Washington's offense looks to improve on 'worst half of football' this season

The Huskies didn't score in the second half against Oregon State, and struggled to run the ball all game.

SEATTLE — They celebrated the victory, and the fact it improved Washington’s record to 11-0, and probably, too, that they were able to move the chains one final time to clinch Saturday’s 22-20 win at Oregon State.

For the Huskies’ offense, though — and maybe for the offensive line, specifically — Sunday film review was “not a good feeling,” offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb said, despite the fact they helped prevent Oregon State’s ferocious pass rush from sacking Michael Penix Jr. a single time.

“They felt awful,” Grubb said.

The Huskies didn’t score in the second half, which was bad enough. But Grubb seemed most irritated by a statistic he cited regarding the Huskies’ running game: something like 17 of their 23 rushes were graded as “not efficient,” Grubb said, and even some that did wind up successful were due to Dillon Johnson breaking tackles, rather than running through open lanes.

Johnson finished with 16 carries for 89 yards, though 43 of them came on one run in the second quarter (which ended with Johnson fumbling). He added runs of 11 and 9 yards, but didn’t have any other rushes that gained more than 4.

In wet, rainy conditions, Washington’s offensive success rate was only 23 percent overall, and only 20 percent on rushing plays.