Peach Bowl loss shouldn’t be lasting image of UW’s terrific season

Published 6:15 pm Saturday, December 31, 2016

The audible groan finally escaped my lips early in the fourth quarter.

I was watching the University of Washington football team try to hang with the Alabama Crimson Tide in the Peach Bowl on Saturday afternoon. A Huskies defense, up for the occasion but asked to bear an enormous burden, appeared to have beastly Alabama running back Bo Scarbrough stopped for no gain. However, Scarbrough broke free and zig-zagged 68 yards for the clinching touchdown. After holding my clinical demeanor together for more than three quarters, that moment finally broke my spirit.

Husky fans, I feel your pain.

Washington’s fairytale season came to an end Saturday with a humbling 24-7 loss to Alabama in the College Football Playoff semifinals at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta. But as difficult as that game may have been to watch from a Husky standpoint, I ask you not to lose sight of how great a season it was for Washington.

Make no mistake, Saturday’s game dropped a Puget Sound-sized wet blanket over the Huskies and their fans. Alabama, the top-ranked team in the nation, came into the game a two-touchdown favorite over No. 4 Washington, and the Crimson Tide made the Huskies look like the under-Dawgs they were. Alabama’s defense swarmed Washington quarterback Jake Browning, making him look more like a Tyrone Willingham-era QB than a Heisman candidate. The Huskies, who came into the game averaging 44.5 points per game, only sniffed the end zone once, and the 194 yards of total offense was by far Washington’s lowest output of the season.

Washington needed to sweat out selection day to know whether it would even make the final four. This was the Huskies’ reward? Perhaps a victory in the Rose Bowl — along with the right to express indignation about being snubbed by the CFP selection committee — would have been a preferable way to end the season.

But while Saturday’s dismantling was the final image of Washington’s 2017 season, it shouldn’t be the lasting one. In our time of mourning, let’s remember all the tremendous moments the Huskies served up this year.

There was the 44-6 destruction of Stanford in the early-season battle of top-10 unbeatens, when Washington announced itself as a legitimate contender in the Pac-12.

There was the cathartic 70-21 victory at Oregon that ended 12 years of pain and misery at the hands of the hated Ducks — and also gave us that swaggerific snapshot of Browning pointing at Oregon’s Jimmie Swain as he carried the ball into the end zone.

There was the 45-17 thrashing of Washington State in the most anticipated Apple Cup in 35 years, when the winner booked its place in the Pac-12 championship game.

And there was the 41-10 victory over Colorado in that Pac-12 title tilt, giving Washington its first conference championship since 2000.

These are the type of scenes Washington fans, who suffered through two decades of mediocrity, had been waiting for. Those who were around during the Don James heyday from 1977-92 probably wondered whether we’d ever see the Huskies return to a position of national prominence. It may not have ended victorious Saturday, but Washington was once again back on the national stage.

And remember, this wasn’t even supposed to be Washington’s year. Yes, the Huskies were a trendy dark-horse pick to win the Pac-12 at the start of the season, but most believed Washington was still a year away. Browning will be back for his junior season next fall. So will star running back Myles Gaskin. The pieces are in place for another national splash.

Yes, there are concerns about possible losses to early entry into the NFL draft, with junior defensive backs Sidney Jones and Budda Baker the biggest candidates to bolt. But one thing we’ve seen since Chris Petersen took over as coach three years ago is the Huskies’ ability to withstand the loss of big names on defense — remember how Washington lost three defensive first-team All-Americans in 2014 (Danny Shelton, Hau’oli Kikaha and Shaq Thompson), yet was better defensively in 2015?

By all means, Huskies fans, take some time to grieve. I know I’ll be greeting 2017 with a grumpier expression on my face than the one on Baby New Year’s.

But once the tears have dried, remember that Saturday’s loss wasn’t an ending. It was merely the next step forward in what’s been a grand new beginning for the Huskies’ football program.

For more on the Seattle sports scene, check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet/tag/seattle-sidelines, or follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.