Washington will lose eventually. Right?

The Huskies stayed unbeaten with a tight win against Oregon State. It's what they do.

Photo by Christian Caple/On Montlake.

CORVALLIS, Ore. — The drive south is picturesque this time of year, red and orange popping from the trees, the morning sun lighting the way from the east. It’s almost enough to make you forget about the forecast, and the clouds sure to gather by the afternoon before dousing the region in a steady rain, soaking those foolish enough to spend the evening outdoors.

Washington and Oregon State played a football game on Saturday night, and so it had to be this way, everyone wet but the elevator operator. If you wanted to enjoy the renovated Reser Stadium in person, you needed at least a flask and a poncho. If that poncho was purple, you also needed to accept that no, a 12-point halftime lead would not yield a comfortable victory, and no, the Huskies would not capitalize on a safety or a third-quarter turnover to really take control, and yes, Damien Martinez and DJ Uiagalelei were going to do what grown men do when in possession of a football, and, sorry, but you were absolutely going to have to sweat out the final minutes, no matter that your supposedly weather-proof jacket had already soaked through.

Accept this, too: the Washington Huskies are winners. It’s simply what they do, against good teams and bad teams, ranked teams and rank teams, woeful Arizona State and, on Saturday, 11th-ranked Oregon State, for the final time as members of the same conference.

Sure as the rain bathed this gleaming new structure, the Huskies figured a path toward victory, delivering a 22-20 triumph to those who braved I-5 traffic and the elements and the prospect of watching Oregon State’s sellout crowd of 38,415 celebrate UW’s inevitable, overdue demise — that eventual defeat, that Data Point which would finally supply reason to banish Washington from its perch at No. 5 in the College Football Playoff rankings and prove that hey, see? We told you. The Huskies aren’t that good.

It’s coming. 

It has to be.

Right?