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Washington and Michigan squared off in primetime Saturday night in one of the games of the week in the Big Ten. The rematch of the national championship game lived up to the hype, and it was a game that went down to the wire.
Heading into the matchup, Washington was a slim home favorite in spite of entering the game as an unranked team against No. 10 Michigan. However, the Huskies lived up to that designation with a big-time B1G performance against the Wolverines.
Washington would race out to an early 14-0 lead against Michigan, forcing the Wolverines to abandon Alex Orji at quarterback and turning to Jack Tuttle. It would be Tuttle’s first action of the season, but he delivered with a string of 17 straight points for Michigan.
However, even Tuttle was not able to avoid the turnover issues for Michigan. He committed 2 turnovers inside the final 9 minutes of the game, including one that led to the go-ahead touchdown for the Huskies.
Saturday’s win goes down as a statement victory for Jedd Fisch’s first season in Seattle. As for Michigan, it’s back to the drawing board offensively for Sherrone Moore, but it may be too late for hopes of the postseason.
Here are the key takeaways from Week 6 and the 27-17 win for the Huskies:
Will Rogers proves he can hang vs. Big Ten defenses
Entering Week 6, it was clear Michigan’s defense can be susceptible to a passing attack. However, there’s no denying the defensive front of the Wolverines can be one of the toughest in the country.
Rogers did take 3 sacks, but he did not let that effort from the Wolverines get to him. The QB remained locked in and threw 2 early touchdowns and kept the offense clicking throughout the game with 271 yards on 21-for-32 passing.
Rogers did throw his first interception of the season, but he was otherwise brilliant in a signature win for the Huskies.
Grady Gross vanquishes some demons in the kicking game
Grady Gross entered the weekend on the kind of streak no kicker wants to endure. He missed 4 kicks across games against Northwestern and Rutgers, including 3 straight in a 3-point loss to the Scarlet Knights a week ago.
In fact, Gross’s streak of misses climbed all the way to 5 after his missed his first 2 field goal tries Saturday night. That included a kick that was blocked just before halftime.
Fortunately, he was able to get back on track in a big way. He hit a game-tying field goal early in the 4th quarter and would deliver another with a minute left in the game to ice the win.
Michigan’s Playoff hopes are done
Anyone who has watched the Wolverines this season knew the College Football Playoff was a longshot. That was only compounded with the home loss in blowout fashion to Texas, but Michigan still held onto a top-10 spot entering this weekend.
Now, it should be plain to see that the Wolverines are absolutely outside of the CFP picture. Michigan already has 2 losses, and that’s without getting into the rest of the schedule.
The Wolverines must still face Oregon and Ohio State down the stretch, and that doesn’t account for games against surprisingly ranked teams in Illinois and Indiana. That is not a kind outlook for the defending champions, especially with what we’ve seen from an offense without a direction under center.
Paul is a lifelong fan and student of all things college football. He has been covering college football since 2017 and the B1G since 2018.