It's hard to say exactly how good Washington is after wins over Hawaii and Eastern Washington by eight combined points, but it's easy to rank Chris Petersen's Huskies as one of the most entertaining squads in college football. (That is, alas, if they played on a channel anyone could watch.)
Cyler Miles returned to the starting lineup for the Huskies, and immediately went bonkers. He completed 14-of-24 passes for 180 yards and a touchdown, and added 12 carries for 58 yards and three touchdowns. He led a Husky ground game that churned up 356 yards and seven touchdowns on 57 rushes.
Good as Miles was, though, he wasn't even close to the best player on the field. That was Eastern Washington quarterback Vernon Adams, who assaulted the home crowd with 475 passing yards - on 10.6 yards per attempt - and seven touchdowns. Receivers Cooper Kupp and Kendrick Bourne were his main targets, combining for 16 grabs with 259 yards and four touchdowns. Greedy as those guys were, Adams still had 216 yards and three touchdowns - a solid game's worth of offense - seven other Eastern Washington receivers.
This game was 24-14 after one, 37-31 at the half, 45-44 through three before a light 22-point fourth quarter created a 59-52 final. These clubs combined for 1,106 yards of total offense and 61 first downs. You know, kid stuff.
Check out the drive chart below, although defensive coordinators may want to avert their eyes.. Washington touched the ball 11 times before running out the game's final 197 seconds, and scored on nine of those possessions. And after sputtering out the gate with a fumble and a three-and-out, Eastern Washington scored on all but one of its non-end of half drives. This was football ping pong.
Finally, we get to the worst box score of the week. Before we discuss Saturday, let's add some context by dipping back to the first day of the week:
And then, six days later. Keep in mind that SMU is the red team.
In one calendar week, SMU got outscore 88-6. It has run two plays inside its opponent's 30 yard line. After an 11-yard completion and 15-yard penalty set the Ponies up with a first-and-10 at the North Texas 17 in the waning seconds on Saturday, Cassel was immediately sacked for a loss of 11 yards. Cassel threw incomplete on second down, and then recorded a delay of game penalty. Casel hit Nate Halverson with a 33-yard scoring strike as the buzzer sounded. Because that brief trip into scoring territory represents SMU's only significant penetration this season, the SMU kicking team has yet to see the field this season; the extra point was not necessary on Saturday, and SMU has still not even attempted a field goal.
The Mustangs currently rank 127th nationally - out of 127 - in scoring offense, rushing offense, yards per carry (minus-0.41 per attempt), and ranks second to last in third down conversions. SMU's 4.2 yards per pass attempt places them 122nd nationally. You get the point.
Luckily, SMU gets Saturday off to regroup. And then it hosts Texas A&M on Sept. 20.