Washington offensive line has bounce-back effort in win over Purdue

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Washington's offensive line responded to a season's worth of criticism in a big way on Friday against Purdue.

After entering the year with Joe Moore Award aspirations, the Huskies have missed center Landen Hatchett, who did not return until last week due to a wrist injury. Washington has lost four running backs to injury and had a fifth out on Friday due to the flu, leaving them with only three backs available against the Boilermakers. The Huskies have also rotated seven different players mid-game and have resorted to platooning freshman left tackle Kodi Greene after his struggles with more powerful defensive units.

Washington entered this week ranked No. 135 in rushing offense with 90.33 yards per game and No. 135 in sacks allowed, tied with rival Washington State, with 21.

Naturally, against a Boilermakers defensive line that held Minnesota to 27 rushing yards last week, Washington ran for 188 (not counting two kneel-downs) and allowed backup quarterback Elijah Brown to be sacked just once in a 38-26 win, one week after Purdue leveraged that performance to beat the Golden Gophers 41-13 and three weeks after that same Minnesota team beat Washington by a final score of 27-24 that disguised how thoroughly Minnesota beat the Huskies.

Such is life in the Big Ten, as head coach Jedd Fisch will tell you.

Washington running back Trey Cooley had by far his best game in a Huskies uniform, taking 8 carries for 113 yards and a 53-yard touchdown that finalized the score in the fourth quarter. Freshman Brian Bonner Jr. shouldered the load again, taking 13 attempts for 64 yards and a 1-yard touchdown plunge just before halftime. The Huskies also got Dezmen Roebuck and Chris Lawson involved, giving them a total of 6 carries while lining Roebuck up in the backfield occasionally. It felt like Washington's most coherent game plan on the ground all season, perhaps buoyed by the fact that the Huskies essentially solidified the rotation on the offensive line.

Right tackle Drew Azzopardi and left guard John Mills played every offensive snap, as they have in every game except Eastern Washington, but they were joined this week by Landen Hatchett, now off a snap count as he recovers from that wrist injury, and right guard Champ Taulealea, who has been rotating with seventh-year Geirean Hatchett all season. Kolt Dieterich, who started at center with Landen Hatchett out, got the start at left guard with Mills at left tackle and played 37 snaps. Greene played 26 at left tackle, while Geirean Hatchett played only 1 rep.

In pass protection, the game plan with Brown forced into action in relief of Demond Williams Jr., who exited last week's game early with a rib injury, was clearly focused on getting the ball out quickly. But there were still real dropbacks mixed in – Brown did throw the ball 27 times, after all – and Purdue was able to generate only 4 pressures all evening, per Pro Football Focus.

It's a highly encouraging showing for the offensive line less than a week after Fisch defended them at Monday's press conference, pointing out that some of the criticism they have shouldered has been because of the other parts of the offense.

"I think 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, and 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 don't think that the offensive line, going into this season, [that] there was any expectation that they were going to be blocking for a true freshman every snap that's still learning the track of each different zone play or learning the reads. 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 sometimes we're sitting back there holding the ball for 5 seconds, 4 and a half seconds. You know, there's parts of it that the running back or tight end might have responsibility and protection, and they haven't done their job on a certain play. I think there's times that as a playcaller, I need to do a better job of helping the offensive line against certain defenses, defensive players, and defensive fronts and defensive looks. So I would say it's an unfair attack in a lot of ways on these guys, and I feel for them," Fisch said as part of an extensive answer on Monday.

On Friday, the offensive line made Fisch look as correct as he has all season, and it led directly to a Washington win.

This article originally appeared on Huskies Wire: Washington offensive line has bounce-back effort in win over Purdue

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