Penix’s brilliance carries Washington to the title game

There wasn’t a single play that Michael Penix Jr. couldn’t make it on Monday evening. As Texas covered its receivers, the Washington quarterback fired lasers up the middle. When the Longhorns applied pressure, Penix peppered his checkdowns. And when he saw his favorite weapons streaking across the field? Penix’s volley of rainbows drove Washington further toward the end zone.

In Washington’s 37-31 thrilling shootout victory over Texas in the Sugar Bowl, Penix may have produced his magnum opus to launch the Huskies into a national championship game against Michigan next Monday night.

There were 592 first-place Heisman votes given to players other than Penix. The 23-year-old played Monday night like he was trying to send personal game tape to all 592 voters.

Penix accounted for more than 460 yards (430 through the air, 31 on the ground) on 29 of 38 passing and a pair of touchdowns. He played the roles of both orchestrator (performing five different score drives of more than eight plays) and magician, thrilling New Orleans audiences with a barrage of more than twenty plays. Penix was named the game’s offensive MVP, with Bralen Trice earning defensive honors.

He fed Rome Odunze, his favorite target all season, with six catches for 125 yards, each long shot more grueling than the last.

It didn’t take long for Penix and the Huskies offense to heat up, as he connected with Ja’Lynn Polk for a 77-yard bomb on Washington’s fourth play of the game. Running back Dillon Johnson plowed in a two-yard score seconds later — the first of Johnson’s two scores — to open the floodgates.

Polk finished with 122 yards on five catches and a touchdown.

To Texas’ credit, the Longhorns never slumped against the buzzsaw. Quarterback Quinn Ewers faced nonstop pressure from Washington’s relentless front seven, and when the Longhorns passer wasn’t getting sacked, he often found targets in all corners of the field.

Despite struggling to get the ball to his star receivers Xavier Worthy and Adonai Mitchell, Ewers finished with 318 yards on 24-of-43 passing with a touchdown as he repeatedly drove the Longhorns into the red zone, resulting in even more three rushing scores.

But in the end, Penix’s greatness was suffocating. Despite Ewers’ steady play, early turnovers limited the Longhorns to just five offensive plays. By the time Texas had its sixth offensive snap of the second half, Washington had collected 13 game-swinging points.

The exciting second half followed a neck-and-neck first half that saw the two powerhouses score three touchdowns and rack up more than 500 yards before the third quarter began.

Ewers and the Longhorns kept driving until the final horn — putting together a 10-play touchdown drive of their own in the fourth quarter — but ran out of time to continue their fate. With one second to play, the Longhorns had one last chance to take the lead and stun the Huskies, but Ewers’ shot in the end zone to Mitchell fell incomplete, saving Washington from an unthinkable comeback.

The wild final ride

After a failed onside kick attempt, the Texas defense got a three-and-out stop and the clock stopped with 50 seconds left when Washington’s Johnson went down with an injury. That gave the Longhorns a chance to put together a nine-play drive in the final minute that went 56 yards, highlighted by a 41-yard catch by Jordan Whittington and a 16-yarder by Jaydon Blue.

Ewers had four shots for a touchdown pass in the final 15 seconds and the Huskies’ secondary stepped up, with safety Makell Esteen getting the game-saving pass breakup against Mitchell on the final play of the night to end the trip. Huskies to complete the national championships. title game. — Max Olson, senior college football writer

Penix was as perfect as a QB can get

Penix finished second in the Heisman Trophy race, but might have won if the voting had taken place after the College Football Playoff. On the biggest stage of his career, he was fantastic, throwing for 430 yards and two touchdowns on 29 of 38 passing.

His accuracy and arm talent were on full display throughout the game, and he started the second half by completing his first 11 passes. The Indiana transfer was plagued by injuries throughout his career but stayed healthy in his two seasons in Seattle after restarting his career by reuniting with new Washington coach and former Indiana OC Kalen DeBoer. His first pass of the day was a 77-yard rainbow to Polk and that was just the appetizer. Time and time again he escaped sacks and bought time before shooting downfield. He’s been doing this all season, but it was a virtuoso performance in front of the largest crowd of his career that put Washington on the cusp of a national title. — David Ubben, senior college football writer

Washington was once again an underdog and won again

Texas is ranked No. 5 in the 247Sports Team Talent Composite. Washington is ranked No. 26. But the undefeated Huskies, who were underdogs again for a month as they were against Oregon in the Pac-12 title game, remained undefeated by once again beating a more talented team. Washington, a team with nine sixth-year players, including the quarterback, didn’t make the mistakes the Longhorns made to decide the game.

Aside from a muffed punt in the first half, they managed to capture the big stage and a heavily pro-Texas crowd in the Superdome. The Huskies were the first team to go undefeated since the Pac-10 became the Pac-12, winning outright as underdogs away from home for the second time this season. — Ubben

What went wrong for Texas?

Texas had a few too many self-inflicted mistakes at critical moments against an experienced Washington team that didn’t make many mistakes. A fumble by freshman running back CJ Baxter on Texas’ first offensive play of the second half set up Washington for an easy field goal to go up 10 points, and another fumble by Blue at the end of a 33 catch and run yards killed a possession that pushed Texas into scoring position. Those takeaways from the Huskies loomed large in what ended up being a one-score game.

Texas’ defense deserves credit for getting clutch stops in the fourth quarter to give the offense a chance for a game-winning drive, but the secondary had a rough night against Penix, at one point letting him go on a series of 12 straight completions and 19 of 20. Texas’ talented D-line finished with zero Penix sacks and just three tackles for loss on the night. — Olson

What are Texas’ prospects for 2024?

Ewers has yet to announce whether he will return for his junior season, but that certainly seems to be the expectation as the Longhorns’ 2023 season comes to a close. There are many more key Texas players who will have to make NFL Draft decisions in the coming weeks, and how they all play out will certainly impact the upside of this program entering its debut season in the SEC.

Their 2024 schedule includes some big ball games, including a non-conference tryout at Michigan, a home game against Georgia and the first meeting with rival Texas A&M since 2011. Still, there is plenty of exciting young talent on this roster that will be expected to coach in the future Steve Sarkisian and his staff will compete annually for the 12-team College Football Playoff after this breakout year, even though they face a much tougher conference. — Olson

Required reading

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