Five bold predictions for Sugar Bowl between Texas and Washington
The College Football Playoff is just around the corner. The No. 3 Texas Longhorns (12-1) take on the No. 2 Washington Huskies (13-0) in the late game of the four-team playoff.
There are plenty of narratives surrounding the game. Among them is that Texas might not have the secondary to hang with Washington. That may be true, but isn’t our feeling on the game.
Many point to the Longhorns’ No. 93 pass defense in college football. The team surrenders 240.8 yards per game through the air. The Washington Huskies’ pass defense is worse. The Huskies rank an abysmal No. 120 out of 130 FBS defenses allowing 263.2 passing yards per game.
The Washington offense, however, will be the toughest test Texas has faced this season. The Huskies tower over college football with the No. 1 passing offense in the country at 343.8 yards per contest. Texas ranks No. 18 in pass offense with 286.8 yards per game.
The game could come down to which squad can slow the opponent’s passing game or get more from their own. Let’s predict that and more in our five bold predictions for the game.
Quinn Ewers outgains Michael Penix
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers outgains Washington quarterback Michael Penix in this contest. We’ll include the running game where Ewers might utilize the quarterback run more than he has since his midseason injury against Houston. The second-year quarterback went for 369 yards passing last season against the Huskies. We’ll take him to continue the highly productive trend on Monday.
Texas offense goes for 600 yards
The Texas offense should put up plenty of yards in the game. It’s what they do. The Longhorns are averaging over 475 total yards per game. In their last two contests, Texas coasted to 528 yards against Texas Tech and 662 yards in the Big 12 title game against Oklahoma State. Even in Texas’ lone loss, the Longhorns outgained the Oklahoma Sooners 527 yards to 486 yards. Whether or not Texas gets points out of those yards will depend on red zone execution and explosive plays.
Texas forces two turnovers
Michael Penix is perhaps the best quarterback in college football. Unfortunately for the Huskies, with that comes a high level of self confidence in his ability to make throws. Penix puts the ball in harm’s way and Texas forces two turnovers.
Combined five or more field goals
The two teams combine for five made field goals in this prediction. With two potent offenses to contend with it’s likely both defenses will at some point play to hold their opponent to three points rather than seven. Expect to see some bend-but-don’t-break defense particularly from Washington given Texas’ struggles in red zone offense.
Texas gets two sacks
The Washington offensive line won the Joe Moore Award for having the best offensive line in the country. They won the award perhaps due in large part to the team surrendering only 11 sacks on the season. The Huskies don’t often allow pressure to get to the quarterback. In this game, Texas breaks through for a couple of sacks.
