The Pac-12 Championship was so ugly, but at least Washington gets a Rose Bowl

The Pac-12 Championship Game, between No. 17 Utah and No. 11 Washington wasn’t the most compelling title game, to say the least. The Huskies won an ugly 10-3 game, and it was a barn burner throughout.

For starters, the crowd turnout at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif. was, uh, not great, later announced at about 35,000. Low turnout just like for this game has been a long-running theme, and this one was completely without Playoff stakes, but it didn’t exactly make it any less disappointing.

Washington made a field goal to take a 3-0 lead at halftime. Of course, this game remained on-brand throughout — the Utes countered with this 56-yard field goal that juuuuust barely made it over the crossbar:

There wasn’t even an offensive touchdown in this entire game! Washington’s only touchdown of the night came on this pick six from Byron Murphy:

This game marks the first time the Huskies have won without scoring an offensive touchdown since 2001 against Michigan, winning 23-18 — the Huskies had two defensive scores in a that victory.

After opting not to go for it on fourth and 2 from deep in Utah territory, UW went for a field goal to make it a two-score game. Surely, it would be good and this game could be close to over, right? WRONG — IT WAS BLOCKED.

Also:

On the ensuing drive, the Utes had their first offensive play of the entire fourth quarter. With four minutes to go in the game. By the third one on third down, Utah QB Jason Shelley threw his third interception to give UW the ball back.

The Utes did get the ball back and had a chance to tie it up, but UW forced a turnover on downs.

On fourth down, it looked like the officials might’ve missed a pass interference call:

Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham wasn’t pleased with the no call:

Even still, Murphy was credited with the pass breakup and awarded a Pac-12 title game MVP trophy.

This will be the 15th Rose Bowl appearance for the Huskies, but the first since the 2000 season.

The Huskies entered 2018 as a Pac-12 favorite, despite falling short of making the conference title game a year ago.

Washington dropped games to Auburn, Oregon, and Cal, but what they did at the end of the year made them worthy of representing the Pac-12 in the Rose Bowl. The Huskies came in as a slight underdog to Wazzu last week, the Cougs 10-1 with Playoff hopes still very much alive. Instead, the Huskies and head coach Chris Peterson did what they always do during Rivalry Week — shut Wazzu down to win their sixth straight Apple Cup:

Washington State came into the Apple Cup averaging 40.5 points per game but scored just 15. The Huskies have solved the How to Defend the Air Raid puzzle and, with some help from the conditions, executed it to perfection again. Wazzu’s Gardner Minshew completed 26 of 35 passes, nearly three quarters of them, but averaged just 5.8 yards per completion. Minshew’s numbers were easily his worst in an otherwise great year.

Losing two league games in October to rebound with four straight wins in November is one way to make a lasting impression. The Huskies also had five games with 87 percent or better S&P+ percentile performances (think of this as a single-game performance review). Having the eighth-ranked defense per S&P+ doesn’t hurt, either, and the Huskies’ unit lived up to that hype on Friday night, especially with controlling the pace of this game. Utah had the ball for just 21:28, compared to Washington’s 38:32.

Although Jake Browning hasn’t had as good a season as his breakout one in 2016, a couple of his best games of the season came last month vs. Oregon State and Wazzu. Against Utah he had an interception, but the good news for whoever he’ll face in January is that his defense might be able to do enough to not ask too much of him.

The Pac-12 Championship performance may not have been pretty, but Washington is a worthy Rose Bowl team nonetheless. Who will face the Huskies in Pasadena, we’ll have to wait and see.