Washington 30, Eastern Michigan 9: Fun Start, But Lacked Follow-Through
Washington 30, Eastern Michigan 9: Fun Start, But Lacked Follow-Through
EMU has a new school record for longest field goal made. Naturally, it just had to happen on Big Ten soil.
It was fun until it wasn’t.
Eastern Michigan (1-1 overall) made its farthest trip West to a Big Ten venue over 1,900 miles away from home in Ypsilanti. EMU wanted to come in and square-up with the national championship runners-up, but it walked away with a disappointing loss; Washington won 30-9.
While Washington’s (2-0) execution was questionable at best in the early goings, it was too talented and too strong of a team to handle for a full 60 minutes. EMU had the lead through the first 15, but that lead slipped away in a hurry. A record-setting 57-yard field goal to start the game turned into a 7-6 deficit, then a 21-6 halftime score, and things never got any closer for the Eagles Saturday.
“We certainly weren’t going to bow down,” Chris Creighton said after the game on the visiting side of the site he used to walk to and watch games as a young person. “We were going to fight, we believe in ourselves, and really believed that we could get it done today.”
Things were fun until they weren’t
There is no question that EMU knew it had to be ready for a fight, and it was.
For a half.
But even at that, it wasn’t even the kind of fight that brought the best out of everybody.
The hosts certainly didn’t bring their A-game in the beginning. Initially, it seemed like only one team really wanted to be out there, and it was the crew that had to fly over 1,900 miles just to be at Husky Stadium. Washington looked like it simply rolled out of bed just wanted to hit the ‘sim week’ button for its CFB 25 Dynasty mode game and get to next week’s rivalry game instead.
Washington wasted no time playing bad, but in spite of the Huskies’ early inconsistency in all three phases of the game, the Huskies got rolling and got touchdowns when EMU failed to do so.
“[We] didn’t do enough to win. Didn’t capitalize on some opportunities early,” Creighton addressed. “Moving the ball and got deep into the red zone and didn’t score touchdowns, which obviously you have to do. Didn’t take the ball away until late and then our turnover was really costly because obviously it was after a huge gain and had some momentum. Our third down efficiency, offensively, wasn’t good enough and (we) had a tough time protecting the passer.”
EMU won the very first series of the day by getting Washington’s offense off the field via three-and-out. Not a minute later, Washington’s punt was blocked and stayed on their side of the field.
EMU had to fight through some third and fourth downs to finally find itself at the 3-yard line. However, the 4th & goal decision would be unsuccessful as Snyder’s throw to the back corner of the end zone was off the mark, intended for Markus Allen. UW’s second drive was better than its first, but not by much considering it still punted the ball away without reaching the 50-yard line. That pinned EMU way back in Husky territory, but EMU responded just fine. Allen got a couple of early grabs, Snyder and Seattle native Dontae McMillan chipped in on the rush attack to get the Eagles to Washington’s 40-yard line, giving Jesus Gomez the green light to nail the longest field goal in school history.
Snyder acted as a scrambling quarterback throughout the game and gained 54 yards rushing throughout the game. The problem, one, was that he was sacked so much (7 times) that his 47 yards lost turned into 7 net yards for the day. And in the second quarter where he picked up a first down with a scramble in UW territory, he ended up fumbling the ball as he was hit to give Washington a free possession.
And from there, it was all Huskies all the time. UW punted its first three possessions away, but after the turnover it was score, score, score, score, score, turnover, then ball game.
Jesus Gomez packed his boots for the PNW travels
Usually you have to pack a rain coat to spend time in Seattle. But the one thing Gomez couldn’t leave home without was his boots.
On the Big Ten stage, Gomez’s left foot was responsible for a no-doubt 57-yard field goal for EMU to get on the board first in the first quarter (a 3-0 lead).
That kick not only broke Gomez’s own personal record of having two 55-yarders in his career, but it’s also the new school record. The previous record of 55 was done by Gomez (twice), Chad Ryland in 2021 vs. Ohio, and Dylan Mulder in 2015 at Miami.
After Washington turned a Cole Snyder fumble into seven points, Gomez came back out for his second field goal of the day – fourth for the season (4 for 4) – to trim Washington’s lead down to 1.
Gomez’s third trip out to the field didn’t have the stakes that his first two kicks came with. His first two kicks put minor scares into the Washington fanbase, but those would be short-lived. Midway through the fourth, Gomez came back out to make a hat trick field goal from 50 yards out.
Was Creighton surprised to witness history from his third-year kicker on Big Ten soil?
Of course not.
“He’s super talented, he’s made of all the right stuff, and he got his opportunities today and nailed them,” Creighton said of his third-year kicker. “He was banged up for most of the offseason and I think our plan, kudos to our training staff and to our special teams coaches, and to Jesus obviously, I think we were just really wise with how he handled kicking and the entire offseason all the way in the spring, through the summer and camp. He feels really good right now and obviously confident, and had a monster game today.”
