Wow!

I should be writing on my NaNoWriMo novel (word count so far: zero), but I can't not write about last night's University of Washington Huskies football game.

Going into last night's game, the Huskies where four and a half point favorites over the University of Arizona Wildcats. I'm not sure why. Before the game, Arizona was 4-4 on the season, the Huskies 3-4. Arizona was 2-3 in conference but the Huskies were 1-3 (only having beat USC). So I was worried we'd lose this game and we needed to win this game for having any hope of being bowl eligible (need to win 6 games out of 12).

Arizona got the football to start and marched down the field (helped by a controversial defensive pass interference call). The Husky defense did manage to hold them to only to a field goal. Then the Huskies went three and out. But when Arizona got the ball back, the Husky defense made an interception. Then the Husky offense went three and out. I was not very happy at this point.

Then a second Husky interception seemed to turn the whole game around. Freshman quarterback Jake Browning suddenly came on fire (he missed the Stanford game last week with an injury). The running game and the throwing game were just amazing. And the hapless Wildcat defense could do little to stop it.

Meanwhile, the Arizona offense never scored again. To call it a "blow out" is not to exaggerate as the final score was 3 - 49. Late in the fourth quarter Browning stopped playing and the backup quarterback was put in, and we still scored. Arizona head coach Rich Rodriguez was visibly frustrated and upset on the sidelines.

I kept saying during the game, "Where was this team all year?" If we'd played like this from the beginning of the season, we'd probably be 6-2 (or better) not 4-4 now. I'm hoping this game is a preview of things to come. Not just for the rest of the season, but for next year as our very young team matures and gains experience. Browning could hardly miss and the running backs were all over the field. It was an amazing game.

Next week we play Utah who is ranked #13 in the nation with a 7-1 record.

And last night, the Washington State Cougars almost beat #8 Stanford (who moved down to #9 in this week's poll). But they "couged" it, missing a game-winning field goal.