Pac-12 Football 

Vilardo: Can Ducks End UW’s 35-Pt Defensive Streak?

, 5 min read
Oregon's Travis Dye and Washington's Trent McDuffie will face off in Seattle on Saturday. | John Cordes & Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Posted on November 4, 2021


  By Stephen Vilardo, SuperWest Sports
Former Washington head coach Chris Petersen began his career in Seattle in 2014, with a 17-16 win at Hawaii and a 59-52 win over Eastern Washington at home.

Petersen

EWU’s 52 points were the most the Huskies would give up that season, though they also allowed Oregon to put up 45 in Petersen’s first game in that rivalry, a 45-20 loss.

Then, on November 8, 2014, UCLA beat Washington 44-30 in Husky Stadium, with Brett Hundley going off for 302 yards, two touchdowns passing, and two touchdowns rushing.

It was the last time the Huskies allowed 35 points or more, a run of 83 straight games.

When Washington kicks off against Oregon on Saturday, it will mark two days shy of exactly seven years since that milestone.

And should Washington hold the Ducks to 35 points or less, the streak will extend to the third-longest such streak in school history, at 84, the longest since a 109-game run from 1957-1967.

The Huskies also had a 106 game-streak from 1932-1944, and an 83-game streak spanning 1975-1982. During that first 83-game streak, Washington posted a record of 59-24, The Dawgs are currently 56-27 over their last 83 games.

Washington’s Mishael Powell and Alex Cook tackle Cal’s Chase Garbers. | Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Washington’s current nation-leading streak is nearly twice as long as the next closest active streak of 42 games by San Diego State. Iowa has a 33-game streak going, while Cincinnati has held opponents to 35 or less in their last 24 games.

Quite simply, in today’s age of offensive production, this is just not something that we see very often. In fact, if you go back to any such streak that began since 1980, this is the fifth-longest the nation has seen.

Here are the longest streaks in that timeframe:

Team# of GamesYears
Florida State1251986-1996
Alabama941987-1995
Oklahoma891982-1989
Clemson841984-1991

If we were to look at this streak in terms of Pac-12 teams, it stands tied for the 15th longest in Conference history.

The most recent streak by a Conference school that was better than or equal to the 83-games is the one Washington has duplicated from 1975-82.

The most recent run of games longer than 83-games would be the 109-game streak—also by UW from—1957-67. That 109-game run stands tied for the fifth-longest by a Conference team.

Here are the longest streaks of not allowing more than 35 points all-time by current Conference members:

Team# of GamesYears
USC2691922-1947
Utah1811920-1942
ASU1731917-1927
Stanford1341931-1947
Washington1091957-1967
Oregon State1091916-1929

So how good have the Huskies been on the defensive side of the ball since the start of the streak? Washington has only allowed 13 teams to score 30 points or more in the last 83 games.

Since the start of the 2015 season Washington has allowed more than 20.0 per game over the course of a season just once, allowing 25.0 last season. This year they are sitting at 19.8 points allowed per game.

Washington’s Edefuan Ulofoshio | Jacob Snow/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

This season, Washington leads the nation in pass defense allowing just 146.3 yards per game.

Since the start of 2015, the Huskies have allowed under 200 passing yards per game in five of seven seasons, the outliers being 2019 when they allowed 222.2 when they allowed 226.5 per outing.

Against the run, Washington has been equally as stout as in the five seasons from 2015-19, when the Huskies allowed more than 130 yards per game only once, and ranked inside the Top 28 in run defense in all five of those seasons.

However, under Jimmy Lake, in the shortened 2020 season, the Huskies allowed 161.3, ranking them 59th, and this season, they are allowing 179 yards per game, slipping all the way to 97th.

That along with a young offense has obviously led to some struggles on the field this year.

Oregon has averaged 23.0 points per game against Washington in five meetings since the streak began, reaching 30 points in two of those games, including a 35-31 Duck victory in their last meeting, in 2019.

Will the streak continue for an 84th game or will Washington’s run defense give up too many yards to Travis Dye and the UO ground game?

A look at where a few Pac-12 numbers sit in the national rankings

• Josh Watts is fifth in the nation with a 48.3 yard punt average on the season for Colorado

• Avery Roberts averages 11.2 tackles per game for Oregon State, the third highest total in the country.

• Devin Lloyd is getting 1.8 tackles for loss per game, second most among players in the nation.

• Britain Covey is second in the nation in Punt Return average at 16.9 yards while Casey Filkins is fourth at 14.9.

• BJ Baylor is 12th in the nation with 109.0 rushing yards per game

• Kyu Blu Kelly is tied for seventh in the nation with 1.4 passes defended per game games

• Verone McKinley III is tied for second nationally with four interceptions on the season

• Darien Butler has intercepted three passes this year, the most in the nation by a LB

• Chance Nolan has a passing efficiency of 156.1 on the season, the 24th best in the country.

• Dorian Thompson-Robinson is responsible for 120 points this season, the 20th most of any player in the country.

• Jayden Daniels has run for 407 yards this season, the 10th most in the country by a QB

• Benjamin Yurosek’s 62.6 receiving yards per game are the sixth most by a TE in the nation this season.

• Rachaad White (3.9) and Austin Jones (3.6) rank seventh and eighth nationally in receptions per game by a RB

• Curtis Hodges is averaging 20.2 yards per reception, the ninth highest in the nation by any player and the second highest average by a TE

Oregon State has converted 52.6% of their third downs this season, the fourth highest rate in the country

Washington is the only team in the nation that is still perfect offensively in the Red Zone.

Follow Stephen on Twitter @StephenVilardo and his organization @SERCenter.

Visit his website at sercstats.com.



—More from Stephen Vilardo—
Stephen Vilardo
Latest posts by Stephen Vilardo (see all)