plenty of time for a couple more scores. The defenses were tired, but apparently not either offense.
Penix rushed for his second TD by faking the ball to running back Cam Davis, who took a big hit, and spinning to his left and finding an open lane to the end zone from 4 yards out to reclaim the lead at 28-24.
The Cougars' Janikowski hit a chip shot from 22 yards as time ran out, leaving the UW ahead 28-27 at the break.
No obvious defensive adjustments were made in the locker room, especially on the WSU side of the ball. The teams came out and picked up where they left off. Scoring at will.
The Huskies wasted no time and scored on the first play of the half when Penix reared up and hit McMillan in full stride, beating WSU safety Jaden Hicks, for a 75-yard scoring strike. It was lightning quick. Just 10 seconds of the third quarter had been played and the Huskies led 35-27.
"We know we're probably a better second-half team," DeBoer said.
What happened next was even more shocking — the UW got a stop, followed by one by WSU.
The Huskies sacked Ward twice and forced the home team to punt. Two plays later, Davis fumbled the ball away at his 42.
Given that latter reprieve, the Cougars made the UW pay for it and scored, needing nine plays for Watson to find the end zone from 4 yards out for his second TD. Ward's two-point conversion run after he nearly got sacked by freshman defensive tackle Jayvon Parker was ruled no good after an official review as he reached the ball for the cone. The Huskies still led 35-33.
After two more defensive stops, with Penix throwing an end-zone interception and the Cougars forced to punt, these teams went into the fourth quarter still hungry for points.
The Huskies picked up a second touchdown from Odunze, who took a handoff and scored from 5 yards out around the right end, but something weird happened next.
Peyton Henry missed the conversion kick, the first of the season and only one in 56 attempts, and the UW led 41-33 with 14:45 left to play.
With 5:01 on the clock, Henry kicked a 21-yard field goal to put the game out of reach.
Taulapapa put a cherry on top with a 40-yard scoring burst with 1:28 remaining, and the scoreboard operators were ready to take hot showers.
Husky coaches made sure non of their players headed for midfield and any sort of display, such as the flag-planting that WSU did a year ago.
It also was time to put that dart board away, too.
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