Washington sophomore quarterback Cyler Miles runs with the ball in a home game. (Photo by Kaia D'Albora/Photo Courtesy of The Daily of the University of Washington)This season, the Washington football team has gone through the ringer, and it faces another test as it hosts No. 14 ASU Saturday.
The Huskies (5-2, 1-2 Pac-12) have been in nearly every kind of game. From a low-scoring battle against a bad Hawaii team to a barn burning, 59-52 victory over Eastern Washington, Washington has found ways to win, or at least be competitive in each of its games.
The Sun Devils (5-1, 3-1 Pac-12) will head to Washington with an eight-game winning streak over the Huskies, having not lost in Seattle since 1997.
The Huskies are coming off of their 11th-straight loss to rival Oregon in a game that was dominated by the Ducks for the final three quarters. Coach Chris Petersen said that coming off a loss like that is no different than moving forward from any game.
"We go back to work, we put the tape on and figure out the things that we didn't do right," Petersen said. "On to the next thing is what we're doing."
The injury bug bit the Huskies during the game against Oregon as sophomore quarterback Cyler Miles was taken out of the game because of concussion-like symptoms. Washington lost its top two running backs, sophomore Dwayne Washington and redshirt freshman Lavon Coleman, to chest and shoulder injuries respectively.
Miles had not thrown an interception until the Oregon game and completed over 66 percent of his passes, while the trio has combined for 801 yards on the ground and seven touchdowns.
Petersen was coy about whether those three were going to play against ASU, but said players won't play if they can't practice.
"We're in OK shape, and there's always a little give and take, because you've got to practice to play," Petersen said. "You get to this point in the season and everybody's got guys beat up, so you practice them as much as you can with being smart and making sure that they're ready to go on Saturday."
ASU is expecting its quarterback, redshirt senior Taylor Kelly, back from a right foot injury he suffered Sept. 13.
ASU coach Todd Graham compared Washington's defense to the Stanford defense that the Sun Devils scored 26 points against last week, the most an opponent has scored against the Cardinal this season. Petersen noted how successful redshirt junior Mike Bercovici has been in the absence of Kelly, allowing the offense not to take any steps backward, and how difficult it is to stop ASU's offense.
"That offense is hard to stop," Petersen said. "Both those quarterbacks have been effective, they run it, they throw it and they've got a really good thing going. You don't stop a team like that, you hope to slow them down and not allow them to score a ton of points like they've been doing."
Reach the reporter at mtonis@asu.edu or follow him on Twitter @Tonis_The_Tiger
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