Huskies Come Back From the Dead, Beat Maryland

The Maryland plan was not only to take the ball away from the Huskies but do whatever it could to keep it from them.

The Terps were good at this early on. They next churned out consecutive16-play drives in the opening half for a 4-yard touchdown run by freshman quarterback Malik Washington and another O'Haire field goal, this one from 29 yards out, and the home team led 13-0.

Meantime, the UW had no response. Williams couldn't get comfortable in the pocket. He overshot his receivers. The Huskies had just 103 yards of total offense and a mere 6 first downs in the opening half. They went through nearly two full games without a TD before finding the way again.

"My coach told me to just go back to the basics," Williams said of offensive coordinator Jimmie Dougherty.

When he did, Williams was very good. He finished with 28 completions in 41 passes for 275 yards and 2 touchdowns.

Coleman rushed 18 times for 57 yards and his deciding TD, and pulled in a team-best 8 receptions for 47 more yards.

The Huskies shook off their stale start to finish with 393 yards of total offense and 28 first downs.

The UW clearly missed injured starting left tackle Carver Willis, out with a knee injury. His replacement, Max McCree, who once played for Maryland, had a rough outing. He got called for holding on the second drive. He got shoved nose first into the turf on the final UW series of the half.

The offensive line was a mess for the longest time. Neither Hatchett played well either. Landen twice twice got whistled for penalties at center while brother Geirean got spun around for a sack. Right tackle Drew Azzopardi had a false start.

In the third quarter, freshman left guard John Mills even injured a leg and limped to the locker room seeking medical attention, with redshirt freshman Paki Finau sent in to replace him.

It could have been even worse if the defense didn't step up with an occasional stop. Safety Makell Esteen came up with his second interception of the season with an acrobatic play late in the first half. Edge rusher Deshawn Lynch batted down two passes. Linebacker Jacob Manu had a pair a crunching open-field tackles for losses.

The Huskies dug itself an even deeper hole by giving up a touchdown to open the second half, on a 3-yard pass to a wide-open tight end AJ Syzmanski from Malik Washington, and it was 20-0.

Finally, the UW found some points near the end of the third quarter on Grady Gross' 36-yard field goal. That seemed to loosen up Fisch's team a lot.

After a 3-and-out stop, the Huskies snapped their TD drought by moving 74 yards in 9 plays for Denzel Boston's 3-yard scoring catch on a look-in pass. With 14:23 left to play, the Maryland lead had been halved to 20-10.

The UW defense came up with another 3-and-out and the offense responded by zipping 75 yards in four scintillating plays to score on a 34-yard pass from Williams to freshman Dezmen Roebuck on a post pattern. All of a sudden, it was Maryland barely on top at 20-17 with 11:32 remaining.

The Huskies came up with yet another defensive stop, this time holding Maryland to six plays. They survived freshman Devin Hyde running into the Terps punter, with a roughing call levied rather than a personal foul and an automatic first down.

By now, Maryland was basically done, helpless to stop this re-energized team from Seattle. The Huskies moved 80 yards in 11 plays, with 17- and 27-yard passes to Denzel Boston getting them close.

Once Coleman went over right guard for his 11th touchdown of the season and the lead, the Terps trailed for the first time all season and were headed for their first loss.

Maryland had the ball for seven more plays and picked up a pair of first downs to the UW 43, but a fourth-down pass was purposely dropped by Husky cornerback Ephesians Prysock and it was over.

"I told our guys at halftime, there was still 30 minutes," Fisch said.

And 30 minutes was all the Huskies needed to come back home with a determined victory.