Mariner Talk Chat Forum

SEATTLE — When it was over, John Donovan tucked his playsheet into the back of his pants, grimaced and jogged toward the tunnel, away from the misery he oversaw in the hours prior. Trent McDuffie and Bookie Radley-Hiles stood in place and stared across the field at the players who punked the Washington Huskies on Saturday night, their celebration lighting up Husky Stadium’s southeast corner.

Maybe they wanted to remember the feeling. Maybe they just couldn’t believe it.

Could you?

Ranked No. 20 nationally, loaded with blue-chip talent, geeked about playing in front of their fans for the first time since 2019, the Huskies turned a paycheck game into the most embarrassing, inexcusable defeat in program history.

They lost to Montana.

They scored seven points.

They play at Michigan next week.

They are in monumental trouble, their season effectively wrecked on the day it began.

“We’ve definitely got to be way better than that, that’s for sure,” said second-year head coach Jimmy Lake, whose first full season now will develop beneath maximum scrutiny after losing 13-7 at home to an FCS opponent, the first such defeat in program history. “Those guys know that. We didn’t run the ball well enough. We didn’t throw the ball well enough. We didn’t protect well enough. We had some opportunities with short fields … and to come away with no points is unacceptable.”

The whole thing is unacceptable, particularly for a coach who stated so emphatically last month that he expects the Huskies to contend for a Pac-12 championship and play in a major bowl game every season.

Both of those goals are still achievable, mind you. They just no longer seem feasible.

It should be noted that UW played this game without its three best receivers — Terrell Bynum, Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan — due to apparent injuries and even lost freshman Ja’Lynn Polk to injury after his first catch in a UW uniform. With those four players sidelined, the Huskies played three scholarship wideouts — Giles Jackson, Taj Davis and Sawyer Racanelli — who had never caught a pass at UW. Davis had never caught a pass, period. Racanelli still hasn’t.

“We’re not going to make any excuses,” Lake said. “Montana played better than we did. We’ve got to make sure if there’s any deficiency in any area of our team, that we’re ready to cover up for that, and we didn’t do a good job tonight of doing that.”

But he did concede the Huskies deployed a pared-down playbook.

“There was a little bit pared-down to it, with the bodies we had available,” Lake said. “But we still had our playbook there, just different bodies in different spots. You probably saw more tight ends on the field. But again, that’s no excuse. We have to make sure we have plays in there to move the ball and score points, and we didn’t get that done.”

Without any playmakers on the outside, quarterback Dylan Morris rarely looked downfield with his throws — he completed only two passes longer than 15 yards, both to tight end Cade Otton, one on the final possession — and didn’t respond particularly well to Montana’s various pressures. He was sacked three times and threw three interceptions, including the clincher to linebacker Marcus Welnel on second-and-10 from Montana’s 43-yard-line inside the final 40 seconds.

Morris finished 27-for-46 for 226 yards — a paltry 4.9 yards per attempt — and never looked like the poised, comfortable passer who led last season’s memorable comeback against Utah. Lake said he never considered changing quarterbacks. With Patrick O’Brien apparently still recovering from an injury — he dressed but did little during pregame warmups — five-star 2021 signee Sam Huard is UW’s lone remaining healthy scholarship quarterback. But it sounds as if Morris will get the chance to redeem himself.

“That had never crossed my mind,” Lake said.

That’s fair enough, and a certain analytical laziness would be required to lay this disaster solely at Morris’ feet. The Huskies’ much-heralded offensive line achieved virtually nothing, failing to knock their FCS opponents off the ball, opening few creases for backs Richard Newton and Cam Davis. UW’s tailbacks managed only 70 yards on 21 carries.

That’s a particularly galling statistic considering how easily the Huskies scored on their only touchdown drive, which came on the first possession of the game. Newton carried the ball five times for 36 yards on that drive, which Morris capped with a 1-yard sneak. Nine plays, 78 yards, six points. It seemed like a harbinger.

Instead, it was an aberration. The Huskies didn’t score again, averaging only 3.3 yards per play the rest of the game. UW’s defense held Montana to two first downs in the first half and only 10 for the game, twice gifting its offense with the ball on the Grizzlies’ side of the field. Those possessions, both in the first half, netted UW no points.

On six possessions in the second half, the Huskies punted three times, threw two interceptions and turned the ball over on downs.

“It’s extremely disappointing that we weren’t able to put points on the board for such a long period of time,” Lake said. “The longer that happens, the longer you let your opponent hang in there, they’re going to gain confidence in your house, and all of a sudden, they start believing they can get this thing done. We allowed that to happen.”

No loss to an FCS opponent ever is acceptable — even a national top-10 outfit like Montana — but Lake has exuded a degree of confidence since his promotion to head coach that allows for perhaps less leeway than a fan base might typically afford a new boss. He hired an offensive coordinator with no name recognition, signed a recruiting class ranked far below those of his predecessor and all but guaranteed a tougher, more talented wide receiver corps. He placed several bets on his own football acumen, on development and strategy over flash or notoriety, essentially asking you to trust him.

Do you?

One game doesn’t make a coach, no matter how thrilling the victory or devastating the defeat. But when you lose to Montana, it’s fair to question everything.

Michigan lost perhaps its best player, receiver Ronnie Bell, to injury on Saturday. It also waxed Western Michigan 47-14, and the Wolverines will be licking their chops when they turn on the film of what happened here on Saturday.

The Huskies, meanwhile, are licking unfamiliar wounds, vowing resiliency mere hours into a season suddenly thrust into disarray, their name a punchline across the country and party fuel in Missoula, MT.

“That’s our only choice, right?” said linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio, the only UW player to speak with the media afterward, referring to his team needing to move on quickly. “You’re not just going to say, ‘Oh, lost to Montana, season’s over,’ right?”

Right?

Without any playmakers on the outside, quarterback Dylan Morris rarely looked downfield with his throws — he completed only two passes longer than 15 yards, both to tight end Cade Otton, one on the final possession — and didn’t respond particularly well to Montana’s various pressures. He was sacked three times and threw three interceptions, including the clincher to linebacker Marcus Welnel on second-and-10 from Montana’s 43-yard-line inside the final 40 seconds.

“That had never crossed my mind,” Lake said.

That’s fair enough, and a certain analytical laziness would be required to lay this disaster solely at Morris’ feet. The Huskies’ much-heralded offensive line achieved virtually nothing, failing to knock their FCS opponents off the ball, opening few creases for backs Richard Newton and Cam Davis. UW’s tailbacks managed only 70 yards on 21 carries.

That’s a particularly galling statistic considering how easily the Huskies scored on their only touchdown drive, which came on the first possession of the game. Newton carried the ball five times for 36 yards on that drive, which Morris capped with a 1-yard sneak. Nine plays, 78 yards, six points. It seemed like a harbinger.

Instead, it was an aberration. The Huskies didn’t score again, averaging only 3.3 yards per play the rest of the game. UW’s defense held Montana to two first downs in the first half and only 10 for the game, twice gifting its offense with the ball on the Grizzlies’ side of the field. Those possessions, both in the first half, netted UW no points.