Washington has lost two consecutive games but brings one of the nation’s top passing attacks and an apparently healthy quarterback into Saturday’s Pac-12 Conference contest against Arizona in Seattle.
The Huskies (4-2, 1-2) reached No. 15 in the Associated Press poll before consecutive road losses at UCLA and Arizona State. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was banged up in Saturday’s 45-38 loss to the Sun Devils after taking a targeting hit to his throat.
“I think he’s all good,” Washington coach Kalen DeBoer said Monday. “I think he was a little sore after the game. It’s really just one of those things where all of a sudden he’s like, ‘Oh, I think I’m going to be OK.’ He was really sore, but he’s fine now.”
Penix has thrown for 16 touchdowns this season and has passed for more than 300 yards in each of his team’s six games. Washington is second nationally in passing at 357.3 yards per game, trailing Texas Tech (365).
Arizona (3-3, 1-2) has struggled on defense, ranking 127th nationally in run defense (228.8 yards per game) and 110th in passing efficiency defense (148).
“We’re giving up less explosive plays then we gave up (last year),” said second-year Arizona coach Jedd Fisch, whose team was 1-11 in 2021. “We have more takeaways at the halfway point this year than we had all of last year. I believe that we’re going in the right direction.”
Arizona didn’t have a tackle for loss in its 49-22 defeat to then-No. 12 Oregon last week and has struggled up front. This week, freshman linebacker Jacob Manu has moved to the top of the depth chart at weakside linebacker.
The Wildcats have firepower on offense, although much depends on hot-and-cold quarterback Jayden de Laura. He is averaging 312.3 passing yards per game, but six of his seven interceptions have come in the team’s three losses.
Arizona has two of the top three players in the Pac-12 in receiving yards per game — Jacob Cowing (107.2) and Dorian Singer (84.3).
Washington’s Rome Odunze is just behind Cowing, averaging 104.8 yards per contest.
