Washington Football: Preview, prediction, live stream vs. Fresno State

Washington football will look to complete another perfect non-conference schedule before turning it over to conference play.

Saturday’s battle between the highly ranked Washington Huskies and the Fresno State Bulldogs seems to be the ultimate David vs. Goliath matchup. The Huskies are coming off their first ever College Football Playoff berth, while the Bulldogs just got demolished by Alabama a week ago.

Despite this, we must not forget that every season except two from 2002 up until 2014, the Bulldogs had more wins than the Huskies. Washington’s sudden surge to national prominence has been a dominating journey, but can also make them vulnerable at times.

The Huskies kicked off the season against Rutgers for the second straight year to being another soft non-conference portion of their schedule. What was thought to be another blowout turned into a scare as the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers hung around Washington, pushing them to their limit before Jake Browning and the Huskies offense turned it on and pulled away.

Fortunately for Washington, or unfortunately depending on which way you look at it, the Huskies are catching the Fresno State program in a bit of reset and rebuilding mode. After enjoying winning seasons in 12 of 14 years, the Bulldogs have secured just 12 wins the last three seasons, including a 1-11 mark a year ago.

While the recent struggles of Fresno State certainly eliminates the risk of an upset, it could come back to haunt the Huskies as it takes a potential quality win away from a team looking to make a national championship push.

Here’s how to watch Saturday’s Washington vs. Fresno State game:

Date: Saturday, Sept. 16
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET
Location: Seattle, Wash.
Venue: Husky Stadium
TV: Pac-12 Network
Live Stream: Pac-12 Live

Keys to Victory

The Huskies return some key pieces from a year ago, including quarterback Jake Browning and running back Myles Gaskin. So far in the team’s two victories, Browning has been solid, throwing for 543 yards and four touchdowns on the season- completing nearly 70 percent of his passes. Gaskin is also off to a great start, averaging 6.1 yards per carry. The downside is that he has just 97 yards on 16 carries. His backup Lavon Coleman has one more carry than he does.

It would be nice to see Washington implement Gaskin more into their offense, especially heading into conference play. Looking at Fresno State’s 41-10 loss to Alabama last week, one positive takeaway is the fact they held the Crimson Tide to under 200 yards passing. They did, however, give up 305 rushing yards.

Life will be a lot easier for the Huskies if they can establish a running game early and open up both facets of their offense.

Next: NFL Mock Draft 2018: Complete first round after Week 2

Prediction

In week three, Gaskin will find a couple big holes against the Bulldogs and really start getting it going to jumpstart his season. Washington gets over 250 yards from both their running and aerial attack and easy to lackluster victory over the Bulldogs, pushing them to 3-0 on the year and into Boulder, Colorado on a high note.

Final score: Washington 55, Fresno State 16

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