Jedd Fisch backs Washington football offensive line amid struggles

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Throughout the offseason, the Washington Huskies' offensive line wasn't shy about sharing its goal of competing for the Joe Moore Award. However, through the first half of the season, it has been one of the weakest links of Jedd Fisch's team.

Washington has allowed 21 sacks through its first six games, the most in the Big Ten, while the Huskies also rank last in the conference in rushing yards, averaging just 90.33 yards per game after going backwards in a 41-24 loss to the Hawkeyes, tallying -3 yards on the ground in the contest.

Even though part of that problem can be attributed to the injuries at running back, the Huskies have failed to generate much of a push throughout the season. During his Monday press conference, Fisch took some time to address the unit's struggles.

"It's unfair to the offensive line in a lot of ways because the way we're defining straightening out the offensive line would be running the ball better or taking less sacks," Fisch said. "I would say that a lot of the play that's affected the offensive line is the other position groups along with the offensive line. I don't know of any elite offensive line that's playing with a set of running backs that have never carried the ball before."

"I think in terms of protections, it's unfair to the offensive line in a lot of ways that they're getting kind of crushed regarding some of the sacks when we're sitting back there and holding the ball for five seconds, 4.5 seconds. There's parts of it that a running back or tight end might have responsibility in protection, and they haven't done their job in a certain play. I think there's times as a play caller, I need to do a better job of helping the offensive line against certain defensive players and defensive fronts, defensive looks. I'd say it's an unfair attack in a lot of ways on these guys, and I feel for them."

While center Landen Hatchett missed the first five games of the year with a wrist injury, which thrust Sam Houston State transfer Kolt Dieterich into the middle at a position he'd never played before at any level, Fisch also highlighted the loss of left tackle Carver Willis to the NFL, who was replaced by former five-star recruit Kodi Greene as a true freshman.

"I think there was this expectation that we were just going to be able to move on from an NFL tackle who was a five-year college player and move right into a freshman, and nothing was going to change. No one really expected Landen to not be able to participate in training camp, spring ball, the first (five) weeks of the season, and then we asked Kodi at 18 to be the guy to stand in there every snap at tackle. And then we asked Champ (Taulealea) to jump in there his first time ever starting, and Kolt, who's never played center, now playing center, I just think it's tough and I think we've been really hard on the offensive line…we have a standard we never want to drop, but also there's a reality that we need to get these five guys playing more consistent football together and we need to help them, starting with me."

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Jedd Fisch backs Washington football offensive line amid struggles

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