The College Football Semifinal consisted of many exciting moments that were as entertaining as they could be. The anticipation of this game felt like it was building up for so long because of the month that is between the conference championships and the playoff game. The two teams Washington and Texas had been preparing for quite some time now in practice trying to do their best to be ready for this game. In the end, the semifinals game had all the ingredients to make this a very intriguing game as the Huskies were able to defeat the Longhorns 37-31.
This was one of the best CFP Playoff games that has ever been played because of the ongoing back-and-forth entertainment from start to finish. This game had both offensive and defensive plays throughout the game which made it close down to the very finish. The two quarterbacks Michael Penix Jr. and Quinn Ewers led the way for both teams as they moved the ball down the field efficiently. Micheal Penix Jr. however was the far better performer in this contest by far as he finished with 430 passing yards and two passing touchdowns.
The first half started with several long passing plays from Penix Jr. which ultimately led to a couple of touchdowns, but Texas was able to answer back both times to even the score at 14-14 entering the half. Ewers was able to keep Texas in the game as best he could even though it had appeared that Washington had maintained the momentum all half. All the marbles were on the line as the second half of the game would decide who would reach the CFP Championship.
The start of the second half left off right where it started as the Huskies were able to drive down on their first possession of the half after a 19-yard completion to Jalen McMillan as Penix Jr. had a beautiful throw as he threaded the needle between two Texas defenders. Washington was able to add on a field goal as well in the third quarter which would wrap up the scoring from the quarter. Nothing was going well for the Longhorns offensively as the Huskies were unable to shut down the Texas offense while maintaining their star tight end JaTavion Sanders as well as the running back CJ Baxter during this time of play in the second half.
The following quarter however was a completely different game than watched previously. The roles appeared to switch as about halfway through the fourth, Adonai Mitchell was able to haul in a 1-yard pass to make the score 28-34 following a Huskies field goal. The Longhorns drove down the field in a matter of seconds on their scoring drive which allowed them to gain some momentum the rest of the game. Rome Odunze for Washington was able to continue to make catch after catch as he would send the game with 125 receiving yards, as he continued to lead his team down the field to continue to score points. However, field goals were the only thing the Huskies were able to cook up in the fourth quarter which helped out Texas a lot in keeping it within a two-possession game. After Texas was able to drive down the field with 2:30 to play in the half, there were a few key catches by Xavier Worthy to move the Longhorns down the field with the time expiring. With the Huskies getting a fourth down stop, it forced Texas to kick a field goal to get some points on the board.
With 1:09 to play in the game and an onside kick on the way, Texas had to hope for the best. Washington recovered the onside kick which pretty much would conclude the game we all thought, but this wasn’t the case. With two timeouts left for Texas, Washington decided to run the ball a few times to waste some of the clock, but wasn’t able to cut much time off as running back Dillon Johnson had an ankle injury on one of the running plays. This then added ten seconds to the game clock which made it fourth down for the Huskies, forcing them to punt. On the punt, there was interference by the Huskies when Texas was receiving the ball, which led to a 15-yard penalty. This set the Longhorns up at their 30-yard line with 45 seconds to go. With a 50-yard pass to Jordan Whittington, this set Texas up with good field position with still enough time on the clock. After a great catch by the running back Jaydon Blue, Texas had the ball at the 13-yard line with 5 seconds left. After an incompletion, there was time for one last play with one second left on the game clock.
The final play was a ball thrown to the corner of the endzone in an attempt to get it to Adonai Mitchell, but it was swatted away by cornerback Elijah Jackson to seal the deal. Washington would hold on to win the game to keep their undefeated season alive at 14-0 heading into the National Championship. As for Texas they had a great run into the CFP Playoffs and played well but unfortunately weren’t able to get the job done. Washington will play Michigan for the National Championship on January 8 to decide who will take it all for the College Football season.
When asked about how the Huskies were able to close out the game and get the edge over Texas, Washington fan Camden Bentley (9) said, “They got to Ewers and kept him under pressure the whole game and didn’t give him time to throw, while Penix Jr. had all day.” Another Husky fan Chet West (12) also explained that the reason the Huskies won was “because of Michael Penix Jr.”
Someone who didn’t care for the Huskies to win was Cristian Porras (12) and he explained that the Huskies got lucky and should have lost the game. “Their quarterback played really bad as well as their O-line, this led to a bad game for the Huskies and got lucky because Quinn Ewers didn’t play the way he usually does.”
