Huskies Pick Up a Win, But Secondary Struggles Continue
Against Arizona on Saturday, the University of Washington football team turned in its seventh consecutive high-scoring game, but still nobody really wants to talk about the elephant in the room.
For the fourth outing in a row — or since sophomore cornerback Mishael Powell went down with a debilitating injury of some sort — the UW secondary got lit up in a disturbing manner in the home team's 49-39 victory at Husky Stadium.
Wildcats quarterback Jayden de Laura treated the Husky defensive backfield much the same way Michael Penix Jr. sent the other guy's teammates backpedaling on another smokey day in the Northwest
The Arizona QB put the Huskies playing on the back row through a shredder.
When all the numbers were tallied, de Laura had thrown for 400 yards and 4 touchdowns to keep intense pressure on the UW all the way to the closing minutes.
In turn, the Husky defensive backs came up with no interceptions, pass break-ups or quarterback hurries when blitzing.
Leave it to junior safety Asa Turner, recently coming off an injury and a targeting ejection at Arizona State and starting for the first time in a month against Arizona, to offer a less-than-perfect solution.
"If we let up a certain amount of points in this game, they're going to outscore them," Turner said of the Penix-led UW offense.
Actually, help finally might be on the way for this decimated Husky defensive backfield that has urgently looked for some young player or players to step up and slow down the opposing passers.
Coach Kalen DeBoer said both hybrid Husky Dominique Hampton, a first-time scratch for the Arizona game after getting banged up at Arizona State the week before, and the idle Powell might be ready to play at California next Saturday.
"There's a small chance," DeBoer said of Powell. "There's a chance it could happen."
Lost in all the pass completions and instant scores permitted to the visitors, the Husky defense came out and forced Arizona to punt on the first two series, a promising start.
However, the Wildcats, from the end of the second quarter to the end of the fourth, scored on five consecutive drives, doing most of their damage through the air.
The lessons were painful for the UW coverage guys, who continued to shuffle in and out.
Redshirt freshman corner Davon Banks didn't wrap up on Tetairoa McMillan on an open-field tackle and the freshman wide receiver zipped in with a 46-yard touchdown reception for Arizona's first points in the opening quarter.
Redshirt freshman cornerback Elijah Jackson started the game and played much of the first half before giving way to Banks the rest of the way.
Grad transfer corner Jordan Perryman was noticeably limping after Arizona's Dorian Singer got behind him and hauled in a 39-yard TD pass from de Laura. Perryman pulled something in the season opener and it looks like he continues struggle with this injury. He's not nearly as mobile as he was during spring and fall football camps, especially when he was giving teammate Rome Odunze fits in tight coverage.
Sophomore Kamren Fabiculanan, who moved to hybrid Husky for Hampton after starting four games at safety, got beat for Arizona's final touchdown when Singer caught a 26-yard pass with 9:51 left to play.
True freshman Jaivion Green made his fifth game appearance for the Huskies on Saturday and apparently burned his redshirt season, pulling a lot of snaps against Arizona.
Another true freshman, safety Tristan Dunn, had to be helped off the field with an injury.
Safety Alex Cook remains the only Husky defensive back who has started all seven games, but he hasn't played particularly well in recent weeks. He might be trying to do too much and cover too much ground with so many young guys all around him in coverage.
"One guy comes back and another goes out," DeBoer said. "It's just been all those guys continuing to fight and battle. It's not perfect but I'm proud of the way they hop back in there and go to work the next week."
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