Washington football: Could Huskies be on upset alert vs. Arizona State?

Washington football has high hopes for this season, but it has to face a tough Arizona State team this weekend. Is this a possible upset spot?

It’s been a bizarre start to the season for the Pac-12. Two stars of the Pac-12 South last year, USC and Arizona, have struggled mightily to start the year, while teams most people were very low on like Cal, Colorado and Arizona State have gotten off to big starts. What has stayed consistent from last year is the two best teams in the Pac-12 North, Washington and Stanford.

Stanford is undefeated through three games, and while Washington fell in week one to Auburn, they looked primed to compete once again for a playoff spot. Those top two teams, however, don’t get to faceoff until early November. That means that there’s plenty of time for things to before the Huskies and Cardinal take the field to play each other.

Late this Saturday, Arizona State hopes to cause quite a bit of change as they visit Washington, looking to pull off a huge upset. Just a week off of their tough loss to San Diego State, the Sun Devils are pumped up to bounce back, and they seem to be a very tough matchup for Washington, specifically Washington’s offense.

Arizona State’s 3-3-5 defense can throw a lot of things at a quarterback, and Jake Browning has struggled a lot this year with complicated defenses. That could be a good omen for Arizona State, and they’ll certainly need that defense to step up if they want to win, because Washington has quite a defense of their own.

While this is definitely the Pac-12 after dark game of the week, it may not look like most Pac-12 after dark games. With two elite defenses, and two questionable offenses, we could be in for a lower scoring affair. It should still be a great time though, and we’ve got you covered for the line, the keys to the game, and of course, how to watch it:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 2
Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
Location: Seattle, Wash.
Venue: Husky Stadium
TV: ESPN
Live Stream: WatchESPN or FuboTV

Washington keys to game

The keys for almost every Washington game this season are pretty much the same. They’re more talented than nearly every team on their schedule, and when a team is more talented than almost every team they face, those keys become more focused on that team’s play rather than adjustments to opponent’s play. That means that basically, the Huskies just have to lean on their talent advantage, get the ball into space on offense, and keep Arizona State’s passing attack contained.

Arizona State keys to game

Arizona State has to be operating on their highest level if they want to win this game. The Sun Devils showed some weaknesses in last week’s game against San Diego State, specifically in the running game, on both sides of the ball. They were gashed by Juwan Washington, and had no real running game of their own to speak of. That won’t work against such a good Washington team, and Arizona State’s passing attack isn’t nearly good enough to carry them, so they need to establish a rushing attack, and defensively, they need to slow Myles Gaskin down.

Betting Odds

Courtesy of OddsShark

Point Spread: Washington -17.5
Over/Under: 51.5

Prediction

Washington is the more talented team, they’re at home, and honestly, I just don’t see any advantage that Arizona State has that would win them this game. I think Jake Browning will probably struggle at least a bit, and I don’t expect Washington to cover that lofty spread, but I do think the Huskies win the game. Arizona State’s defense will keep it close, but ultimately, Washington is just too good, pulling away in the fourth quarter and putting the game away with a couple of minutes left.

Final score: Washington 27, Arizona State 17