With Sluggish UW Offense, Where Have We Seen This Before?

As painful as it was back then, the 2021 University of Washington football season -- which ended unfashionably inept at 4-8 -- showed everyone that there really is just a fine line between winning and losing.

Those Huskies entered that season of pratfalls ranked No. 21 in the Associated Press poll and immediately started losing players to injury, beginning with then Texas Tech transfer Ja'Lynn Polk. The wide receiver suffered a broken collarbone while catching a 13-yard pass over the middle on the season's very first offensive snap in a 13-7 loss to Montana.

That UW team also had considerable difficulty in generating much offense at all, even with future NFL starters in wide receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan, center Luke Wattenberg and offensive tackles Troy Fautanu and Roger Rosengarten rotating in and out of the offensive lineup on game day.

Where have we heard all of this before?

Rather than Polk, the current Huskies lost Kennesaw State transfer Christian Moss for a couple a months to a soft-tissue injury in their opener against Washington State in the Apple Cup, with this new wide receiver coming up lame with a "soft-tissue" injury in eerie fashion.

Again, coming on the team's first offensive play of the season.

A sluggish Husky offense appears to be a major problem once more, same as 2021, when ill-fated offensive coordinator John Donovan couldn't make anything happen and summarily was dismissed nine games into the season.

A year later, with much of the same supporting cast surrounding a prolific newcomer in quarterback Michael Penix Jr., the Huskies showed only a few tweaks were needed. This included the hiring of a new coach in Kalen DeBoer, and they won 11 of 13 outings in 2022, more than doubling the win total from the year before.

The injuries piled up back then, too, with future pros such as edge rusher Laiatu Latu, linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio, offensive tackle Jaxson Kirkland and tight end Cade Otton all ending up on the sideline for all or significant parts of the season.

In just two games, the UW currently has likely at least six players nursing injuries that lwill keep them out of Saturday's Eastern Washington game at Husky Stadium.

While Jedd Fisch and his staff try to get players healthy and executing on offense and turn this team around, the Huskies should beat Eastern no matter who they send out there and avoid 2021's biggest embarrassment.

Losing to a Big Sky team.

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