That’s not a prediction, that’s just a fact.  Even if the impossible were to happen and Stanford were to blow a home game against Cal (2-5 in conference) this Saturday, and the Huskies somehow found a way to win out (the Apple Cup is suddenly looming as a huge embarrassing failure on the horizon), there is no fucking way in Hell that the Huskies are going to beat the USC Trojans in the Pac-12 Championship Game, so give it up!

That game on Friday was pretty hard to watch.  It was literally IMPOSSIBLE for me to watch the entire first quarter, because I’m in Tacoma with a cable provider that doesn’t have Fox Sports 2, nor do they have an online portal that will allow you to log on to Fox Sports Go, so I was stuck watching Truck Racing.  Because that’s where we are as a conference.  The Pac-12 is the laughingstock of all major conferences, and that’s BEFORE the fucked up TV package we’ve been saddled with.  Do you think people in Alabama – as much as they probably LOVE to watch truck racing – would for one second think it’s okay to have the Crimson Tide pre-empted by ANYTHING?  No.  Nor would any other fanbase in the SEC, Big 10, Big-12, or even the ACC.  What a fucking crock of shit.  Larry Scott is the most inept conference head I’ve ever seen.

Some people have decided to take it a step further and blame the conference for even having games on Friday nights to begin with, but I don’t know if I’m willing to go out on that ledge with you.  It’s unfortunate that it had to be a road game, I’ll give you that.  You’d think – knowing what you knew heading into the season, that Washington was to be one of the two or three best teams in the conference, and one of your best bets to make the College Football Playoffs – that if/when they chose Washington to play on a Friday, it would’ve been in Seattle.  But, I mean, I’m not going to blame the loss on having one less day to prepare.

I mean, shit, the Huskies had plenty of time to prepare for ASU and still lost.

If this Washington team was worth a damn, they would’ve beaten both the Sun Devils AND the Cardinal.  But, they’re not, so they didn’t.

It was pretty clear-cut why the Dawgs lost to ASU; the offense couldn’t do a damn thing.  You might think it’s pretty clear-cut why we lost to Stanford; allowing them to convert 11/19 3rd/4th downs, which allowed them to dominate time of possession (36:05), and ultimately dominate on the scoreboard (30-22, becoming the first team to put up 30 against the Huskies since the bowl game in 2015).

But, I’m not going to blame the defense.  Nah.  They’ve carried this team for the last two years.  They’ve also been pretty decimated by injuries, particularly in the secondary.  So, they get a pass from me.

I’m putting this one squarely BACK on the offense.  Because, there were plays to be made and points to be had, and we left ’em right there on the field.  And, I’ll do you one better:  I don’t think Jake Browning has what it takes to lead this team when the chips are down.

He’s going to end up with every Husky passing record by the time he hangs ’em up.  It’s a foregone conclusion that he’ll be back for his Senior season, because it’s a foregone conclusion that he’s strictly a college quarterback and won’t have what it takes to make it in the NFL.  He’ll get drafted on Day 3, hold a clipboard for a while, and eventually try to make it in the CFL before giving it up to be a coach or something.  He will also have built his entire Washington career upon the back of his 2016 season, when all he needed to do was lob it up to John Ross and Dante Pettis and let them do all the work.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:  great quarterbacks make the players around them better.  It’s my argument that Browning only looks good when he’s got talented receivers doing all the work, and when you run into a year like 2017 – when Ross is gone, all the defensive attention is on Pettis, and there isn’t anyone else worth a damn to step up into that #2 receiver role – Browning looks as average and ordinary as some of the very worst Husky quarterbacks we’ve been forced to watch through the years.  Holds the ball too long, throws late, throws off target, lacking in anticipation, lacking in proper arm strength, unable to lead his receivers with sufficient regularity, I could go on and on.

A better quarterback could have brought the Huskies back in that game against Stanford.  Hell, a better quarterback wouldn’t have had us in that position in the first place!  It’s pretty clear to me that if the Huskies aren’t rushing for 300 yards, they’re not going to beat the good teams.

And, what’s worse is:  we have to sit through another year of this.

So, with the conference championship off the table, I guess we turn our attention towards playing spoiler.  God dammit, who saw this coming a month ago, when we were still 6-0 and flying high in the national rankings?  One thing’s for certain:  I won’t be following the Huskies to the Sun Bowl this December.