Washington Football: 3 takeaways from road win over Oregon State in Week 11

3. The Washington defense was as good as ever

Washington played a shutdown game against a motivated Oregon State team, consistently thwarting any momentum the Beavers tried to build up in front of their home crowd. The Huskies gave up only 119 total yards of offense to their divisional opponents, holding the Oregon State offense scoreless over the course of the contest.

Jake Luton completed a respectable 19 of his 28 passing attempts for the Beavers, but gained only 88 yards in the process. Washington’s secondary forced one interception, as Elijah Molden picked off Luton just before halftime and set up the Huskies for what ultimately turned into a missed field goal attempt.

Luton had a rough game, but the Oregon State backfield fared even worse than the quarterback and the passing game. Beavers running backs finished with only 31 net rushing yards on the night, unable to gain any purchase against the stout Huskies front seven that entered the game down for the year as they gave up an average of 144 rushing yards per game..

All told, Washington stepped up its defense against an overmatched opponent. While the two teams came in with near-identical records and the Huskies were actually struggling more in Pac-12 play, the gulf that existed in recent years between these two programs has not yet closed completely.