Waking up, and ‘proving’ it
Washington, again, looked sleepy and not-completely-dialed-in for this contest. But once UW got on the board with true freshman tight end Decker DeGraaf scoring his second career touchdown with his second career grab, things were definitely moving in favor of the Purple.
Maybe they just needed to wake up.
Watching the game, it seemed like there was a true shift in momentum after Snyder’s fumble. Captain and starting center, Broderick Roman, however, didn’t see things that way.
“Turnovers are a tough thing,” said Roman. “I personally didn’t see a swing between before and after the fumble. We just kept coming out there on offense and trying to do our thing, but we’ve got to keep on attacking and just handle adversity better. I think that’s the biggest thing, it’s handling adversity and growing. Keep on proving.”
The defense in front of him was a tall task to begin with. Sure, there are so many moving parts for a team that returned so little of its roster from the glory year of 2023, but it’s so well-coached by Steve Belichick that Roman wasn’t going to be unprepared for the contest.
“They try to play 2-gap which is a little different and I think we didn’t have a lot of film on them,” Roman said about the defense he and his O-line partners had to block. “Learning from the one week, the Week 1 game, and digging a little bit into the past of Belichick and trying to learn from that. But I think that we were really prepared, the coaches gave us a really great gameplan offensively and we knew what to expect. We were well-prepared for this game.”
Offensively, EMU was limited to 204 total yards compared to Washington’s 501, and was out-paced on a per-play basis 3.2 to 8.8. On the ground, EMU rushed for just 75 yards on 37 carries (2.0 avg.), and the air attack wasn't any more impressive: 4.8 yards per attempt for EMU, 10.9 per attempt by UW’s quarterbacks. Early on, UW’s penalties seemed to be an issue. But even with UW giving EMU 100 by way of dirty laundry, the free yards ended up being a non-factor in the end.
The Jonah Coleman train + UW’s homegrown hands
There was the fumble, and then there was Washington’s tone-setting run.
If I had to guess, I’d say that Washington’s stud running back is the best offensive threat the Eagles will face all season. If not that, then I’m convinced that he’s at least the toughest task this defense will face through the month of September.
Jonah Coleman, in his first season from Arizona, finished with 104 yards rushed, but it was his 64-yard run that really helped solidify the momentum swing for UW. That run flipped the field and set up UW’s second score in the second quarter.
Will Rogers’ best target of the afternoon, Denzel Boston, a homegrown talent, was the recipient of two touchdown grabs – one after Coleman’s 64-yard reservation, and another in the final minute of the first half.
UW’s DeGraaf had his 41-yard touchdown grab to give UW its first score of the game, almost immediately after Snyder’s fumble. Then Jeremiah Hunter, formerly of Cal, was wide-open for an easy 24-yard catch in the end zone in the third.
UW would get its final score by a 28-yard field goal in the third.
Not the homecoming everybody wanted
Creighton moved to Seattle with his parents at the age of 12. when he attended Roosevelt High School, he played junior varsity basketball and was coached by a man named Gregg Kalina. Creighton told The Seattle Times that Kalina is the best coach that he had ever had, and had the pleasure of introducing him to his team by making Kalina an honorary coach for the occasion.
But that wasn’t the only homecoming of the afternoon for EMU’s side.
Redshirt-freshman tight end Gabe Hoffmann is the son of many Washington Huskies. His, Heidi, played hoops. His dad, Steve, made it from Washington to the NFL. So did his uncles, Dave Hoffmann and Brock Huard. Uncle Dave, a UW Hall of Famer, was even a character in the pregame festivities as an honorary captain, and got to sound the siren in the stadium before the game began.
Running back Dontae McMillan, from Seattle, began his college career at Weber State – UW’s opponent last week – before he came to EMU in 2023. McMillan came out of the game in the second quarter due to injury. Still, McMillan led EMU’s rushing efforts with 8 carries for 33 yards.
Max Reese, a Chicago native at heart, was born in Seattle. He caught two passes for eight yards.
And Zyell Griffin, from Vancouver, Wash. (which is closer to Portland, Oregon), made it back to his home state to record his first catch with his new team. Griffin actually had two grabs for 35 yards to lead the team in that category.
With all of the personal homecoming noise for some of the offensive players, Roman said his group did their best to not fall into any of those distractions.
“I felt like our preparation was well and we had a really good mindset throughout that whole week coming into Washington,” said Roman. “And I think we did pretty well as an offensive unit and team, really avoiding the noise and just put our heads down. I think we work pretty well, but we just have to keep on going 1-0. Finding that 1-0 approach, flushing it win or loss and keep growing.”
