Elijah Brown leads Washington past Purdue, 38-26

Word that Washington would start the backup came down Friday afternoon, a few hours before kickoff in West Lafayette.

Pete Thamel

@PeteThamel

Source: Elijah Brown will start at quarterback for Washington against Purdue tonight. He's been working with the first team this week as Demond Williams is working his way through a rib injury.

Williams hurt his ribs in the loss to Iowa the week before, and Brown came in for him in that game. It went well. He opened the second half 14-of-16 and led 2 straight touchdown drives, which is why he spent this week taking first-team reps. Brown is a junior who transferred in from Stanford this offseason. Before Friday, all he had done in purple was mop-up work.

Washington still left the door open on Williams right up to kickoff. The plan was to see how his ribs felt once he started throwing in warmups, and the 2 quarterbacks split reps before the game.

It ended up being Brown's game, and he gave Washington the full experience. He finished 21-of-27 for 302 yards with 3 touchdown passes and 3 interceptions. The Huskies put up 488 yards of offense, a season high, and 186 rushing yards, their best of the year. A run game that came in among the worst in the country finally showed up, and it saved them from a pile of giveaways that should have sunk them.

Chris Vannini

@ChrisVannini

Washington goes to Purdue with its backup QB, turns the ball over five times and wins by 12. Weird and fun game!

Weird and fun is about right. Turning it over 5 times on the road and still winning by 12 shouldn't happen, and it says plenty about both teams. Brown owned the mistakes afterward. He said that with "those three interceptions," everyone stayed positive and kept encouraging him. That's what a backup is supposed to say, and he also put up 300 yards, so he's earned a little slack.

What matters most is where Washington was before this. The win ended a 3-game losing streak and was the Huskies' first Power 4 conference win of the season, so they're now 4-3 overall and 1-3 in the Big Ten. They had been winless in league play and sitting near the bottom of the conference in scoring.

Next up is the Williams question. If his ribs are healthy, he's the starter and this was a nice little detour. If he's out longer, Washington now has film of Brown moving the ball, plus a whole week's worth of turnovers to clean up before the next one.