Road Trip Captain: Taking care of business

In this three-part series, A Blogger, Idiot takes you on the road as he follows the Washington Huskies football team on its ongoing quest to return to prominence.

PART 2: 10/15/2011 - Colorado at Washington

Life in the Bay Area affords me extra fondness for trips back to certain places in the Pacific Northwest.  Husky Stadium is certainly one of those places.  Colorado's indoctrination into the Pac-12 was a perfect reason to return, as a number of close friends in California claim CU as their alma mater.  A half dozen of us formalized plans for the trip, with the agreement that when the scene shifted to the Buffalo campus in Boulder next year, we'd be there as well.  

Washington entered this weekend's game with a 4-1 record, fresh off a bye week and before that, an eye-catching victory on the road at Utah.  Colorado, meanwhile, was having a rough introduction to life in the new conference, and stood at 1-5.  Oddsmakers favored UW by more than two touchdowns by the time Saturday arrived.  Given the opposite trajectories of the two teams meeting on the field, it was difficult for Seattle sports fans to avoid looking ahead one weekend on the calendar, to a road date with #4 Stanford.  If the Huskies could take care of business against the Buffs, a glossier showdown in Palo Alto would await.    

Saturday, October 15

Our group's flight arrived the previous evening, after which point we relocated to a University District hotel, linked up with a few Seattleites from the past, and set out for an evening on The Ave.  In the morning, the first order of business was breakfast at local mecca Portage Bay Cafe.  

Several hours of tailgating still remained before the 12:30 kickoff.  In addition to a reunion of The Trifecta (college roommates Wes, Nathan, and I) other handsome beasts were spotted outside the stadium:

First quarter - Washington opens with the ball and immediately drives down a long field to score a touchdown.  Colorado responds with a touchdown drive of their own, but the Husky defense tightens up from this point on in the half.  The Husky offense, though is just getting started.  A well-scripted game plan, utilizing equal parts intermediate passing, power running, and misdirection, leads to two more touchdowns before the quarter is over.  It's 21-7 at that point.

Second quarter - The skill players on UW's offensive side of the ball, generally considered a strength of the team, continue to dominate an overmatched CU defense.  A 38-10 halftime margin more or less removes doubt of the game's outcome.  A very positive angle in the first half developments is the manner in which UW jumped on the opponent and did not let up.

Third quarter - Washington begins to pull some starters, including quarter back Keith Price.  Into his place steps Nick Montana, who receives rousing applause for his first opportunity at game action.  He promptly fumbles.  

But the difference on the scoreboard is too great for any despair at this point.  

Fourth quarter - Although the talent level isn't there, Colorado fights on admirably.  The final whistle blows and the scoreboard shows a 52-24 win for the home team.  

That score represented only the third time since 2000 that Washington had put 50 points on the board; somewhat ironically, perhaps, the other two games came during the Rick Neuheisel coaching era...who had previously been at Colorado.  Also (coupled with the previous game's 31-14 outcome against Utah), you'd have to look back to 2003 to find back-to-back wins by at least 17 points on the Washington schedule.  

Where I'm getting is that the October 22 game at national-champion hopeful Stanford now stacks up as being much more interesting.  I didn't mark that as a victory coming into the season, but now...you'll find me in the stands on Saturday with a lot of optimism.