SEATTLE-Washington welcomed Northwestern to Big Ten play by pouring cold water on the Wildcats' season with a 24-5 win that was much easier than the scoreboard showed.
For the first time in 11 games, since meeting Penn State last season, Northwestern lost a game by more than one score. It was jarring to see the Wildcats, who had fought tooth-and-nail through early-season struggles to a 2-1 record, wiped off the field.
The Huskies outgained Northwestern 391-112. Quarterback Jack Lausch was 8-for-27 for 53 yards and two interceptions, and, playing in place of an injured Cam Porter, running backs Joseph Himon II and Caleb Komolafe combined for 12 carries and 29 yards.
Northwestern made the most ignominious play call of Braun's tenure and kicked an 18-yard field goal when they were down 15 with and at the Washington 1-yard line with 5:07 left in the third quarter.
Washington would score a touchdown on the next drive, extending the lead to its final resting place of 24-5. The Wildcats would gain just nine total yards on their final three possessions.
Here are our takeaways from a dismal night in Seattle:
Braun's decision making was perplexing: Braun hasn't fostered electric offenses, but he has been consistently aggressive with decision making on fourth-down attempts.
One game that sticks out in his resume is going for it on fourth down twice versus Penn State last season, knowing failures to convert would set the Nittany Lions up to crack the game open, but knowing they were necessary to retain any chance to win. The Nittany Lions stopped them both times and won, 41-13, but it was good process as a heavy underdog to take the shots when they could, damn the score.
Not so on the West Coast.
Because of low confidence in his team to convert a fourth-and-goal from the Washington 1, Braun elected to kick a field goal.
"We were down 15 at the time, if we remained down 15, we were going to have to go for two," he said. "Still significant time in the third quarter and we thought getting it down to 12...instead of chasing a tie, go get two touchdowns and win the football game."
Washington marched 77 yards on the ensuing possession for a touchdown and a 24-5 lead. Northwestern would gain just nine yards over its next three drives, including one that started on the Washington 2 after a 96-yard kick return by Himon ended in a turnover on downs and zero points.
Between the two drives, Northwestern had eight plays within Washington's 4 and left with three points. On that second drive, which included a holding penalty to put NU on the 1, with all trust in the run apparently broken, Lausch threw three incompletions in the four plays after the penalty.
Both decisions stemmed from frustrations and failures to convert short yardage consistently. Of those eight plays, three were rushes that picked up a total of one yard. Braun mentioned a late second-quarter drive where Northwestern rushed twice from third-and-2 and narrowly picked up the first down.
"In those situations with a yard to go, we were struggling to pick it up," he said. "I give Washington a lot of credit...we weren't moving the line of scrimmage. It's not X's and O's, it's being able to move and puncture the line of scrimmage."
Injuries bit Northwestern here a bit as center Jack Bailey left the game with a lower body injury and right guard Josh Thompson played through an upper body injury. Braun bemoaned the absence of Cam Porter, his power back, in these situations.
"[Four passes] was an indication of some of the front structure that we're getting, some of the youth that we have in the backfield... we thought [we had] high-percentage opportunities throwing the football."
Braun's value proposition about avoiding a two-point conversion was flawed in a game where his team finished with 112 yards of offense, with no drive longer than 32 yards and nine of 12 possessions lasting five plays or fewer.
His plan needed two touchdowns. Northwestern hasn't scored two touchdowns against an FBS opponent this season in regulation time.
For the first time in the Braun Era, it felt like he and the staff blinked.
The offense is in need of evaluation: Against FBS opponents, in regulation, Northwestern is averaging 10.3 points per game. While fans were excited about the offseason hiring of offensive coordinator Zach Lujan, the early results have been tough to stomach.
Braun has been consistent that he rarely intervenes with his offensive coordinators.
"I'm certainly going to give Zach feedback, but I prefer to give it between series, pregame, throughout the week," Braun said. "One of the worst things you can do as a head coach is get in the way of the rhythm of a play caller...
"I'll continue to stand on the table and say, 'I really trust the decisions he's making based on the context he has and the flow of the game we're experiencing.'"
In FBS play, the Wildcats are 1-2 with their defense giving them an extraordinarily winnable game versus Duke and an opportunity to be competitive at Washington. In swaths of all three games and in the entirety of this game, the offense nearly ceased to function.
