Top 10 Most Compelling Husky Plays of the Season: No. 3

If Oregon still can't figure out how it lost three consecutive games to the University of Washington football team over 13 months, it really needs to look no further than Rome Odunze.

Two weeks before the regular-season meeting in Seattle, the Husky wide receiver broke a rib and punctured a lung while recovering an onside kick at Arizona, incurring injuries that would have put anyone else on the sideline.

However, Odunze wasn't going to miss the Northwest rivalry game for any reason, short of being strapped down to a hospital gurney and put on an oxygen machine.

"Not in my brain at least," he said, "from the moment it happened."

What that meant was Odunze wanted this game far more than anyone else. Against the Ducks in the regular-season outing, he was good to the last play.

Rather emphatically, he caught a game-winning touchdown pass covering 18 yards with 1:38 left to play from Michael Penix Jr. to provide the UW with an emphatic 36-33 victory at Husky Stadium.

In a season full of heroic, heart-felt and sometimes weird moments, we count down in reverse order the 10 most memorable plays for Kalen DeBoer's 13-0 UW team.

At No. 3 is the somewhat indestructible and irreplaceable Odunze, who put all of his talents together this season to become a consensus All-America selection — and a three-time Duck dominator — and that game-winning TD catch of his represented an exclamation mark.

The game winning TUDDY! Penix 🏹 Odunze! pic.twitter.com/ywPdxEJPbY
— D-Weezy (@iamdjwebb) October 15, 2023

That pass and catch on Oct. 14 in Montlake was so straightforward and in your face Oregon simply had no chance.

Odunze lined up to the left side in one-on-one coverage with Ducks cornerback Trikweze Bridges, which was a very bad move by the visitors.

Coming off the line, Odunze got pushed to the outside and went up the sideline. Penix took two steps back after receiving the shotgun snap, looking at his top receiver, and only his receiver.

The quarterback let go of the football when Odunze was at the Oregon 12 and it came down in the pass-catcher's hands when he was about 3 yards deep in the end zone.

Odunze deftly turned to his inside shoulder and used his 6-foot-3, 215-pound frame to separate from his slender defender. Bridges, who has since transferred to Florida, had no chance whatsoever.

"It was solid coverage but, for me, I'm always open, regardless of where the defender is at on the play," Odunze said. "I can always make a play on the ball. Mike trusts me to do that. I was able to go up with strong hands and make a back-side catch in the back of the end zone."

With that, he stopped running in front of the roaring Husky crowd, raised both hands over his head and held up the ball up with his right one, as if to show everyone he was unstoppable.

And whether or not his lung or ribs still hurt, none of that really mattered.

UW TOP 10 PLAYS OF THE SEASON

1. TBD

2. TBD

3. Rome Odunze's 18-yard game-winning TD catch

4. Devin Culp's 22-yard touchdown catch

5. Zion Tupuola-Fetui's USC sack

6. Rome Odunze's 83-yard TD punt return

7. Grady Gross' Apple Cup 42-yard walk-off field goal

8. Edefuan Ulofoshio's 45-yard interception TD return

9. Ja'Lynn Polk's 92-yard touchdown catch

10. Alphonzo Tuputala's 76-yard interception return

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