The Washington Huskies blew out California 66-27 on Saturday evening, proving that they are one of the four best teams in the country.
Make no mistake about it: this is an impressive win for UW. Sure, some college football experts will say, “big deal, it’s only Cal”. However, the Bears entered this game with a perfect record at home, which included wins over both Texas and Utah. In addition, Cal has one of the most explosive passing attacks in the country, ranking fourth nationally in passing yards per game (365.6). With that type of firepower on offense, many expected this contest to be a close one.
It wasn’t. Yes, California got on the scoreboard first, and managed to cut the lead 21-20 in the second quarter, but Washington was never really in danger of losing this game. The Bear defense had absolutely no answers for UW quarterback Jake Browning, who completed 19 of 28 passes for 378 yards (14.4 yards per attempt!) and six touchdowns. As a result of his precision passing, things opened up for the running game, which ran for 287 yards.
The Washington defense was just as outstanding. The Husky front seven controlled the line of scrimmage all night long, limiting the Cal ground game to 100 yards on 27 carries. The usually stellar Bear passing attack didn’t have much success either, completing less than 50% of its throws, and tossing a season-high three interceptions. With the Washington defense playing well against both the run and the pass, Cal went just 1 for 14 on third down conversions, and finished with a season-low 362 yards on offense.
In other words: the Husky D held the nation’s eighth-best offense to its lowest output of the year.
Of course, Washington’s monster stats shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. After all, the Huskies came into this contest ranked in the top 10 in yards per play on both offense (5th) and defense (10th).
That, my friends, speaks volumes about how good this Washington team really is. While we can argue about their strength of schedule and/or how the Huskies stack up against the other top contenders, the bottom line is that UW keeps on winning. As long as that continues to happen, the Huskies will be in the College Football Playoff, regardless of what Ohio State, Louisville, or anyone else does.
