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SEATTLE — As Utah’s 7-point lead crumpled in the game’s final minutes, Washington was ready for its stunning comeback. The Huskies have spent hours in practice preparing for moments like Saturday night.
“I can’t tell you how often we practice those two-minute drills,” Washington head coach Chris Petersen told media. “We try to cut down practice a little bit and it’s a high-intensity drill. But we always feel that’s something we can’t cut.”
It turned out to be a good decision by the coaching staff as the drill was needed against Utah.
Washington running back Myles Gaskin evened the score at 30 with a two-yard touchdown with 58 seconds left in the game. Utah failed to move downfield on its next drive and was forced to punt, leaving the Huskies with one more chance with 29 seconds remaining. From Washington’s 28-yard line, quarterback Jake Browning connected with Dante Pettis and Andre Baccellia for huge 18 and 31-yard gains. Browning put the Huskies in position to try for a field goal, which Tristan Vizcaino, who struggled all night, made to seal the win.
Petersen said the pressure that his defense puts on the offense in practice helped emulate situations they encountered against Utah.
“They came through. I’m proud of Jake. He did some really good things and made some clutch plays. All of those guys executed well,” Petersen said. “There was a lot of pressure on them to get things done. They made plays when they had to.”
Browning acknowledged the Huskies spending significant practice time working on hurry-up offense, saying the team’s mood was to “keep attacking” and “keep battling,” which it did.
“We practice that a lot just going through clutch drives in practice,” Browning said. “No one was saying much, we just knew we had to respond.”
“We all knew what we had to do and looked each other in the eyes and went out and put our team in position to win,” Pettis added.
Besides its time spent practicing the situation, Washington had a questionable coaching decision by Utah to thank. Unfortunately for the Utes, the most memorable part of their game won’t be their perfectly executed onside kick, surprise fake punt deep inside their own territory or quarterback Tyler Huntley’s great game. Instead, everyone will remember head coach Kyle Whittingham calling timeout on second down after Gaskin was stopped on a two-yard run. Washington didn’t have any timeouts left and a chance at scoring wasn’t in its favor. The coaching decision ultimately gave the Huskies a breath at new life.
After the game, Whittingham said he was attempting to be aggressive with the call. He hoped it would force Washington to punt and give Utah a chance to kick a field goal for the win.
“We wanted to run the ball and see if we could pop through with Myles and maybe get a 10-yard run,” Petersen said. “I get what Kyle was trying to do. You have to play aggressive in these situations. Who knows if we were going to hit the next pass or not. But we did and hit a few good ones after that and it was good execution.”
Utah’s gutsy play-calling worked throughout Saturday night until the end. For Washington, it was prepared for the situation and all the hours spent practicing for moments like this paid off.
