Joel Klatt explains how Washington benefitted from Texas being overly aggressive

Washington was able to hold onto their second half lead and come out victorious in the Sugar Bowl against Texas, advancing to the College Football Playoff national championship following their 37-31 win over the Longhorns on Monday.

Yet again it was an impressive day offensively for the Huskies, but college football analyst Joel Klatt believes that the aggressiveness of Texas actually played a major impact on Washington’s success on Monday night.

“Now again, this is a double-edged sword, because if you’re aggressive and it works then it’s fantastic and if you’re aggressive and it doesn’t work then guess what? It’s 2nd & 10 and it’s essentially like creating a negative play. And so because of that, Texas was constantly chasing what I would call efficiency. They were chasing the ability to be on schedule,” Klatt explained.

The Longhorns’ first six third down attempts of the game were all 3rd & 10 or longer, which according to Klatt came from a desire to be aggressive, creative, and take shots on early downs.

Texas’ two turnovers also ended up being costly and contributed to their struggles offensively as well, but them getting behind the chains in an attempt to keep pace with Washington’s offensive firepower was one of the game’s biggest determining factors to the Huskies’ win in Klatt’s eyes.

“And that brings up this whole notion of we knew Washington was going to score. The weakest part of Texas’ team really and in particular their defense is their passing defense, and Washington was going to, as I said on this show, score in the mid to upper 30s,” Klatt said. “So there was going to be an urgency for Texas to go out there and score a lot of points. Well you’re not gonna score a lot of points when your first six third downs are all third and 10 or longer. That’s just too difficult, you can’t sustain offense that way.”

Washington boasted the nation’s No. 10 scoring offense and No. 1 passing offense this college football season, which has been a major catalyst in their undefeated journey to the national championship this season.

They’ll face a Michigan team next week that knows a thing or two about putting pressure on their opponents as well, but it will be interesting to see if Washington’s offense can continue to set the pace of their games and lead them to a win as they pursue their first national championship win since 1991.

“But this Washington team they force you into that mode where you’ve got to play with a lot of urgency because you know they’re going to score a lot of points, and that would be a point I would make about any great team. Is that great teams force you to feel an uncomfortable amount of urgency. Michigan forces that on you and I think Washington forces that on you.”

“There’s this urgency when you play Washington and you’re like man, we’re gonna have to score on most of our possessions. That’s tough to do, puts you under a lot of pressure and a lot of stress,” Klatt concluded.