SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A year ago, this loss might not have hurt so much for the Huskies.
As they stumbled through a winless season, losses became so common they seemed to numb the pain. But after a 37-30 overtime loss to Notre Dame came to an end Saturday evening, it was clear that expectations are higher, and that just being in the game will not longer suffice.
“We can’t stand it,” said sophomore linebacker Cort Dennison, who started in place of the injured E.J. Savannah. “Last year it was all right to be close, but this year we all are sick to our stomachs. None of us are talking in the locker room, it’s not a good feeling. We can’t stand losing. … It’s heartbreaking because we were so close and should have won the game.”
As Dennison stated, the Huskies (2-3) were “so close” to knocking off the Irish (4-1) in front of 80,795 at Notre Dame Stadium. Washington led at the end of each of the first three quarters, and was up five points with 3:04 left in regulation. Notre Dame came back to take a late lead with a touchdown and two-point conversion with 1:20 left, but the Huskies answered with a field goal to send it to overtime, where the Irish scored a touchdown on their first possession, and the Huskies were unable to convert when they had the ball.
And even though the Huskies showed a lot of resilience by rallying for the tying field goal at the end of regulation, they knew they shouldn’t have been in that situation. Late in the third quarter, Washington had third-and-goal at the 1-yard line when Jake Locker was stuffed on a quarterback sneak. He was denied again on fourth down on a sneak, leaving the Huskies with no points to show for a 79-yard drive.
After Notre Dame kicked a field goal on the ensuing possession, the Huskies put together a long drive that could have given them some much-needed breathing room. Chris Polk appeared to find the end zone for a 6-yard score, but after a review he was ruled down inside the 1, giving the Huskies first-and-goal.
“I felt like I got in the end zone, but I guess the eye in the sky doesn’t lie,” Polk said.
Again Washington couldn’t punch it in, even after getting a fresh set of downs thanks to a personal foul call on Notre Dame on a field goal attempt. This time the Huskies didn’t go for it on fourth, settling for a field goal that made it 27-22 with 3:04 remaining. On the possession, the Huskies ran five plays from the 2-yard line or closer and couldn’t find the end zone.
“Obviously it’s frustrating when you had an opportunity like we had there in the fourth quarter to put the game in a situation to be a two-score game and we weren’t able to do it,” Huskies coach Steve Sarkisian said. “You know, the bottom line in this game came down to we had two opportunities to score touchdowns from the 1-yard line, two separate occasions, and we came away with three total points. That’s the bottom line.”
The bottom line is also that the Huskies have now lost two straight since shocking USC and climbing into the top-25. Playing LSU close in the season opener may have given the Huskies some consolation, but a close loss this time around only brought pain.
Locker, normally as accountable as anyone on the team, left the locker room and went straight to the bus without talking to the media, something he’s never done after a game at Washington.
“There’s something different about him right now, he’s not talking,” said Polk, who rushed for a career-high 136 yards on 22 carries. “His whole demeanor is down right now … I haven’t seen him this bad. This is the absolute worst I’ve seen him.”
Locker completed 22 of 40 attempts for 281 yards and a touchdown, and also rushed for a score, but like the rest of his team, he couldn’t stomach this loss.
The Huskies went up 7-0 on a Locker touchdown run on their first possession, and the lead changed seven times after that as the two teams combined for 987 yards of offense. The last lead change came on Notre Dame’s last possession of regulation, when quarterback Jimmy Clausen connected with 6-foot-6 tight end Kyle Rudolph in the end zone. Until that point, the Washington defense had limited Notre Dame to only one touchdown despite allowing numerous big plays and long drives. Notre Dame settled for five field goals, four of which came after driving inside the Washington 20.
Starting at their own 11 with only 1:16 left, the Huskies got into field goal range in time for Polk to tie it, thanks in large part to a 37-yard Locker completion to freshman James Johnson. Notre Dame appeared to clinch victory two plays later, but a Notre Dame interception was overturned after being reviewed.
In overtime, Clausen hit his favorite target, Golden Tate, for 22 yards on the first play to put the Irish on the UW 3-yard line. Tate finished the game with 244 receiving yards, more than half of the 422 Clausen passed for.
After a UW penalty moved the ball to the 1-yard line, Robert Hughes scored to make it 37-30. Needing a touchdown to stay alive, Washington instead went backwards in overtime thanks to a sack. After a third-and-19 pass to Jermaine Kearse went through the receiver’s hands, Locker threw a fourth-down pass over the middle to D’Andre Goodwin, who likely would have make the catch for a first down if not for a huge hit from linebacker Brian Smith. As the Irish celebrated a victory, Goodwin stayed down for a couple of minutes after suffering a concussion.
And while not every Husky was feeling the physical pain that Goodwin did at the end of the game, everyone was hurting.
“Right now I’m just hurting,” Polk said. “I felt like we should have won that game. We kind of shot ourselves in the foot. I’m feeling pretty bad right now. I felt like we left some opportunities out on the field.”
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