Washington’s Salvon Ahmed could provide a spark for Huskies’ struggling offense

SEATTLE – Lined up as a wide receiver out left, Salvon Ahmed took a reverse pitch and ran 50 yards into the end zone, igniting a stagnant Washington offense early in the third quarter at Sun Devil Stadium.

Alas, the touchdown was called back, negated by a hold on a UW wide receiver.

Over the course of the game’s next 28 minutes, Ahmed had only one more touch — a 16-yard run — in the Huskies’ 13-7 setback at Arizona State.

Nine days after his team’s first loss of the season, and after the No. 12 Huskies (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) sat through their bye week, Chris Petersen on Monday called out his wide receivers and his offensive line as the keys to an offensive turnaround.

He reiterated, too, that he would like to see more of Ahmed, the freshman running back out of Kirkland’s Juanita High School.

“He’s a guy that, obviously, we’d like to get him the ball however way and see what he can do,” Petersen said. “He’s been doing a really nice job of just working hard. He’s a young guy, and he comes to practice on a mission. Really focused.”

When starting slot receiver Chico McClatcher was lost to a season-ending ankle injury last month, it was thought the versatile Ahmed might be a natural fill-in at that position. The 5-foot-11, 189-pound freshman spent time in fall camp at wide receiver, and coaches have tried to be creative in how they sprinkle him into the offense.

Ahmed, the team’s No. 3 back behind Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman, had two carries for 28 carries against Arizona State. Overall this season, he has 37 carries for 174 yards (4.7 yards per carry) and two touchdowns, and most of his touches have come in the fourth quarter of blowout wins. He also has five catches for 16 yards.

“Every time he does something I’m like, ‘I really like this guy,’” Petersen said. “So, yeah, I think we’ve got to figure out ways to use him a little bit. What we really need to do is stay on the field and run more plays and those types of things. It’s just tough when you’re three-and-outs and five-and-outs and punting the ball. If we can stay on there and get in a little rhythm, it’ll help us.”

Petersen again lamented Monday that lack of big plays from UW’s receivers against Arizona State. Asked about what quarterback Jake Browning can do better in the second half of the season — which begins with Saturday’s homecoming game against UCLA — Petersen put the onus on those around his star QB.

“When I look at a little bit of our struggles on offense … (Browning) is not the first, second or third guy that pops into my head,” Petersen said.

Arizona State held the Huskies to 230 yards of total offense and 3.77 yards per play. It’s the fewest yards against a Pac-12 defense in Browning’s three seasons as a starter.

“I think (if) we protect the guy and our receivers go make plays for him, when you talk about the detailed stuff — I’m liking the plays when Quinten Pounds goes up between two (defenders) and makes a play (as he did at Colorado). That’s what real receivers do — they make plays,” Petersen said.

He added: “Jake has a tremendous command of what we’re doing and I think he’s competing as hard as anyone we have on the team. … I think we can help Jake (with) what we can and scheme and then protect him and then the receivers — all that stuff. It goes back to making Jake successful. It’s all these other people show up to make him look really good. And he will if everybody else does what they’re supposed to do.”

It certainly didn’t help that the Huskies lost Trey Adams, their all-Pac-12 left tackle, in the first quarter to a season-ending knee injury.

During the bye week, Petersen said the team addressed the Arizona State game and he said he was pleased with the team’s practice Sunday night.

“We haven’t just let this thing go like, ‘Oh well, those games happen.’ That will never happen around here,” he said. “So we’ve had some really heart felt talks.”