Washington football‘s Jake Browning entered the 2017 campaign as one of the best quarterbacks in the PAC-12. What has happened since then?
No. 18 Washington football took a tumble in the College Football Playoff Rankings in Week 12 after a disappointing weeknight game loss to No. 21 ranked Stanford. Junior quarterback Jake Browning did not show out like many expected him to.
Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello actually outplayed Browning in the 30-22 win for the Cardinal. Considering Browning got help from junior running back Myles Gaskin to the tune of 120 rushing yards and three touchdowns, he should have been better.
A large reason why head coach Chris Peterson’s squad got into the College Football Playoff and won the PAC-12 Championship last season was because of the solid play of Browning. He tossed 43 touchdowns and added another four on the ground last year. Browning did all that while throwing only nine picks.
While Browning kept the interception numbers low so far, the touchdown numbers are low as well. He could end up with half the amount of touchdown passes as last season. Browning has 2,097 passing yards and 16 touchdowns with five picks. He did eclipse the number of rushing touchdowns from last season with five so far.
Browning did not throw a single touchdown pass against Stanford. It was the third time in the last four games that he did not get at least one passing touchdown. Moreover, he has just as many interceptions as touchdowns over that span.
It’s hard to tell if injury continues to hamper Browning. He got shoulder surgery during the off-season after getting hurt during the Arizona State game last year. The same shoulder could be hurting him again. Yet, not having a wide receiver like he had last year in John Ross could also be a factor. Senior Dante Pettis is explosive, but not the same as Ross.
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Peterson needs to help Browning restore his confidence to what it was during the Huskies Playoff run last season. Washington is wasting a huge season from both Gaskin and Pettis this season by letting Browning go by the wayside.