Washington football: Huskies battle for win over Arizona State

3. Both of these teams are very solid

It feels like a bit of an easy answer after a game like this, but of my takeaways from this game, this one is probably the strongest. The spread of 17.5 in favor of Washington coming into this game was ridiculous, and I think that was proven in this game. While Arizona State couldn’t get the job done, they were absolutely in this game, pretty much all game long.

That means they’re solid. They may be sitting at 2-2, but when it comes to the Pac-12 South, it feels like Arizona State is the favorites at the point. On the other side, Washington proved the same thing. They’re fully recovered from their loss to Auburn, and they look more than ready to make a run at the Pac-12 title game.

The Huskies are good enough on offense, and great on defense. After we saw Stanford topple Oregon earlier last night, it feels like we know Stanford is the main competition for the Huskies in the North, and after we saw this game, it feels like Washington is ready to compete on that level. They weren’t dominant, but they were good, and they got the job done. Against a good team like Arizona State, that’s all that you need, or expect.

This also means both teams will probably win their next two games before playing top 25 matchups. Washington has to get through BYU and UCLA before they face off with what looks to be a very good Oregon team.

Arizona State has two relatively easy games against Oregon State and Colorado (Colorado is pretty good) before they play Stanford. All of that is the long way to say that despite USC and Arizona struggling, the Pac-12 has plenty of intrigue. These teams both being good is good news for the league.