Washington’s Myles Gaskin rushes for 72-yard touchdown vs Oregon

Bellevue Wolverines 2014 graduate Budda Baker is thriving in the world of collegiate football with the University of Washington Huskies football program.

This year, however, the results have been drastically different. And to win, the Beavers must play better in all phases of the game than they did against Washington State. Following a missed two-point conversion the Ducks would still take the lead 6-0.

The Huskies and Ducks renew their heated rivalry on Saturday.

The Huskies won’t have linebacker Azeem Victor for the first half of the game against Oregon. The Oregon defense would flex their muscles as back-to-back sacks by Alex Balducci and DeForest Buckner would push the Huskies to the 28-yard line forcing them settle for a field goal. Still, it was frustrating to see the Huskies get heat on Adams only to lose contain and let him slip away, and they were gashed enough on the ground to allow Oregon to sustain five scoring drives. “We have two days off and two on, so we will recover and then prepare so we are ready to go against a good Arizona State team”. Two games where the Oregon Offense made something so simple look extremely hard. Two plays later Adams hit Carrington for a 9-yard touchdown to extend the lead to 23-6. But momentum was largely neutralized by an 86-yard return from UO’s Bralon Addison, which sucked the energy out of Husky Stadium’s near-sellout of 69,285.

Already, questions abound about Washington’s offense. That’s the longest losing streak in a series that dates back to 1900. Starting with first and goal at the 3, it looked like the game was all but over.

It will help of Oregon gets Adams back. Washington would only have two, but one of those came against Cal, who would have a tiebreaker over the Huskies. Washington is 3-2 for the year and is coming off an upset victory over nationally ranked USC. Instead of letting the clock run and keeping it on the turf, Coach Helfrich left it in the hands of Adams who threw an incomplete pass.

Keep Oregon’s win in perspective; the Huskies might have the least talented offensive personnel, along with their true freshman QB, in the Pac-12 – right there with Colorado, another UO victim. Carta-Samuels, a redshirt freshman, took over in relief, and threw a game-clinching interception with 24 seconds to play.

Through those three games, the Ducks averaged 25 pass attempts per game. Looking deep down the right side of the field, Carta-Samuels lobbed it out there, only to have the route jumped and into the waiting hands of Oregon cornerback Ugo Amadi.

The return of Carrington and Adams. On Saturday, they clobbered Montana State before more than 8,000 fans. Josh Perkins remains the most consistent target in the passing game as he caught another 4 passes for 40 yards, but he also whiffed a block on a bubble-screen as Isaiah Renfro was dropped for no gain. “Intensity is higher in practice this week and anytime you play Washington, you know it’s going to be an intense game”. At the same time, the Oregon secondary showed signs of growing up. I get that the Huskies have a terrific defense and Petersen was hoping to play field position, but that was a lost opportunity for a big emotional boost had they converted and especially if they’d gone on to score.

Second-year head coach Kelly Graves had to give the Ducks a serious makeover when he took over for Paul Westhead, the coach famous for his run-and-gun offense.

The Huskies were without Washington after he injured his knee during warmups, and whether or not he gets healthy in time for the Stanford game or any others, his role with the team is certainly in question after the Oregon game.