Preview: Georgia State at Washington

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After two inconsistent games, everything clicked for Washington in last week’s 44-19 demolition of Illinois.

Now the Huskies have a game they should easily win. They are 36-point favorites over Georgia State one week before Stanford comes to Seattle for UW’s first Pac-12 game of the season.

Most impressive last week was UW’s defense. One week after allowing 573 yards of offense to Eastern Washington, the Dawgs D’ dominated Illinois. Shaq Thompson returned a fumble and an interception for touchdowns.

Like Illinois, Georgia State relies on the pass. Junior quarterback Nick Arbuckle threw for 414 yards in last week’s 48-38 loss to Air Force. The Panthers (1-2) have scored at least 31 points in each of its games.

This week, there’s less apprehension about how the Husky secondary will handle a pass-first offense. Marcus Peters is back after serving a one-game suspension. Sophomore Kevin King and true freshmen Budda Baker and Sidney Jones drew raves from defensive coordinator Pete Kwiatkowski for their play against Illinois.

If the secondary holds up, the UW defense can be awesome. A recent 2015 NFL mock draft on CBS Sports has four UW defenders being taken in the first round (Peters, Thompson, Hau’oli Kikaha, Danny Shelton).

Meanwhile, quarterback Cyler Miles continues to get more comfortable leading the offense. The sophomore has completed more than 60 percent of his passes and has a quarterback rating of 151.7.

The Georgia State football program was founded in 2010 and is currently in its second season in the Sun Belt Conference. Head coach Trent Miles was the UW running backs coach from 2005-07. Five of his assistants have ties to UW.

 

Georgia State at Washington

When: 3 p.m. Saturday at Husky Stadium, Seattle

TV, radio: Pac-12 Network, AM-1550

Records: Georgia State (1-2), UW (3-0)

Key to game: Washington has superior talent on both side of the ball. The only way this game isn’t a blowout is if the Huskies are too focused on the crucial game against Stanford the following week.

Quotable: “Honestly the past couple of weeks, three weeks, we got used to teams passing on us. It doesn’t matter what kind of (offense) we get. Run or pass we just got to dominate on each side. But it’s always cool to play the run. Teams like Stanford and Oregon that like to run.” — UW linebacker John Timu.

Prediction: Washington 42-14