[Editors note: SeahawksNerd sent this email at 4:04pm: "Holy shit...what a win for the Huskies!!!" And then at 5:19pm: "Check out your email."
So, here's SeahawksNerd's report on today's big win. Again, this is not Josh. This is SeahawksNerd, who will have his own byline soon enough.]
SeahawksNerd enjoys today’s Dawgs game.
Dawgs fans in Seattle will be partying into the night after a huge, huge victory over Pac-10 powerhouse USC. Nick Folk’s 22-yard field goal with :03 to play capped a 10 play, 63-yard drive and propelled the Huskies to a 16-13 win.
The win was huge for the Husky program and new coach Steve Sarkisian, who was facing his former USC squad for the first time as a head coach. Just one week after the Huskies avoided what would have been a history-making 16th consecutive loss, purple-clad students flooded the field to celebrate their team’s toppling of the nation’s #3 Trojans—an unexpected triumph over what is unquestionably the most dominant college football program in the West.
Stud UW quarterback Jake Locker was huge, repeatedly making clutch plays down the stretch. In the final drive, Locker’s magic included: a 20 yard laser on 3rd and 15 complete to Jermaine Kearse near midfield; a gutty tuck-and-run on 3rd and 2 that picked up the 1st and kept the drive alive; and a brilliant 19-yard pass to Kearse at the USC 16 with 33 seconds to play to set up the winning field goal. Huge.
After two opening USC drives that saw the Trojans move the ball down the field at will, it looked like the makings of a long day at Husky Stadium. USC’s totalled 148 yards on their first two possessions, jumping out to a quick 10-0 lead. The Huskies looked generally sloppy out of the gate, using all three of their timeouts by the 10 minute mark of the 2nd quarter.
But as the day wore on, Washington’s defense stepped up with huge stops and forced turnovers at critical moments as USC was seemingly moving the ball down the field to score. Besides the 3 turnovers, USC also hurt themselves with penalties at inopportune moments, including a roughing-the-passer call late in the first half on what appeared to be Jake Locker’s attempt to ground the football. That kept the drive alive, and allowed UW to kick the tying field goal to go into the locker room tied 10-10 at half—an excellent turnaround after a very inauspicious start.
Donald Butler was particularly impressive on the defensive side of the ball, picking off USC rookie QB Aaron Corp in the 3rd quarter as the Trojans were driving to take the lead, and making two key stops on critical 3rd down plays that forced punts. The Trojans were an abysmal 0-for-10 on 3rd downs, as UW repeatedly forced Corp to throw under pressure. With few memorable exceptions, Corp basically never seemed comfortable in his first career start the entire day.
The win catapults the Huskies to 2-1 on the season, as Sarkisian continues to rebuild a program that was a winless 0-14 last season. The winded, gleeful coach seemed almost awestruck after the game. “Our kids played very hard. I don’t know if we played very good, but we played hard,” Sarkisian said. “It’s unbelievable. It’s what we were hoping for. We’re trying hard.”
The Huskies travel to the Bay Area to take on Stanford a week from today, but for now, Husky fans everywhere are enjoying one of the biggest wins in the program’s history.
