If you overlook that Washington ran through Colorado's defense Saturday, scoring seven touchdowns and one field goal (with a safety to blame on the offense,) while becoming the latest team to put up 250-plus rushing yards on the Buffs, one could note that at least the defense held college football's leading passer to a season-low 229 yards.
Of course, if Michael Penix Jr. and the offense wanted to work through the air, they had full capacity to do so with the talents Jalen McMillan, Ja’Lynn Polk and Rome Odunze. The double-reverse flea-flicker to McMillan for 27 yards in the first quarter was Penix's only passing touchdown. However, the lack of action in the air was more the result of the Huskies' production on the ground in their 54-7 win in Seattle.
Minimizing Penix Jr. was a priority for interim head coach Mike Sanford and the Buffs (1-10, 1-7) and to some small extent they made that happen. Penix hadn't thrown for less than 298 yards all season -- the only other time he was held under 300.
“It was just really tough from the start,” Sanford said. “A game plan that I wanted for us coming in was to try to keep No. 9 [Penix] off the field as much as humanly possible and wanted to run the football and just play to where we're healthy as an offense and stop the run. Hopefully keep 9 on the sideline and obviously that's a style that you can play if you're marching the ball down the field, you're taking care of those scoring opportunities, and we just failed to do that.
"I think, just overall, we wanted to win this game in the trenches, and [I] still believe in the growth that we have in our fronts -- in particular, seeing some positives in the offensive line group that we've seen in the last couple of weeks, but hats off to Washington.”
With Penix and the late action of sophomore backup quarterback Dylan Morris, the now-No. 12-ranked Huskies (9-2, 6-2) with 295 yards passing and a season-high 280 rushing yards (their previous high against an FBS opponent was 169 vs. Stanford). The increased defensive pressure on the quarterback caused the Huskies to pivot to the run, and RB Wayne Taulapapa capitalized with his second 100-yard game this season, carrying it 11 times for 107 yards (9.7 yards per carry) and 2 touchdowns.
Colorado’s front prevented Taulapapa from getting his third score from the Buffs' 1-yard line in the beginning of the third. Other than the stop, however, the Huskies easily shimmied through the Buffs’ front.
Colorado had its own ambitions to put up numbers in the run game with Alex Fontenot. Washington’s front didn’t allow Fontenot much room to run, allowing a 26-yard run in the first and a 19-yard run in the third. A handful of shorter gains added up to his 71 yards on 11 carries.
“That was the intent of coming out of the game and wanting to run the football to establish the run, but they were good up front and they moved their front a lot,” Sanford said. “They were very active and ultimately that led to us not capitalizing on the opportunities that we needed.”
Credit to Washington’s defense because Saturday night was one of the Buffs’ worst offensive performances since the coaching change, finishing with just 202 yards of total offense. A 69-yard touchdown pass from J.T. Shrout to Montana Lemonious-Craig was one of their few redeeming moments.
Before the big play in the third quarter, Huskies defenders rushed Shrout and tweaked his leg. The medical staff told Sanford and Shrout that his leg was “locked up,” but Shrout wanted to continue the game.
“I think the frustrations boiled over in the end of the second quarter and then in that second half. Even J.T., he was pretty banged up,” Sanford said. “Nothing like structurally wrong with them, but essentially, the advice from the trainers was, ‘Hey, man’s leg is locked up and stiff. You can't essentially extend his leg.’ I was immediately going to get a move on and J.T. came up to me and before he threw that touchdown to Montana, he had a look in his eyes like, ‘I'm gonna continue to fight.’”
Collectively, Colorado (1-10) continues to fight through a tough season that keeps bringing more rough Saturdays.
“There are a lot of guys that, not just J.T., there's a lot of players on the team that are fighting through adversity,” Sanford said. “The life lessons that we're going to be able to attain from this, myself, our staff or players to come out on the other end of this thing knowing that you truly stayed in the fight as hard as bad as it was, that's going to set you up for whatever situation comes your way for the rest of your life.”
