This is what happens when you have two of the top defensive teams in the conference play eachother for the Pac-12 Championship: Few points get scored and it comes down to turnovers for the win.
“We’ll take it anyway we can get it”, Chris Petersen said of the low-scoring battle with Utah as he was presented the 2018 Pac-1 2 Championship trophy, “These guys have been through a lot and battled all year. It’s not easy…that’s real life.”
Petersen was flanked on stage by Byron Murphy, whose two picks late in the game helped secure the Husky win by a score of 10-3.
Washington and Utah both fielded two top-tier defenses and, as such, neither team could produce offensively. Washington controlled the clock and got into the redzone plenty of times to score, but stalled out on downs and/or had to kicked a field goal.
Peyton Henry would get the Huskies on the scoreboard first on a 29-yard field goal to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead with just over three minutes left before halftime.
The second half would see Utah continue to struggle to get anything going on offense. For the second time this year, Washington’s defense banged up Utah receiver Britain Covey, who had to leave the game and return on crutches during the second half.
But Utah didn’t just lay down and die when they were sitting near mid-field after the Huskies stopped them on downs to start the second half; Ute kicker Matt Gay would hit one from 53 yards out to tie the game at 3-3 with 11:17 left in the third quarter.
The fireworks began when the Utes were driving late in the quarter and a deflected pass fell into the hands of Byron Murphy, who took is 66 yards for a touchdown — the only touchdown that would be scored in the entire game.
Husky DB Jordan Miller picked off Jason Shelly and the Utes again to put the ball back in to Washington’s hands to start the fourth quarter.
The Huskies launched a long drive resulting in a blocked field goal off the leg of Henry, and the Utes still had some momentum to try to make a comeback, but Byron Murphy spoiled the party again for the Utes when he picked off Shelly again, and the Huskies were able to secure the win in the final 27 seconds to give the Huskies the victory and a trip back to Pasadena for a January 1st Rose Bowl appearance.
It was similar to the 2016 championship game when two picks from Taylor Rapp helped seal the deal against Colorado.
Jake Browning finished the evening with 187 total yards passing, while Myles Gaskin fell short of his usual 100-plus yards, but posted 71 hards on the ground.
“It’s pretty special…our defense did their job”, Browning said, “The defensive guys kept saying ‘we’re going to win this game on defense'”.
The Huskies have now completed their third 10-win season in a row, and their second Pac-12 Championship in three years. Washington finishes first in the North as well (7-2) after knocking off the Cougars last weekend in the Apple Cup.
We will release information about the Rose Bowl and cover the festivities leading up to New Year’s Day throughout the next few weeks.
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