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

2. BYU had a really bad night

While Washington looked awesome, and deserves all the credit in the world for this excellent performance, it does need to be contextualized a bit. BYU’s defense, which had been great all season long to this point, got punched in the mouth, and never had an answer for the Washington offense.

Their heavy man coverage approach was the wrong way to come into this game. Zone is the best way to beat Jake Browning, especially complicated, disguised zones, and BYU did nothing of the sort. Receivers were open all night long, because BYU wasn’t up to the challenge to contain them one on one.

What would’ve helped, is if BYU would’ve created some pressure, but they really couldn’t do that either. Browning sat in a mostly clean pocket, and gashed the Cougars all night long. You can’t win like that, especially with what is not a good offense.

Speaking of the offense, it was awful against a great Washington defense. Tanner Mangum completed almost every pass he threw, but had no success down the field. His per pass average was awful, because Washington dared him to throw deep, and he simply couldn’t do it. The rushing attack was nonexistent, and the line was awful.

I think BYU is a good team. I think they’re probably a bowl team. But this was a really, really bad letdown from them.