UW offense struggles in loss to Stanford

SEATTLE – For Washington’s offense, the struggle is real. And really alarming.

There is no denying that now, not after the Huskies scrambled, ducked, scrambled some more and eventually fell in a 20-13 loss against the No. 16 Stanford Cardinal on Saturday before 66,512 at Husky Stadium.

The Huskies, inconsistent while going 4-0 in nonconference play, showed up for their first real test of the season against the defending Pac-12 champions who appear to have four NFL draft picks on defense.

Offensively, though – hold on a second, did Cyler Miles just get forced from the pocket again?

The third-year sophomore quarterback had the worst day of his young career, completing 15-of-29 passes for 98 yards. Stanford’s defensive line seemed to be in the backfield on every play.

Miles was sacked four times. He was hurried, he was impatient, he was knocked around, and he more or less symbolized a Huskies offense that did so little right, coach Chris Petersen called for a fake punt on 4th-and-9 from UW’s 47-yard line, the score tied at 13, with 7:37 left in the game.

It failed.

That call, he said, is “on me. That was too much. Just trying to make some things happen.”

Asking linebacker Shaq Thompson to pick up nine yards on a fake-punt carry in the middle of the field was a little brash, to be sure. But it says plenty that Petersen thought it was worth trying. The Huskies’ offense was nearly comatose, gaining only 179 yards and averaging 2.6 yards per play against a Stanford defense that, to be fair, allowed just 13 points in its first three games.

“We’ve got to go back to the drawing board and try to get our quarterback some answers, for sure,” Petersen said. “That usually starts in the running game. We’ve got to be able to run the ball better, and then we’ve got to figure out what we need to do to move the ball downfield throwing it a little bit.”