DANNY ONEIL

O’Neil: No. 12 Huskies’ offensive issues have been there all season, not just in loss to ASU

Oct 18, 2017, 2:14 PM

Jonathan Smith's Huskies offense has similar issues to what UW dealt with before last season. (AP)...

Jonathan Smith's Huskies offense has similar issues to what UW dealt with before last season. (AP)

(AP)

Washington missed two field-goal attempts from inside of 30 yards, had a touchdown nullified by a penalty and saw its defeat sealed by a fourth-down pass that whizzed past the helmet of a Husky defensive back and into the hands of an Arizona State player who was absolutely not the intended target.

It would be a mistake to score that six-point loss in the desert as an aberration, though.

There’s a problem with this Washington offense. One that transcends the personnel on this team and the performance in this game and goes all the way to offensive coordinator Jonathan Smith.

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The offense kind of stinks, and if we’re being honest it was that way for most of Chris Petersen’s first two seasons. Back then, we chalked it up to being undermanned at quarterback, and when Jake Browning took the great leap forward last season and finished sixth in the Heisman voting, the Huskies finally had an offense that could measure up to its defense.

Except we may have overlooked one thing, which was consultant Jeff Tedford whispering in Smith’s ear. And now that Tedford is at Fresno State, the Huskies offense is back grinding its gears for whole quarters, entire halves and on Saturday pretty much the full game without ever getting any traction.

Through the first half of this season, the warts on offense were masked by an utterly toothless schedule. The signs were there, though. The meager seven points the Huskies scored in the first half at Oregon State. The 10 points they had at halftime in Boulder against the Buffaloes.

Washington was talented enough to lean on the opponent until it gave way in the second half, resulting in blowouts that masked any whiff of offensive difficulty.

And then came Saturday night in Arizona State when a Sun Devils defense that had allowed more than 30 points in 11 successive games didn’t just shut out Washington in the first half, but entirely neutered the Huskies’ attack.

Do the Huskies miss John Ross? Certainly, but this is about more than the absence of one receiver.

Has Browning taken a step backward from last season when he finished sixth in Heisman voting? He could be more decisive in throwing the ball, but it’s hard to believe that he’s become a worse player after coming back from his shoulder injury.

I don’t think the differences in this year’s offense are as telling as the similarities. This offense looks an awful lot like it did in 2014 and again in 2015 when it ended up weighing down a darn good defense.

In 2014 that was chalked up to the quarterback in Cyler Miles, who really wasn’t able to throw the ball like you need to in this offense. In 2015, Browning was a true freshman starting in the Pac-12 and better than anyone could have hoped.

So what’s the issue now? This quarterback was good enough a year ago, and while the Huskies certainly miss Chico McClatcher, they still have Dante Pettis, who won’t last past the third round in the NFL draft, a future first-round pick in Hunter Bryant at tight end, and a talent in Salvon Ahmed who looks like the fastest guy on the field whenever he gets the ball.

Or maybe it’s not the players who are running the plays that are as important as the guy who is calling them. So far this season, the Huskies appear to have taken a major step backward in that regard.

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