Getting past No. 12 Oregon’s mammoth offensive line and figuring out the Ducks’ defense has proven to be quite a challenge for teams this season but No. 25 Washington is giving their Pacific Northwest rivals everything they can handle to take a 21-14 lead heading into halftime on Saturday afternoon in Seattle.
The Huskies picked up where they left off in the second half against Arizona last week by discovering their downfield passing game. QB Jacob Eason was 15-of-19 for 168 yards and two touchdowns, including a beautiful play-action toss to Jordan Chin for a 48 yard scoring strike.
Salvon Ahmed also got into the action with an impressive 77 yards and one trip to the end zone on the ground against a defensive unit that had given up just four touchdowns all season long coming into this one. It didn’t help that starting LB Troy Dye and starting CB Deommodore Lenoir were both injured for UO, losses that seemed apparent as the half wore on and UW took advantage by going right at their two replacements.
It’s not like Oregon was lackluster on offense though and they did their best to keep up with the much higher-scoring pace than most expected. Justin Herbert threw for 161 yards himself with two touchdown passes, picking up a run game that was pretty limited as C.J. Verdell mustered only 48 yards in the first half.
This game has a good chance at deciding the Pac-12 North when all is said and done at the end of the year and so far the battle between ranked teams up in the corner of the country is living up to the hype.
