Huskies take advantage when Arizona's bubble burst

Throughout the second half, the Arizona Wildcats exploited the Huskies on the perimeter with bubble screen passes to both sides of the field.

They picked the Washington defense apart with short passes that resulted in long gains.

"We saw they were stacking the box to protect against the run," said Wildcats offensive coordinator Sonny Dykes. "So we had some success there."

Mason Foster saw it, too.

The Huskies outside linebacker wanted to run to the edge of the defense to provide support, but his assignment was to defend the middle of the field. But trailing 33-28 with less than three minutes left, he told outside linebacker Donald Butler he was going to break assignment.

"Before the play, I told Donald let's do something crazy," Foster said. "I said I'm about to jump the bubble screen. And when I ran up field [quarterback Nick Foles] kind of held it and I just started running to the ball and it bounced in my hands."

Dykes called a run-pass option on the first play of the drive, which gave Foles the ability to throw or pass depending on the defense. Foles saw Foster deep in coverage and tried to drill a pass short to receiver Delashaun Dean.

Foster read the play from the start and Foles' pass came in hard and low, bounced high off Dean's foot where Foster plucked it out of the air and raced 37 yards for the go-ahead touchdown.

"I felt like throughout the game I had missed opportunities," said Foster, who finished with a game-high 11 tackles. "I felt like he was looking at me and reading me. I figured I'm just going to try to jump it. Instead of running down the line, I'm going to jump it and see what happens."

What happened was bedlam. A staid crowd of 61,621 exploded and rocked 89-year-old Husky Stadium.

Afterward, Dykes didn't lament the interception as much as he regretted five drives inside the UW 12 that ended in four field goals.

"That hurt us as much as anything, not being able to finish off drives," Dykes said. "If we do that, we're not talking about that interception."

The Huskies surrendered 461 yards, 384 passing.

"We were moving the ball, especially in the second half," said Arizona's David Roberts, who had 12 receptions for 138 yards. " "Even after they scored, we had time to come back. It just didn't happen. This is a big loss. It's going to hurt for a while."

Percy Allen: 206-464-2278 or pallen@seattletimes.com