A loss of historic proportions

It wasn’t just that they were inept in all three phases of the game, it was that Washington was historically inept, especially on the offensive side of the ball. The Huskies were so bad that most of the announced crowd of 70,437 left by the end of the third quarter as the Dawgs fell to Notre Dame at home, 33-7.

It didn’t take long for the both the Huskies and the Fighting Irish to show that both programs are headed in vastly different directions.

After Washington went three-and-out on the opening series of the game, Notre Dame scored on their third offensive play, a short pass from QB Jimmy Clausen to WR Michael Floyd that the freshman wideout took 51 yards to the house to put the Irish up 7-0 a mere three minutes into the game.

Washington struggled to muster any sort of an offense for much of the game as QB Ronnie Fouch was pressured most of the night and running backs Terrance Dailey and David Freeman were unable to find much of anything up front to get going on the ground.

Even when Washington made something good happen, bad things ensued.

With Notre Dame poised to score again, S Nate Williams intercepted a Clausen pass seemingly killing the drive, but CB Vonzell McDowell was called for pass interference nullifying the play and Irish WR Golden Tate took an end-around 21 yards putting the visitors up 14-0 less than halfway through the first quarter.

Then, in another “Bad News Bears” moment for the Dawgs, in the second quarter, Clausen and company faced 4th-and-19 from the Washington 32. The sophomore quarterback threw into triple coverage where Williams intercepted the tipped pass, but he was knocked down by teammate Mesphin Forrester at Washington’s one, costing the Huskies 31 yards in field position.

After the Irish added a Brandon Walker 28-yard field goal to extend their lead to 17-0, Husky head coach Tyrone Willingham was summarily booed as the teams walked off the field when he opted not to take a timeout with 41 seconds remaining, allowing the Irish to run out the clock when they were facing 4th-and-17 from their own 39.

Things didn’t change in the second-half, evidenced by Notre Dame’s impressive five play 55-yard drive that ended when RB James Aldridge took a handoff and went over right tackle Sam Young to give the Irish an insurmountable 24-0 lead early in the third quarter.

Notre Dame added another field goal by Walker, this one from 42 yards out, and a three-yard plunge from Aldridge to end the Irish scoring and Washington notched a six-yard touchdown pass from Fouch to WR D’Andre Goodwin to end the scoring.

Aside from their final drive of the game, Washington was unable to do anything offensively, totaling just 55 yards with less than eight minutes left in the game. Until five minutes remained, they hadn’t even gotten the ball past their own 44 yard line.

Their final overall total of 124 yards is their worst production offensively since 1981 against USC.

With the loss Washington falls to 0-7 on the season as well as 0-7 vs. the Irish. Next week they head to Los Angeles to face the USC Trojans at the Coliseum.