The Huskies are 8-2

I'm going to write this post in two parts: Saturday Morning after the Friday night Husky game and Sunday Morning when all the other games have been played and the AP Top 25 Poll has come out.

Saturday Morning

The University of Washington Huskies played Stanford last night in Palo Alto, California. I knew going in this was going to be a tough game, playing Stanford on their home turf is never easy. But at first, it looked like there was no problem for the Dawgs. The Cardinal (it's a color) got the ball first but were stopped by the Huskies' amazing defense, and then the Huskies scored a touchdown, and then the defense stopped Stanford again and the Huskies scored again in the second quarter. Then the Cardinal scored. It might have been a high-scoring game except...the Huskies somehow stopped playing hard. Starting in the second quarter, Stanford kept racking up points as the hapless Huskies would go three and out on most series. At some point in the fourth quarter, the announces mentioned that the Huskies had had only one first down in the second half.

With less than five minutes to go, the Huskies came alive and tried to make up a 16 point deficit. They got a touchdown and made the two-point conversion. But it was too little, too late.

The Huskies aren't used to being behind and I wonder if the farther behind they got, the more demoralized they became. Something was off last night. The final score of the game was 22-30.

This makes the Huskies 8-2 over all and 6-2 in conference.

On Sunday morning we'll see how the rest of the Pac-12 shakes out and what happens in the AP poll. But this finishes Washington's slim hopes of being the the CFP playoffs. No Pac-12 team will make the playoffs this year.

Sunday Morning

Last Tuesday, the CFP committee put the Huskies at #9. I'm assuming they will be lower this week when the rankings come out on Tuesday. The AP poll also had them at #9.

Yesterday, Washington State University Cougars beat Utah bringing their record to 9-2 overall and 6-2 in conference. That puts them on top of the Pac-12 North. But their bye week is next week (meaning they have two weeks to prepare for the Apple Cup rivalry game with UW). Likely, the Pac-12 North championship will come down to the Apple Cup, if UW beats Utah next week at home.

Stanford is also 6-2 in conference but 7-3 over all so they're in third place. They play Nortre Dame on the last weekend of the regular season. They play California in their rivalry game next week.

In the Pac-12 South, USC beat Colorado to remain in the top position. They play UCLA next week in that cross-town rivalry game. Their bye week is the last week of the regualar season, giving them more time to prepare for the Pac-12 Championship game. The Pac-12 did a horrible job of scheduling bye weeks this year. That's probably partly to blame on ESPN and Fox, who have contracts with the Pac-12 to show the games.

It's too bad Washington lost, they could have gone up a lot in the AP poll and the CFP rankings. That's because #10 Auburn beat #1 Georgia (these rankings are CFP). And #7 Miami Florida beat #3 Notre Dame. As those teams drop, Washington could have moved up.

In the AP top 25 poll (which is a hint of what the CFP committee will do), Washington is now at #16 with no chance of getting into the playoffs (top 4). USC is the top-ranked Pac-12 team at #12. WSU is at #15 (yes, higher than Washington). And Stanford is back in the top 25 at #20.

Georgia dropped from #2 in the AP poll to #7 and Notre Dame went from #3 in the AP poll to #9.

Washington plays Utah next week at home. The game is at 7:30 PM PST on ESPN. I hate these late games.