The Washington Huskies aren't exactly having the best weekend. Following a loss to the Arizona State Sun Devils on Saturday, Washington is now operating in a season that has little to gain other than some program building through optics.
Prior to Saturday, the Huskies had a real chance to fight for a spot in the College Football Playoff. Losing to an iffy Pac-12 team, one with a couple of losses already on its own resume, did Washington not favors. In fact, any ideas anyone had that the Huskies could play in the College Football Playoff have all gone the way of the dinosaur.
A polite way, honestly, of saying those ideas are now firmly slotted in the realm of fiction. There's almost no way — barring nuclear disaster from other big boy programs across the country — Washington finds itself playing in college football's most important postseason games.
This is not good. It is an awful loss. When you couple in the fact that it was the highest-ranked team the Sun Devils (3-3, 2-1 Pac-12) have beaten since they defeated then-No. 1 Nebraska on Sept. 21, 1996, it is an epic loss. One so bad that it could stunt all the positive momentum that has been built within the program.
A bit hyperbolic? Yes. But if it is such a big deal for the winning squad, it almost certainly has to be equally as bad for the one that left Saturday with an L.
“A monumental win for our program,” Arizona State coach Todd Graham said after the game, as written by the AP, “and we're not surprised.”
With Saturday having come and gone, Washington (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) lost at Arizona State for the seventh straight time. A weird streak happening, especially when you realize how “only OK” ASU has long been.
In a weird way, Washington's loss did help put the cherry on top of a college football weekend that saw a plethora of highly ranked teams fall to assumed unworthy opponents. The Huskies were the fourth top-10 team to lose this past weekend, joining No. 2 Clemson, No. 8 Washington State and No. 10 Auburn.
Maybe this provides them with the slimmer of hope that the CFP goal the team had is not lost. If everyone else lost, how bad could this one be? Unfortunately, the Huskies simply lack the name-brand recognition as a Clemson or Auburn. While that isn't supposed to matter with voters, it just does.
“A tough day at the office,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said. “We could not get any rhythm going whatsoever and when we did we get a penalty and couldn't capitalize in the red zone.”
“One of the more frustrating nights we have had in a long time on offense.”
What makes Petersen's thoughts on the inept offense equally as troubling is that the Sun Devils had allowed at least 30 points in 11 straight games prior to facing Washington. How a usually capable Huskies offense collapses against an objectively bad defense might end up being one of this season's weirdest subplots.
Washington entered the night averaging 43 points per game. 43 per game! And yet, only scored a total of seven on Saturday. For those unaware of how math works, that is 36 fewer points than normal.
Issues and blame were spread all over Washington's team. Kicker Van Soderberg missed field goals of 27 and 21 yards; Jake Browning went only 17-for-30 for just 139 yards in the air; and so on.
If a person wants to place said blame, it can't be on a sole individual. It will need to be divvied off to varying members of the program.
The Sun Devils sacked Browning five times. The Washington quarterback had only been sacked six times total in the first six games but he was under duress most of the night. The offensive line can be blamed for some of those woes, though it was often because the Arizona State secondary blanketed his receivers.
“Am I shocked that they came ready to play after an off week, at home, at night?” Browning said. “No. Anybody can lose to anybody.”
Nevertheless, this is a big time loss in a weekend Washington could have separated itself from the pack. Instead, here the Huskies are, lying on the ground, barely breathing, likely with Liam Neeson's head resting on their belly.
Huskies, wolves, whatever.
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