Washington’s scoring drought leads to blowout road loss at Iowa

IOWA CITY, Ia. — The Huskies road trip to Kinnick Stadium went sideways for many reasons, and Coach Jedd Fisch must pick up the pieces as they head into a bye-week.

After all, Iowa delivered a 40-16 beatdown on Washington, which was its’ worst loss of the season thus far. Now the Huskies have lost three of their last five games overall, and are winless on the road in Big Ten play. Not to mention Fisch’s squad had to deal with the early kickoff in a different time zone, and the sold out crowd made the venue a house of nails for the players.

Washington (4-3) got off to a decent start though. Quarterback Will Rogers led the offense on two 14-play drives on the Huskies’ first two possessions, and each of those took over seven minutes off the clock. However, Fisch lost starting left tackle Soane Fasolo early in the contest, and had to rotate three different players at that position for the rest of the game.

After the Hawkeyes drew first blood towards the end of the first quarter, the Huskies responded with a touchdown of their own midway through the second. Wideout Denzel Boston caught a five-yard touchdown pass from Rogers to tie the game up at seven points.

Although Iowa blocked one of Washington’s field goal attempts, and scored 13 additional points, kicker Grady Gross was able to connect on a 35-yarder towards the end of the first half. It pulled the Huskies within 10 points at halftime, and Fisch thought the momentum had shifted to their side. He quickly found out that wasn’t the case though.

“Today was really a weird way the game went, but I still felt like we were in a position to make it 20-17 to start the second half,” Fisch said.

Everything crumbled for Fisch in the second half. Iowa used running back Kaleb Johnson as a battering ram, and he pulled off some explosive runs. On top of that, Rogers ruined great field position after he threw an interception from Iowa’s 23-yard line.

The offensive line struggled to protect Rogers, and surrendered four sacks, which frustrated Fisch. The Huskies went into a scoring drought, and the Hawkeyes capitalized. Iowa scored 20 unanswered points, and Washington didn’t get into the endzone until under three minutes left in the game, and Fisch thought that was inexcusable.

“I think it worn on us a little bit, I don’t think we played very good in the second half, certainly in the fourth quarter,” he said. “Although it was nice to finish at least with a touchdown.”

Once the smoke cleared, Washington led Iowa in total offense, plays, first downs and time of possession. Still, turnovers killed promising drives, too many special teams blunders, and the Huskies’ defense couldn’t stop the run. Life after the Pac-12 is starting off rough for Washington, and Fisch understands adjustments must be made.

“I think I know what our team is, but our team is a work in progress, and everything we’re trying to do is set ourselves up for our future and create our own identity,” the 48-year old said. “We’re seeing who we want to be, but it’s going to take some time.”

The offense couldn’t execute at clutch times, and the Huskies finished with a season-low, 17 points. The 393 yards of total offense was Washington’s second-lowest output of the year so far.

Rogers completed 22 of his 34 passes for 195 yards, a touchdown and an interception. Running back Jonah Coleman finished with team-high, 80 yards on the ground, but didn’t play much in the second half after Iowa’s scoring surge. Wide receiver Giles Jackson led the team with nine catches for 63 yards. Boston and Rashid Williams each hauled in a touchdown reception.

Washington’s defense didn’t fare much better. The Hawkeyes rushed for 220 yards, including 166 from Johnson, and the Huskies had no answer for him. Linebacker Carson Bruener finished with a team-high, eight tackles. Fellow linebacker Khmari House added six stops, and defensive lineman Isaiah Ward recorded Washington’s only sack of the contest.

Now Fisch is eager about correcting all of the mistakes, and will have two weeks to do so before resuming conference play. The road only gets tougher from this point, and Fisch wants leaders to emerge and for his staff to take accountability. At the end of the day, the Huskies still have five games left on the slate as they navigate through the Big Ten gauntlet, and Fish needs his players ready. It’s no mystery to Fisch that the physicality, speed and coaching in the league is on another level.

“It is a different conference, and the Big Ten is built a certain way.”