No. 11 Washington rumbles past UCLA
SEATTLE - With two weeks to stew about suffering an unexpected first loss of the season, No. 12 Washington released its pent up frustration by running all over UCLA.
Literally.
Led by the duo of Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman, the Huskies rolled through UCLA 44-23 on Saturday and overpowering the worst run defense in the country. Gaskin finished with 169 yards rushing and one touchdown, while Coleman added 94 yards and three TDs.
Washington (7-1, 4-1 Pac-12) finished with 333 yards rushing as a team and averaged 5.7 yards per carry. And they made it look easy.
“We had a plan to run the ball and stick with it … and at the end of the day it kind of works out how you like it,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said.
It was a long two weeks since the Huskies were stunned in a 13-7 loss at Arizona State that put Washington on the fringes of the College Football Playoff conversation. The Huskies know they need to be impressive going forward.
So they returned to a bit of the basics. Quarterback Jake Browning was a nonfactor because he didn’t need to be. His job was to make the read, take the snap and handoff to Gaskin or Coleman. Gaskin finally found the end zone late in the third quarter on a 6-yard run. Coleman scored on runs of 1, 33 and 13 yards.
Receiver Charles Nelson got tripped up on a reverse but regained his footing to make a 22-yard touchdown pass to Jacob Breeland and Oregon went on to snap a threegame losing streak.
Nelson was congratulated on the sideline by injured Oregon quarterback Justin Herbert following the play which put the Ducks (5-4, 2-4 Pac-12) ahead 27-13 late in the third quarter.
Utah (4-4, 1-4) couldn’t catch up for a fourth straight loss. Tyler Huntley, making his second start after returning from an injury, threw for 293 yards and a touchdown. Former Oregon receiver Darren Carrington caught nine passes for 130 yards.
Oregon’s Tony Brooks James ran for 105 yards, including a 23-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter.
Oregon’s three-game slide coincided with the loss of Herbert, who fractured his collarbone against California on Sept. 30.
Steven Montez bounced back from a benching a week earlier and threw for 347 yards and three touchdowns for Colorado when the school retired the jersey of the late Rashaan Salaam, the school’s only Heisman Trophy winner.
The Buffaloes (5-4, 2-4 Pac-12) capped their homecoming win with a 100-yard interception return for a touchdown by junior free safety Nick Fisher with 2:34 remaining that made it 44-21.
Fisher caught Ross Bowers’ pass nine yards deep in the north end zone for his first career interception and sidestepped a couple of Golden Bears near the goal line and avoided another tackler at about the Bears 30-yard line before cruising down the dejected California sideline for the school’s fourth 100-yard pick-6.
Montez, who completed 20 of 26 passes, also ran for a score and Phillip Lindsay ran for 161 yards as the Buffaloes kept alive their hopes of reaching back-to-back bowls for the first time in more than a decade.
— Wire services