Washington Football: 5 reasons Huskies will beat Utah for Pac-12 title

SALT LAKE CITY, UT - SEPTEMBER 15: Myles Gaskin #9 of the Washington Huskies tries to avoid the tackle by Chase Hansen #22 of the Utah Utes in the first half at Rice-Eccles Stadium on September 15, 2018 in Salt Lake City, Utah. (Photo by Gene Sweeney Jr/Getty Images) /

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(Photo by Lachlan Cunningham/Getty Images) /

3. Washington brings a shutdown defense to Santa Clara

While plenty of the focus will be on Washington’s offensive stars, don’t sleep on one of the best defenses in the entire country. Despite losing key talent to the NFL each of the past few years, the Huskies continue to field a top-shelf unit that regularly clamps down on opposing offenses.

This year, Washington’s defense ranks eighth in the country in points allowed, giving up an average of only 16.5 points per game. On seven occasions, they kept opponents to no more than 16 points. No team scored more than 30 points on the Huskies in the regular season, with Oregon the only team to hit the 30-point mark.

Though the secondary has not had as much luck generating interceptions, Washington ranks 38th in fumbles recovered. More importantly, they hold opponents scoreless on 20 percent of their trips into the red zone.

They also do a great job of getting teams off the field, finishing in the top 20 in the FBS in first downs allowed. Against Utah in September, Washington allowed only 13 first downs to the Utes. That is likely to be the case again on Friday night.

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