It was bound to happen eventually. For the first time since 2021, the Oregon Ducks have managed to beat the Washington Huskies. After three consecutive meetings full of wins for Washington, including a conference championship game, Dan Lanning’s Ducks finally figured out how to beat Washington.
And, uh, they certainly figured it out because it almost feels like they took out their frustrations on UW by beating the Huskies 49-21. But, to be fair, the Ducks are a considerably better team this season and Washington is working on a rebuild.
Still, no fun. No fun at all.
But, let’s look back on that winning streak, shall we? Because it was a lot of fun when the Huskies had very recent control of this rivalry matchup between the Huskies and Ducks.
Washington Huskies lose winning streak over Oregon Ducks after deflating 49-21 road loss in Autzen Stadium
Let’s start with last season’s Pac-12 title game that secured a spot in the College Football Playoffs for the Huskies. It was great to beat Oregon 34-31 in Las Vegas to lock up a playoff spot and to go on and compete for a national championship.
Also, that was the last Pac-12 Conference Championship Game of the classic and iconic configuration of the conference. So that’s fun.
But, that wasn’t the only meeting of these two teams during the 2023 Washington Huskies football season. Earlier on in the year, Washington managed to take down the Ducks by beating them 36-33 in a game that Dan Lanning made multiple high profile 4th down gambles that didn’t work out for him.
In 2022, the last game to take place in Eugene in this matchup, Oregon was unable to take down Washington as the Huskies won that one as well. Another three-point game as the Huskies beat the Ducks 37-34.
That game was also enjoyable.
This one? This one sucked.
Washington lost by 28 points and it kinda felt like the Ducks could have kept running up the score if they really wanted to. They looked like the best team in college football. And that wasn’t fun. But UW will head on to a bowl game and continue the program rebuild process. Maybe next year we’ll see a different result that works in Washington’s favor.