Washington beat Oregon, and you had to hear it to believe it
Husky Stadium hasn't seen many like UW's 36-33 victory on Saturday.
SEATTLE β Lacking a more relatable comparison, a friend once likened the sideline experience at Husky Stadium β when the game is close, and the seats are filled β to something like an acid trip. The sound crescendos, reverberates and compounds until itβs everywhere around you, a sensation replicable nowhere but maybe a rock concert. But there, you probably already know the setlist. On a most pressurized Saturday afternoon by Lake Washington, there was no telling whether euphoria or heartbreak might await the sellout crowd on the other side of so many temple-pounding moments.
Whether their hoarse throats and headaches might wind up in legion with this stadiumβs most joyous days.
Whether Washington might beat Oregon, again, when it felt like it probably wouldnβt.
You could have attended games here for decades without seeing anything like it. Decades could pass before you see anything like it again.Β
That might have been true, anyway, even if Camden Lewisβ 43-yard field goal attempt had not wandered just too far to the right as time expired, and even if No. 7 Washington hadnβt plucked from likely defeat this 36-33 victory over No. 8 Oregon before 71,321 fans, and even if a few thousand of them hadnβt packed the turf in celebration. It was a classic, regardless of outcome. But because Lewis did miss, and because Michael Penix Jr. and Rome Odunze connected for the go-ahead touchdown moments prior, Saturdayβs affair also will be remembered among UWβs all-time greatest victories here, on the mantle with those your father told you about as a kid.
A generation of fans might also remember it as the very loudest, even if the visiting Ducks withstood UWβs homefield advantage to lead late, a single fourth-down conversion separating them from administering the Huskies a crushing loss. But Bo Nixβs fourth-and-three incompletion β the last of three failed fourth-down attempts that UO coach Dan Lanning will hear about in perpetuity β provided UW with an opening in the final two minutes, and Penix needed only two passes to put the Huskies back in front.
The first was a 35-yard shot to JaβLynn Polk, completed, poetically, in front of safety Evan Williams, whose older brother, Bennett, was a millisecond late on Penixβs 62-yard touchdown to Taj Davis at Autzen last season.Β
The second was an 18-yard touchdown to Odunze, who made his second grown-man touchdown catch of the game, over backup cornerback Trikweze Bridges, on a fade that Penix checked into before the snap.
Penix, who threw for 302 yards and four scores, saw one-on-one coverage, gave Odunze βthe head nodβ to indicate the ball was coming, and looked off the safety before back-shouldering his most important touchdown pass of the season.
βMy guy vs. their guy β Iβm going to take my guy every time,β Penix said. βRome shows each and every day why heβs the top receiver in the nation. He knew that I was going to trust him, and I gave him that fade route, and we made it happen. Thatβs stuff we do all the time in practice. Every game, yβall see it.β
It wound up the game-winning score, and one of a handful of moments that tested the decibel meter UW installed at Husky Stadium just this week. The school considers its 133.6 reading against Nebraska in 1992 to be the stadium record, and posted that figure on the video board several times throughout Saturdayβs game, imploring fans to yell louder and set a new mark. They obliged, pushing the needle past 130 β just shy of the 1992 standard, but loud enough that Todd Marinovich might have heard it, somewhere.
The east end zone received much of the noise. Oregon twice failed on fourth-and-three deep in UW territory on that end. The Huskies blew a fourth-and-one at the goal line, too, the play that gave Oregon possession with 6:33 to play and a 33-29 lead. Penixβs decisive throw to Odunze created another frenzy by the water.
The final shouts, though, were reserved for triple-zeroes, this time on the west end in front of the students, many of whom awoke in the dark to wave signs behind ESPNβs College GameDay set this morning. Oregon drove to UWβs 25-yard line with four seconds left, the ball centered perfectly for the Lewis kick that would either extend this game or end it. He struck it well, yet it drifted, drifted, drifted and missed, wide right, by a slim enough margin that in-person attendees needed a moment β and the officialβs signal β to confirm what they had seen: no good. Game over.Β
Forever memories followed: the students who leapt the bottom rail and stampeded toward jubilation; the players stuck on the field, happy mayhem everywhere they turned; the coaches, including Kalen DeBoer, who could have spent each of Saturdayβs remaining hours high-fiving strangers on their way back to the locker room. Courtney Morgan, UWβs director of player personnel, and Chuck Morrell, co-defensive coordinator and playcaller, shared a knowing embrace as Princeβs βPurple Rainβ provided the soundtrack for a postgame scene befitting all hype.
βIβm just trying to find the players, because seeing them celebrate, this is what coaching is all about, is trying to have an environment where they can have these type of opportunities and experiences and moments,β DeBoer said. βItβs just super special.β
Penix played much of the fourth quarter through cramps, DeBoer said, and they were severe enough that it affected the tempo of UWβs offense as the quarterback steeled himself for each snap. He gave an emotional postgame interview before a security guard (read: amateur fullback) guided him toward safety.
βSorry for some of the people that got shoved out of the way,β Penix said afterward.
Family members awaited Penix inside the tunnel, and he stood there, outside the entrance to UWβs locker room, greeting each and every teammate as they, too, retreated from the mob. He hugged offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. He high-fived Jalen McMillan and former UW star Jermaine Kearse. The young son of Scott Huff, UWβs offensive line coach, threw both of his arms around the quarterback, and later leapt into his fatherβs arms. Tuli Letuligasenoa saw Penix and yelled: βThatβs that man right there!β Fans asked for selfies, and he obliged.
Eventually, Odunze fought through the human mass to find his quarterback in the tunnel, and now Penix had a partner for his impromptu photoshoots, purple-clad revelers still partying on the field outside as the Huskiesβ two most popular players stocked the camera rolls of all who asked.
Of Saturdayβs atmosphere, Penix, a sixth-year senior with experience in two power conferences, concluded: βThis was No. 1.β The typically stoic DeBoer was so amped that he interrupted Penixβs postgame interview with a celebratory yelp: βI havenβt even seen this guy yet! Oh, man!β
Victory required so many clutch plays and appeared so improbable at times in the fourth quarter that it would be silly to crown the Huskies as the Pac-12βs undisputed best. These teams may well meet again, in Las Vegas, and no serious person would take for granted that UW would win such a game. The Huskies are good, and Oregon is good. Yet Washingtonβs greatest ambitions feel as realistic as ever: a conference championship, a College Football Playoff appearance, a Huskies quarterback in suit and tie in New York City. A catastrophic defeat against either Arizona State or Stanford is all that could prevent UW from an 8-0 record entering its Nov. 4 game against a USC team that just got bludgeoned at Notre Dame.
The Huskies are far from perfect. They tackled poorly on Saturday, and, given an opportunity to build on an 11-point lead in the second half, their offense sputtered. Jalen McMillan appeared to aggravate the injury that kept him out of UWβs last two games. Considering Oregonβs fourth-down failures β and the fact they piled up 541 yards of total offense β you could understand how the Ducks might feel they should have won.
These are the margins that separate winning coaches from criticized coaches, Heisman finalists from very good quarterbacks, and gut-punch losses from legendary afternoons inside a stadium that has stood, in some capacity, for more than a century.
It could stand another 100 years, and they might still be talking about Penix and Odunze, Lanning and his fourth downs, and the kind of sound you can only hear once.
β Christian Caple, On Montlake
Aw Christian, damn - this is poetry, brother.
Christian, this might be my favorite piece you've ever written. Incredible work. And to be so fortunate to have that art, for the biggest game in my Husky fandom? Honestly such a treat.
Go Dawgs!