Red Zone Magic Leads to Husky Win Over USC

The Washington Huskies secured a victory over the USC Trojans on Saturday afternoon - And the nail in coffin for the Trojans may have been a late second half play in the red zone by the Husky’s safety Myles Bryant.

Actually there were a few nails in the Trojan’s proverbial coffin that all took place in the red zone on a sunny but chilly afternoon on Montlake.

In the first half of the game, The Huskies drove the ball deep into USC Territory, when Salvon Ahmed fumbled the ball at the goal line. The ball took a series of fortunate bounces for the Dawgs, and it ended up being recovered by WR Andre Baccellia for a Husky touchdown.

In the second half of the game, as USC was mounting a long drive, deep into Husky territory, DB Elijah Molden  intercepted a Matt Fink pass on the USC 4 yard line which not only killed any momentum that the Trojans may have created, but two plays later, RB Salvon Ahmed made a brilliant jump cut, side stepped USC defenders, and scampered 89 yards for another Husky touchdown.

Late in the 4th quarter, USC was looking for one last hope to get back into the game. After driving the ball all the way to the Husky 2 yard line, facing 4th and goal, Husky Sr. safety Myles Bryant sealed the deal for the Dawgs by knocking away a pass from Matt Fink to Michael Pittman Jr. in the back of the end zone. The Dawgs would get the ball back and ultimately run down the clock to secure the 28-14 win.

Washington still needs to address some challenges with maintaining momentum when they have an opponent on the ropes. The Dawgs scored a combined three points in the second and fourth quarters - both opportunities for Washington to put the Trojans away. But when the offense struggled to put points on the board, the Husky defense held tough this week. With their three interceptions and and five tackles for loss, the Dawgs shut the Trojans out completely in the first and fourth quarters.

Next week the Huskies travel down to Palo Alto to face a struggling Stanford Cardinal  team. The #16 ranked Dawgs hope to move to 5-1 on the season and 2-1 in Pac 12 play.