After big win over Stanford, No. 5 Huskies hear calls of ‘Beat Oregon’ loud and clear
Oct 4, 2016, 9:06 AM
The No. 5 Huskies head to Eugene this weekend looking to beat Oregon for the first time since 2003. (AP)
(AP)
After Washington’s biggest win in decades, the sentiment from the Husky fan base to its undefeated football team has been pretty clear:
“Beat Oregon.”
What, did you think it was going to be something about taking pride in the Huskies’ complete dismantling of Stanford last Friday, or perhaps their shiny new No. 5 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 poll? Well, it’s not, and you can be rest assured that UW’s 12-year losing streak to the Ducks is the reason why.
Yes, the Huskies beat Stanford. Yes, they’re 5-0. Yes, they’re ranked higher than at any point since 2000 and the favorite to win the Pac-12 North. But ask just about any Huskies fan and they’ll tell you that none of that matters if they don’t beat Oregon this week in Eugene. Head coach Chris Petersen knows that first hand.
“You hear that a lot,” Petersen said Monday when asked about the steady chorus of “Beat Oregon” from fans. “So we get it. We know it’s important. But all these games are important.”
Especially when you’re undefeated, which is what makes the Oregon game so worrisome for the UW faithful. It doesn’t matter that the Ducks have lost three straight, including last Saturday to Washington State in Pullman, and appear to be in more disarray than at any other point in recent memory. Oregon is still the team that hasn’t lost to UW since 2003, and the fact that the game will be played at Autzen Stadium is just more reason to be concerned.
Petersen understands that line of thinking, and he also understands that he needs to make sure the Huskies treat this game like any other. That’s why when asked if he has made any mention of UW’s losing streak against Oregon, his response was, “I don’t know why I’d do that. No.”
“I think everybody always over-inflates everything, on both ways. That’s what I think,” Petersen said. “I think that (the Ducks) played some hard-fought games that they had chances to win down at the end and for whatever reason just didn’t do it. That can affect momentum one way or another. And I think they played Washington State, who is a hard team to play, really well. In the fourth quarter, it got away a little bit.
“I think we’ve got a huge, huge challenge in front of us, is what I really, really think.”
Wooching takes pair of honors
UW linebacker Psalm Wooching was named the Pac-12’s defensive player of the week on Monday and the Walter Camp Football national defensive player of the week after registering three sacks in Huskies’ win over Stanford.
Surprisingly, that is the first Pac-12 player of the week award given to a UW player this year, though it’s unlikely to be the last.
“It’s really good to see Psalm kind of come out of, I don’t want to say nowhere, but he’s been here a long time,” Petersen said. “He’s a fifth-year guy, plays with a high motor and gives great effort. He’s made plays, but certainly to have it all come together in a game like that was really good for him.”
