Brown-Led Huskies End the Misery, Beat Up Purdue
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On Friday night at Purdue, Elijah Brown replaced injured Demond Williams Jr. as the University of Washington starting quarterback, though early on it almost felt like Sam Darnold had pulled on a Husky jersey.
Yet unlike the Seahawks signal-caller and his well-documented careless play the night before in Denver, Brown survived a pair of first-quarter interceptions and a third one in the second half and guided the Huskies to a convincing 38-26 victory at Ross-Ade Stadium in West Lafayette, Indiana.
Most off all, the fill-in signal-caller stepped up as the central figure for the UW (4-3 overall, 1-3 Big Ten) to stop the season-long bleeding, end a three-game losing streak and beat a Power 4 team for the first time this season.
On this night, while the wounded Williams was in uniform watching, Brown was in charge.
"Obviously, I had those three interceptions, but everyone kind of stayed positive and kept on encouraging me and we got it done," the Stanford transfer said.
Brown directed his suddenly souped-up offensive unit to 302 yards of total offense, including 177 yards rushing, and 24 points — all in the first half.
He put the football in the hands of freshman running back Brian Bonner Jr, who rushed for a touchdown and caught a pass for another.
He handed it to Trey Cooley, Bonner's back-up, who broke a 53-yard touchdown run in the final quarter on his way to an 8-carry 113-yard rushing outing — the first Husky running back over the century mark this season.
Brown was pinpoint throwing the ball, completing 21 of 27 throws for 302 yards and 3 touchdown passes. He got sacked just once.
Altogether, the Huskies finished with a season-high 488 yards of total offense, with a season-best 186 yards rushing.
The real estate acquisition was long overdue.
Defensively, the UW came up with sacks by Jacob Lane, Russell Davis II and Darin Conley, and interceptions from Rylon Dillard-Allen and Jeron Jones.
"They wanted it so bad," UW coach Jedd Fisch said of his team. "You felt it all week."
Yet the Huskies still made it a little harder on themselves than was necessary. But it was a momentary blip.
They gave away a second-quarter touchdown to Purdue (3-4, 2-2) when a bouncing punt hit the heel of Dylan Robinson and was recovered on their 10 by the home team and the Boilermakers scored in one play.
Yet Jedd Fisch's guys had to feel re-energized by this showing. They never trailed in this road outing. They answered every time adversity popped up.
Brown got off to an ominous start on his first offensive snap when he threw an interception right to Boilermakers cornerback Hudauri Hines on the UW 41.
The UW held on downs, though, and the replacement quarterback brought the Huskies back down the field on a 10-play, 61-yard drive, capped off by a 2-yard scoring pass to tight end Decker DeGraaf for a 7-0 lead.
Following another defensive stop and a Purdue punt, Brown made another Darnold-like mistake. He was intercepted on the first play of his third possession by safety Smiley Bradford, setting up the Boilermakers on the UW 19.
The defense bailed the Huskies once more, forcing a 24-yard field goal by Jacabo Lozano, and it was 7-3 with 1:54 left in the opening half.
The UW matched that field goal with a 25-yarder of its own by Tyler Robles, one set up by back-up running back Trey Cooley's 43-yard run, and moved out in front 10-3.
Purdue next came up with its own breakaway run from its second-string guy Antonio Harris, who like Cooley woreNo. 22, with his 59-yard run and a resulting penalty putting the ball on the Husky 5. Harris' 1-yard TD plunge knotted the game at 10 midway through the quarter.
Back came the Huskies again, with Bonner getting loose on a 30-yard run to take his team to the Purdue 11. Following a UW holding penalty, Bonner took a swing pass from Brown over the right side, got a block from right tackle Drew Azzopardi and zipped 25 yards for a go-ahead touchdown at 17-10.
The UW held on defense yet again, but the punt skipped into the foot of Robinson, who had his back to the play while pushing on a defender and never saw it coming. Purdue had the ball at the Husky 10. Boilermakers running back Fame Ijeboi scored in one play and the game was tied at 17 with 2:34 left in the first half.
It was just enough time for Brown to take his team down the field for a go-ahead score that would hold up the rest of the way. The Huskies traveled 91 yards in nine plays. Bonner got the points on 1-yard run with 27 seconds left. A late-hit on Brown kept the drive alive.
Offensively, it felt like the Huskies had played a full game when they went in for the break, but there was still 30 minutes to go.
Brown's third interception served up came near the end of the third quarter to linebacker JoJo Hayden and resulted in another Purdue field goal, this one from 48 yards to make it 24-20.
Yet the Huskies couldn't be stopped whenever they had the ball. They kept moving even with wide receiver Chris Lawson and Bonner limping off the field on the same play. Lawson finished with 6 catches for 103 yards.
"It feels great," Lawson said. "We kind of been a little battered around, but this game was a good win to get it started and get everything back rolling."
In Lawson's absence, receiver Justice Williams came off the bench and caught an 18-yard pass on a third-and-12 play to put this team on the Purdue 7 as the third quarter pulled to a close. Everybody stepped up for this one.
Into the final period, Brown put one in Dezmen Roebuck's hands for a 4-yard score and a 31-20 lead with 14:12 left to play. Roebuck finished with 5 catches for 97 yards.
Two weeks earlier, the Huskies led USC by 11 in the second half and squandered it.
This time, they gave up an immediate touchdown on a 7-play, 75-yard drive, finished off by quarterback Ryan Browne's 8-yard scramble and dive into the end zone. A missed two-point conversion later, and the the UW still led 31-26 with 11:18 on the clock.
Cooley put everything out of reach when he went over right guard, cut outside and raced untouched into the end zone, good for the final margin with 10:30 left to play.
Typical of how the UW running backs have been treated this season, Cooley had to get over the flu coming into the game and appeared to get shaken up late in the action and left the game. It's unclear how healthy he feels right now.
Yet his team got well real quick.
The Huskies now take a bye week off before turning to action on the road at Nebraska (5-1, 2-1) on Oct. 31.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/washington as Brown-Led Huskies End the Misery, Beat Up Purdue.
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