We like to have fun.

When you spend the better part of seven hours tailgating, playing lots of beer pong, eating lots of food, watching lots of football on a TV out of the back of a van, huddled around a fire and shooting the shit with friends, time tends to get away from you.  As such, first quarters of football games tend to get missed.  By the time we got into the stadium, and up to our 300-level seats, most of the first quarter had already passed.

And I wouldn’t say we were missing it, Bob!

Oregon put together what sounded like a pretty impressive opening-game drive:  15 plays, 62 yards, which resulted in a field goal.  That 3-0 lead (followed by a missed field goal on Washington’s opening drive) would be the high point of Oregon’s day, as the Huskies put up 38-unanswered to make this one a laugher.

The Ducks managed 278 yards of offense, only 31 through the air.  Sure, they were able to open up some holes here and there, but their quarterback wasn’t up to the task of making this game even remotely interesting.

My only real concern in this one was how the Husky offense looked.  The running game was there, naturally.  A total of 247 yards on 39 carries.  Both Myles Gaskin and Salvon Ahmed had terrific games, going for 123 yards and a TD, and 84 yards and a TD respectively.  Dante Pettis got his, with 4 catches for 87 yards and a TD, as well as his 9th career punt return for a touchdown to set an NCAA record.  And, even Jake Browning had a quietly efficient game, going 11/19 for 204 yards, with 2 TDs and 1 INT.  Again, though, when you win a game by five touchdowns, you don’t really need to do a whole lot as a quarterback.

So, yeah, the offense was fine.  Couldn’t quite get into the 40s, but I’m not going to harp on it too much.

What we should all be talking about is how amazing this defense is, because fuckin’ A is it the best!

• #1 in total yards with 2,168 (Alabama is #2 with 2,194)
• #1 in yards per game with 241 (Alabama is #2 with 244)
• #3 in total passing yards with 1,348 (Michigan is #1 with 1,285)
• #2 in passing yards per game with 149.8 (Michigan is #1 with 142.8)
• #6 in total rushing yards with 820 (TCU is #1 with 627)
• #6 in rushing yards per game with 91.1 (TCU is #1 with 69.7)
• #2 in points allowed with 100 (Alabama is #1 with 88)
• #2 in points per game with 11.1 (Alabama is #1 with 9.8)

It’s just unbelievable!  We lose guys to the NFL/graduation, we lose even more guys to injury, and here we are still kicking ass and taking names.  Granted, Oregon isn’t anything special, and they do tend to shut down if you put a good defense in front of them, but that’s still a team capable of piling up yards and points with the best of ’em when they’re on.

With Stanford losing to Wazzu, that gives Washington a full game edge in the Pac-12 North.  Of course, we would lose that edge if we lose to either of those two teams (who we play in the next three weeks; at Stanford this Friday & vs. Wazzu the Saturday after Thanksgiving), but we’re right there in the driver’s seat.  With USC beating Arizona, all they have to do is avoid catastrophe when they go up against the dregs of the Pac-12 South (Colorado and UCLA) the next two weeks and they’ll be right there waiting for us in the Pac-12 Championship Game (with a BYE week in between, no less).

In the grander scheme of things, Ohio State, Oklahoma State, and Penn State all lost.  The Huskies are now 9th in the AP Poll and 8th in the Coaches Poll.  I don’t know what that means for the College Football Playoff poll, but I see that TCU is going up against Oklahoma this weekend, as well as Miami going up against Notre Dame.  So, if we take care of business, that’s two more teams (at least) we figure to leapfrog.

I’ll admit, though, I’m pretty nervous about this Stanford game.  It’s our final road game of the regular season, it’s on a Friday night (where kooky things tend to happen), and we haven’t won a game in Stanford since 2007 (Jim Harbaugh’s first year with the Cardinal, when they finished 4-8).  Believe you me, I’m going to be pretty keyed up for this one.

After that, it looks like pretty smooth sailing.  Utah is a mess this year, and Wazzu doesn’t look NEARLY as good away from Martin Stadium.

One more hurdle.  Let’s go Dawgs!