Washington football: 3 takeaways from dominating win over No. 20 BYU

Well, we hoped it would be fun, but Washington made quick work of BYU in primetime on Saturday night. The Huskies were dominant all night long.

While Washington-BYU looked like it could’ve been a close game coming into the matchup, Washington had no issue with the Cougars on the field Saturday night. After three straight weeks of Washington struggling to put away lesser opponents after a loss to Washington in week one, they did just that tonight, on their way to a 35-7 win tonight.

It was an all around excellent performance by the Huskies. Jake Browning had his most complete game of the year thus far, gashing a very solid BYU defense and picking apart their frequent man coverage looks. The line handled pressure well, and cleared plenty of holes for the running attack, as Myles Gaskin and Salvin Ahmed both had no issue picking up yards.

For BYU, it was a disappointing showing. The Cougars came into the game at 3-1, and after their win over Wisconsin a few weeks ago, they had high hopes to pull another upset this weekend. While Tanner Mangum had a pretty solid day, he couldn’t turn yards into points, and with Squally Canada contained all night, BYU had trouble sustaining drives. In crucial situations, they faltered, and Washington’s defense stepped up.

This wasn’t really a showing of BYU’s poor offense though. Sure, their offense isn’t great, but this more confirmed what we thought about Washington’s defense. It’s spectacular, and it played a huge role in this big win. When the defense is this solid, and Jake Browning leads the offense well, this Washington team can play with just about anybody in the country.

Let’s get into the takeaways.