There's no doubt Northwestern went into this game as a significant underdog, and there are underlying roster concerns dating back to a 4-20 stretch from 2021-22 that may have been masked by a Braun bounce in 2023. Washington is a good team, but the national runners up did not take the field on Saturday.
However you want to slice the accountability among coach preparation, coach in-game adaptation, player performance and talent acquisition, it all summed up to a team that offensively has looked inoperable against its peers or conference foes.
They need to get to work or this season could turn ugly.
MORE ON THE WASHINGTON GAME: Braun makes puzzling decision to kick FG in loss at Washington
Lausch needs to improve as a passer: Unfortunately, the honeymoon phase ended as swiftly as it arrived for Lausch after his second-half spurt vs. Eastern Illinois.
His completion percentage hovered in the 30s for most of the Washington game and he threw two interceptions, albeit one pressing towards the end of the half and another that ricocheted off Calvin Johnson II. Neither resulted in Washington points, but the clarity and decision making from last week evaporated on the Lake Washington shores.
Lausch was open and accountable postgame.
"I have to be a lot better getting through my reads," he said. "They did a good job on defense, but I have to figure it out, find a way... Obviously this isn't an acceptable result but at the same time, I thought those guys battled really hard. Personally, I need to be better. Excited to watch the film and see how."
Lausch completed just six passes to a wide receiver, five of them to AJ Henning. Lausch fired plenty of passes toward receiver Bryce Kirtz, but some of his issues from EIU resurfaced and he skipped many of them short. Kirtz, nominally the team's lead receiver, finished with one catch for two yards.
The Huskies rarely sent more than four rushers, often spying and dropping back a flotilla of defensive backs in coverage, daring Lausch to analyze and beat them with his arm.
"Jack needs to continue to trust himself," Braun said. "Sometimes he's about to pull the trigger then pulling it back down. I have absolute confidence in that young man to take ownership, learn from it and get better because of it."
The Wildcats have two weeks to rest and reload, and Braun was adamant that the time will be spent working with Lausch to bounce back at the helm.
"Absolutely, yes," he said on if Lausch will start Oct. 5 vs. Indiana.
There may not be another player in the quarterback room that could have gone out and won today's game for the Wildcats, but Braun's policy of constant evaluation will be put to the test. Northwestern's quarterback is once again on the clock.
Northwestern failed its defense: How Washington finished this game with just 24 points is hard to fathom. The defense never quit and gave its offense opportunity after opportunity to get back into this game. They took matters into their own hands and forced a safety for the team's first points, recovered a fumble at the Washington 33 early in the second half, and even turned Washington over on downs at the NU 9 with 4:29 left.
Linebacker Xander Mueller, a fifth-year senior, made his evaluation.
"I think we obviously have a lot of room to improve," he said. "I think there's some definite signs of the defense that we can be...
"The tackling was nowhere where it needed to be. It's a huge emphasis for every Big Ten game. They had a good rushing offense and we didn't do enough to stop them and put our team in a position to win."
Mueller later said that he relishes every opportunity to be on the field, but there was an inexcusable gap in execution that left the defense on an island. Washington ran 69 plays to Northwestern's 53. They sustained three different drives of 10+ plays, Northwestern had zero. They converted 22 first downs, the Wildcats had 12.
There is still room for improvement with open-field tackling, but Northwestern cannot strand this defense on the field and require single digits to win a game. That's their MO through a third of this season, and it's unsustainable against the eight more games on their conference slate. This defense needs help, soon.
Bye week blues: The bye week is the perfect time for the coaching staff to think things over. The Wildcats got played off the field by an above average Big Ten team. Looking at the remaining schedule, there may not be a game in which the Wildcats are favored to win.
Thankfully, the bye week has arrived. Braun's 24-hour rule is always in place and he's said the team will continue to stand by its principles and ride out the choppy performances.
"If you overemphasize or get in your own head about it...show up on Monday and we'll go get better," he said. "The difference between our team last year with the Big Ten opener on the road at Rutgers vs. the team you saw at Wisconsin or Illinois? Two dramatically different teams.
"It wasn't anything we said, it was our guys going to work every day and continuing to get better."
You can't count this team out after last season, when they went from a 17-9 loss at Nebraska to four straight wins, . But it'll need to be much, much better if they want a shot at beating undefeated Indiana in Evanston the next time they take the field.
