Washington Football: What you need to know for Utah 9/15/18

Washington Football starts its PAC-12 season in Salt Lake City as they square off against Utah. Emerald City Swagger has all you need to know.

It’s a Washington football Saturday. Emerald City Swagger presents, what you need to know in order to enjoy the Washington Huskies first PAC-12 game at Utah today. Whether you are going to see the game in person, or staying at home and watching on television we have you covered.

Who: Washington Huskies at Utah Utes

Where: Rice-Eccles Stadium – Salt Lake City, UT

When: 7 p.m. PDT

TV: ESPN

Line: Wahington Huskies -6.5, Over/Under 47.5 (Bovada)

Injuries: UW – LT Trey Adams (out for the season), C Nick Harris (week to week), LB D.J. Beavers (week to week), TE Hunter Bryant

Last Week

Last Saturday the Utah Utes had a surprisingly difficult time with the University of Northern Illinois Huskies in Salt Lake City. Utah was ahead 10-6 before they scored the clinching touchdown with 2:36 left in the game. Final score Utah 17, UNI 6.

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Huskies pass rushers sacked Utah quarterback Tyler Huntley seven times. They also had an astounding 14 tackles for loss. UNI defensive ends Sutton Smith and Matt Lorbeck were particularly hard on the Utes offense combining for 12 tackles, including seven-and-a-half for loss, and four sacks.

Huntley had a good day passing. He completed 20 of 31 for 289 yards. His favorite target was Britain Corvey. The two hooked up eight times for 129 yards. The Utes only had 66 total yards on the ground. That’s very enlightening because running back Zack Moss had 66 yards on 16 carries.

The big story for Utah was once again their defense. Senior linebacker Chase Hanson had a big game with 12 tackles (2.5 for loss) and a pair of sacks. In total UNI was kept out of the end zone and gained 228 yards almost evenly divided between pass and run.

Washington opened their home season against the University of North Dakota Fighting Hawks last Saturday. It’s funny to say that a team struggled when they win a game 45-3. A better way to put it is that the Washington Huskies had more of a struggle than they expected early in the first half.

Huskies quarterback Jake Browning said he was disappointed with his two touchdown, two interception performance. Also disappointing was running back Myles Gaskin who only rushed for 53 yards total. It was obvious the UW offensive line struggled without Trey Adams and Nick Harris. The Huskies defense had nothing to be disappointed about. They yielded only three points and 262 yards. If they regret one thing it’s that they only sacked UNI quarterback Nate Ketteringham twice.

This Week

There is a payback aspect to this game as Washington snatched last minute victory from the jaws of defeat when these teams met last. The Huskies scored 10 points in the final minute to pull out a 33-30 win.

Every game is important for the Washington Huskies if they want one of the four NCAA Championship playoff spots. They know it and will head to Salt Lake City prepared to fight for every yard. If Browning wasn’t happy with the way he played last week, here is his chance for redemption. He’ll just have to do it against a very good defense.

Utah doesn’t have enough offense to beat the Huskies. They may have enough defense to win, but not enough of it to overcome their deficiencies on the other side of the ball. If Washington gets decent play out of their offensive line, they win by at least a touchdown.

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