The 9th ranked University of Washington Huskies (4-0, 1-0 ) lived to fight another day with their 35 to 28 Overtime win over Arizona (2-2, 0-1) Saturday night in Tempe.
The Huskies defense came to the aide of the offense with a defiance stand in overtime to over come the teams bumbling and stumbling ways during regulation play. The Huskies missed two field goals, were flagged eight times for 63 yards and had one pass interceptions.
Coming into the game the Huskies were the least penalized team in the Pac 12, had the top scoring defense in the country and had an offense that had scored 40 points in six straight games.
Husky running back Lavon Coleman ran for a career high 181 yards and quarterback Jake Brown did just enough to lead the Huskies to the win. Browning hit Dante Pettis on a 4yard touchdown in overtime to for the game winning score. Browning was 14-21 for 160 yards passed for two touchdowns and ran for another. Browning miscued on a couple of passes that had receivers open and the inability to execute on those plays kept Arizona in game.
What Washington ran into was a resilient Arizona team that has had a knack of beating a Top 25 team. Arizona has defeated a ranked team every year under head Coach Rich Rodriguez.
Arizona quarterback Brandon Dawkins scored three rushing touchdowns, ran for 176 yards and passed for 167 and nearly tied the game in overtime but his desperation pass to Tyrell Johnson on fourth down was batted down by Husky defender Jordan Miller in the endzone for the Husky win.
THE TAKE WAY
Washington’s prime directive was to win the game, UW coach Chris Petersen said the game would be close and come down to the 4th quarter. At first glance this sounded like coach speak, but in looking back it makes sense. Washington’s first three games were against none conference foes and at home. Washington needed to overcome some adversity against a respected opponent to build some confidence. Mission accomplished. Up next will be a Friday night (6 p.m.PT )clash with 7th ranked Stanford at Husky.