UW Huskies ‘defend every blade of grass’ in defensive masterpiece

Sep 21, 2024, 10:53 PM | Updated: Sep 22, 2024, 12:44 am

UW Huskies defense Northwestern Jack Lausch 2024...

UW Huskies defenders converge on Northwestern QB Jack Lausch on Saturday. (Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

(Alika Jenner/Getty Images)

BY CAMERON VAN TIL

Seattle Sports

SEATTLE – The UW Huskies are sure making their opponents earn every yard.

Especially around the end zone.

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The Huskies made two big goal-line stops during their 24-5 win over Northwestern on Saturday evening, highlighting a dominant defensive performance in which they allowed just 112 total yards and a mere 2.1 yards per play.

It marked the third time in their first four games that the Dawgs have held an opponent without a touchdown. UW held Weber State to three points in its season opener and Eastern Michigan to nine points in Week 2. The Huskies also had a key goal-line stand early in the Eastern Michigan win.

First-year UW head coach Jedd Fisch credited defensive coordinator Steve Belichick for the unit’s goal-line success.

“It all starts with Steve,” Fisch said. “I remember telling you guys after the Eastern Michigan game, it was 4th-and-1 (from our own 30) and I went for it, and I said to Steve, ‘Are you good with this?’ And he said, ‘We got to stop them no matter where they are.’

“And the defense, they’ve taken that personality on. … It starts with the mentality of, ‘We’re going to defend every blade of grass.'”

Northwestern twice had a first-and-goal inside the 5-yard line on Saturday, including six snaps from the 1-yard line. The Wildcats ended up scoring just three points combined on those two possessions.

The first instance came in the third quarter after UW turned the ball over at its own 33 and Northwestern drove downfield for a first-and-goal from the 4-yard line. After a 2-yard shovel pass on first down, Northwestern’s Jack Lausch took a quarterback keeper around the right edge. Lausch looked like he was going to score, but linebacker Alphonzo Tuputala and cornerback Ephesians Prysock converged to tackle him just shy of the pylon. Then on the ensuing play, the Huskies stuffed a third-down run up the middle from the 1-yard line.

Facing fourth-and-goal from the 1-yard line, Northwestern made a curious decision to settle for a field goal – despite trailing 17-2 at the time.

“We’re dogs,” UW edge rusher Isaiah Ward said of the defense’s goal-line mentality. “We like to hit. We like to get physical. That’s it.”

Later in the third quarter, Northwestern’s Joseph Himon II returned a kickoff to the 2-yard line. Cornerback Elijah Jackson saved a touchdown on the play, racing to bring down Himon with a diving tackle at the goal line.

That ended up being massive because of what happened next.

After a defensive holding call on the ensuing play, Northwestern had first-and-goal at the 1-yard line. On first down, the Huskies pressured Lausch into an incompletion. On second down, they stuffed a run up the middle. And on third and fourth down, Prysock and linebacker Bryun Parham came up with back-to-back pass breakups to complete the goal-line stand.

It was all made possible by Jackson’s hustle.

“Seeing him run like that just made me want to keep going harder,” Ward said. “Guys like that giving effort still, it’s just unbelievable by EJ.”

Jackson started all 15 games last season and made the game-saving pass breakup on the final play of the Huskies’ Sugar Bowl win over Texas that sent them to the national championship game. This year, after he was beat out for a starting role by Thaddeus Dixon in fall camp, Jackson is coming off the bench.

But as he showed Saturday, Jackson hasn’t let that impact his effort.

“We asked all week to strain,” Fisch said. “We said, ‘How hard can we practice this week to see if our energy and our effort can show up on game day?’ To see that strain from him, to knock him out of bounds on the 3 and then have a goal-line stand, was just was pretty special.”

BRUENER SNAGS INTERCEPTION IN RETURN FROM INJURY

After exiting with an injury in the fourth quarter of last week’s Apple Cup, UW senior linebacker Carson Bruener returned to action on Saturday and came up with an interception late in the first half.

As Lausch’s intended receiver fell down, Bruener stepped in front, made a leaping grab and returned the interception 24 yards to near midfield.

Bruener, a Redmond High School alum, was the third-leading tackler on last year’s national runner-up team. He tied for the team lead with six tackles on Saturday.

“He’s our leader,” Ward said. “To see him bounce back from that injury and play his butt off and play really good, man, just looking at that, I want to be like that guy.”