Questionable Play-Calling Dooms Huskies In Desert
Arizona State players celebrate their 24-17 victory over Washington. (AP/Matt York)
With under a minute remaining in a tie ballgame and all three timeouts intact, the Washington Huskies screwed up. Bad.
Given the option to a) run out the clock and play for overtime, or b) use the timeouts and go for the win, Washington did neither. Instead, they called consecutive run plays on first and second down, essentially killing the clock in the process, then hurried to the line of scrimmage and went for the home run, launching a deep pass down the sideline to no one in particular.
The clock stopped, leaving the Huskies deep in their own territory on fourth down. They had no other choice. They had to punt.
Arizona State fielded the punt and returned it to midfield. The Sun Devil offense took the field with under 20 seconds left to play, then executed one play that decided the outcome of the game.
Conversation