Weekly Issue 5

Page 1

THE DAILY Monday-Friday, October 21 - 25, 2019

of the University of Washington | since 1891 | dailyuw.com

Vol. 130, Issue 5

UW & a violation of Native Hawaiian sovereignty PAGE 2-3

2019 King County Election Endorsements PAGE 6-7

35 31 Huskies can’t hold lead, drop third conference game in loss to Ducks By Alec Dietz The Daily For a minute, it looked like the No. 25 Washington football team would pull off the upset, with a two-touchdown lead in the early stages of the third quarter. However, that was not meant to be as No. 12 Oregon went on a 21-3 run in the final 25 minutes to win 35-31. Clinging desperately to a 31-28 lead late in the fourth, the UW offense stalled several times on offense, and the Ducks (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) took advantage. With 8:36 on the clock, Oregon manufactured a 70-yard touchdown drive, capped off by a short pass from Justin Herbert to Jaylon Redd to take the late lead. The Huskies’ (5-3, 2-3 Pac-12) offense had five minutes to work with to try and take the lead back. After driving down to the Oregon 35-yard line, the UW failed to convert on a fourth-and-short, and the Ducks bled out the clock. Scoring 28 points through 32 minutes of game time wasn’t enough to hold on to the win, as the Huskies were held to three points in the final 28. “We hit a wall,” center Nick Harris said. “They made plays and kept themselves in the game. We just didn’t make enough plays in the fourth quarter. We played great football through three quarters, and then that fourth quarter we didn’t make enough plays.” Before the final quarter, the Huskies had arguably one of their better offensive performances of the season. Jacob Eason had thrown for over 200 yards and three touchdowns. Salvon Ahmed was well over the 100-yard mark, even without fellow tailbacks Sean McGrew and Richard Newton. The UW’s injury-riddled receiver group was producing in ways it hadn’t yet this season, with true freshman Puka Nacua and junior

Jordan Chin catching touchdowns. “It doesn’t really mean anything,” Ahmed said of his career day. “We didn’t get the win.” Now the Huskies are limping into a bye week after losing to a bitter rival and having lost two of their last three games. Two wins against the Pac-12 South’s USC and Arizona look unimportant next to an 0-3 record for the UW against the Pac-12 North’s Cal, Stanford, and Oregon. After eight straight weeks of football, Washington finally gets its rest. “We have to overanalyze everything,” Ahmed said. “We have to go back and really look back at what we’re doing on offense and see how we can be better for our team.”

Addressing Washington’s wounds A bye week is much needed for a squad who is down a couple of key contributors on the offensive end. Leading receiver and punt returner Aaron Fuller was limited Saturday afternoon for the Huskies and after the game, head coach Chris Petersen said he was “banged up.” Fuller played sparingly, only appearing for a single punt return and the opening kickoff. In his place, senior receiver Chico McClatcher handled punts but was pulled from the game after suffering what appeared to be a leg injury late. Petersen did not have an update after the game on McClatcher’s status, but the senior was seen in a walking boot on the sideline. Junior tailback Sean McGrew was another late scratch from the UW lineup, as he was seen on the sidelines in street clothes before and during the game. Petersen said that McGrew was also “banged up.” Reach Sports Editor Alec Dietz at sports@dailyuw.com. Twitter: @AlecDietz

Conor Courtney The Daily

Kirshenbaum:

This story again By Josh Kirshenbaum The Daily It was so close, but the result was, once again, the same. The No. 25 Washington football team led for much of its game against No. 12 Oregon, taking a two-touchdown lead one possession into the second half. But once again, the Huskies couldn’t get over the hump, this time falling pretty much out of the race in the Pac-12 North in a 35-31 loss. “It always hurts to lose, no matter who we lose to,” senior center Nick Harris said. “But given that we were playing well and we just couldn’t finish that fourth quarter, it hurts.” Washington is still in one of its best runs in program history. The Dawgs are coming off of three 10-win seasons, and can still make it four if (and this is a big “if ”) they win out. But Saturday was another chapter in the main blot on the era: an inability to get a signature win. Think about the Peach Bowl in 2016, the Fiesta Bowl in 2017, and the Rose Bowl last year. Think about facing a top-10 Auburn in pretty much a road environment and taking on Oregon last season in an even more hostile setting. Since their playoff loss to Alabama to end 2016, the Huskies are 2-4 against teams ranked higher than them. Take out Apple Cups and that record goes to 0-4. In that span, Washington is 3-6 in games against teams ranked higher than No. 20; take out WSU and it slides to 1-6. Saturday, the Dawgs were so close. In their second straight back-and-forth matchup against the Ducks, they held a lead late.

Even when they went down, they still had a chance to come back, opening their final drive with a 22yard completion from Jacob Eason to Cade Otton and rolling into Oregon territory. Then Jacob Eason took a 12yard sack and Trey Adams got called for a false start. A UW crowd that had been rocking all day long was suddenly overcome in noise by the Oregon corner of Husky Stadium. And three kneel-downs later, Washington had once again come up short. Don’t get it twisted; Washington was punching above its weight today, against a higher-ranked team without Sean McGrew, without Richard Newton, and pretty much without Aaron Fuller. And it’s not that these games should be easy wins; it’s not even like Washington should win most of them at all. The other teams come in ranked for a reason. This year was supposed to be a bit of a step back anyway, with a defense that had to replace nine starters and an offense replacing Jake Browning and Myles Gaskin. But for two quarters, that defense held Oregon’s rushing attack to 46 yards on the ground. For three, the offense looked as good as it had been in the second half against Arizona last week, putting up points in five of its first eight drives. Once again, though, enough things just couldn’t go right. Multiple players said the Ducks were doing the same things in the second half as they were the first. See KIRSHENBAUM, Pg. 7


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Weekly Issue 5 by The Daily UW - Issuu