Commentary: Washington’s familiar failure to finish looms large in loss at Rutgers

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – In his weekly news conference on Monday afternoon, Jedd Fisch unknowingly forecast the Huskies’ future flaws.

“We really know we’ve got to play our best football,” Fisch said four days prior to UW’s Big Ten road debut. “We’ve got to bring our brand of football that we’re trying to work through right now in our process, being disciplined and being physical. We need to finish a few more plays.”

UW was the more talented team on Friday night, as evidenced by an astronomical edge in total yards (521 to 299). The Huskies threw for 314 yards and two touchdowns and ran for 207 yards and 7.1 yards per carry, without committing a turnover, statistics that typically equate to easy wins.

But they were not more disciplined, and they were not physical enough when they needed to be.

Through five weeks, the Huskies’ brand of football is a failure to finish, a dramatic reversal for a team that went 8-0 in one-score games in 2023.

That failure loomed large in UW’s 21-18 loss at Rutgers on Friday night, as a furious rally abruptly ended when Grady Gross’ 55-yard field-goal attempt landed left as time expired. It was Gross’ third miss on the day, three consecutive hooks that hobbled the Huskies.

But Fisch’s team also failed to finish in most imaginable ways. The Huskies failed to finish plays. They failed to finish drives. They failed to finish halves. They failed to finish tackles.

Each of their first three drives were doused by untimely (and, sadly, unsurprising) penalties:

•A late hit by center D’Angalo Titialii that negated three first downs and yielded a failed fourth-down conversion, in which quarterback Will Rogers overshot wide receiver Denzel Boston from Rutgers’ 37-yard line

•A false start by tight end Keleki Latu on first down from the Rutgers’ 11, leading to a Gross field goal four plays later, and

•An illegal low block personal foul on running back Cameron Davis, erasing a third-down conversion by Giles Jackson and preceding a 42-yard field-goal attempt that Gross promptly hooked

And yet, the errors became increasingly more creative. Trailing 7-3 with 36 seconds left in the second quarter, UW edge Lance Holtzclaw busted up the middle to block Jai Patel’s 38-yard field goal. But before the ball was recovered, redshirt freshman safety Vincent Holmes ran on the field to celebrate, resulting in a 5-yard penalty … and a Rutgers first down.

Poetically, perhaps inevitably, the Scarlet Knights scored on the next play – when quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis lofted a floater that wide receiver Ian Strong climbed cornerback Elijah Jackson to corral for a 15-yard touchdown.

“I told the team in the locker room, ‘You can’t play two teams. You can’t play ourselves and our opponent,’ ” Fisch said Friday night.

Rogers – who was otherwise efficient, completing 26 for 36 passes for 306 yards and two touchdowns – failed to finish as well. On third-and-3 from the 4-yard line late in the first quarter, Rogers looped a rainbow into the corner of the end zone, but Giles Jackson broke off his route and failed to bring it in.

UW’s opening drive of the second half similarly died on the doorstep, as Rogers’ tipped pass missed a wide-open Jackson in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the 2.

“That falls on me. I take full responsibility for that,” Rogers said. “I need to find a way to not get that ball tipped on fourth down. Giles was open in the corner, so that’s all my fault.”

It wasn’t all Rogers’ fault.

It was his defense, after all, that failed to finish a few critical tackles.

Rutgers senior running back Kyle Monangai disposed of UW defensive backs Cameron Broussard, Ephesians Prysock and Kamren Fabiculanan during a 40-yard third-quarter rumble. The 5-foot-9, 209-pound Monangai bowled over linebacker Carson Bruener for a 1-yard touchdown in the first half as well, en route to 132 rushing yards and 5.3 yards per carry. Samuel Brown V added a 37-yard touchdown, trucking Broussard along the way.

All of which marred a performance with myriad positives – including Jonah Coleman’s 148 rushing yards and 9.3 yards per carry, Boston’s six catches for 125 yards and two touchdowns, and the Husky offensive line refusing to surrender a single sack.

For long stretches, UW outgained Rutgers, outplayed Rutgers.

None of that matters.

“I just feel like we’ve been saying it for a couple weeks now: we’re not that far off,” Rogers said. “Like, shoot, we’re almost halfway through the year now. It’s time. It’s been time to get those mistakes corrected.

“Some of that is on me. Some of it we’ve just got to correct as a group. There’s just things like the penalties and stalling in the red zone, things like that. Those are the two biggest things we’ve got to correct.”

If they don’t, it’s difficult to imagine Washington (3-2) reaching six wins in Fisch’s debut season. With tests against Michigan (3-1), Iowa (3-1), Indiana (4-0), USC (2-1), Penn State (3-0) and Oregon (3-0) all ahead, it won’t get easier.

The Huskies failed to finish on fourth-and-goal from the 1 in the Apple Cup. Those same flaws continued to follow them on Friday.

As for their best football? For that, we’ll have to wait.