As little as I care for the recent fad of early “neutral site” matchups to open the college football season, I have to admit, Auburn’s tilt against Washington turned out to be a heck of a good matchup.
UW, having improved from an also-ran to a national contender since this game was scheduled years ago, saw a regular-season shot an the SEC as a golden opportunity. Local writers in Washington called it the most important opening game in the history of Husky football.
The urgency was just as clear on the other sideline. Still hurting from the 2018 postseason, Auburn’s theme for the game going in was “Flip the script.”
As every single commentator made it a point to mention on what seemed like a daily basis since the Peach Bowl, Auburn hadn’t won a game in back-to-back opportunities during the short lifetime of Mercedes-Benz Stadium.
There was more. Auburn hadn’t beaten a ranked opponent in an opener since the mid-20th Century. Plus, Gus Malzahn’s teams had a bad habit of jumping out to an early lead and then going into an offensive shell until the defense ran out of gas.
We were assured was no way Malzahn could out-coach Chris Petersen, the hero of a long-ago Fiesta Bowl win over Chokin’ Bob Stoops.
Pursuing West Coast eyeballs, the national media lined up behind all of those tropes. Most predictions called for the Huskies to pull off a slight upset and re-insert the Pac-12 into the national conversation.
A lot of Auburn fans bought into the prefab storylines as well. The noisy Hate Gus contingent hadn’t just chalked up an 0-1 start — most also were ready to present Petersen with Coach Of The Year Award back in April or so.
But in the end, while it took a few nail-biting quarters to get there, Auburn managed to take that script and launch it into a double-gainer.
It wasn’t easy. Washington weathered a vicious early storm from Auburn to claw back into the game on both sides of the ball. And as well as the Huskies played down the stretch, they got a lot of help from Auburn mistakes.
Malzahn lived down to pregame fears that he wouldn’t be able to resist trying to “out-Petersen Petersen” with the dumb two-point conversion attempts (the first was a mistake from the jump; the play-calls for both were terrible).
Auburn defensive coordinator Kevin Steele is probably still kicking himself for going into a deep prevent with a couple of minutes left in the second quarter. Getting away from heavy pressure on that drive let the Huskies seize the game’s momentum for far too long. And don’t get me started on the penalties — not all of which were ticky-tacky garbage from a flag-crazed Big 10 crew.
Early in the fourth quarter, with Washington surging and Auburn stuttering in the red zone again and again, you could feel the old tendencies reasserting themselves. I have to think if UW had scored a fourth-quarter touchdown after driving down inside the Auburn 10, we could well have been looking at another late collapse, another case of the offense going into hibernation, the defense running out of gas.
Instead, Darrell Williams made a play that isn’t made very often. Williams’ goal-line leap to deflect Jake Browning’s pass to a wide-open Andre Baccellia almost certainly saved the game for Auburn. Washington got a field goal and a one-point lead, but never again got closer to the goal line than a late — and brief — visit to the Auburn 37.
But far more important was Auburn's late retort. That 76-yard must-have march, capped by Boobee Whitlow’s epic channeling of Ronnie Brown for the winning score, ought to provide plenty of fuel and inspiration when things get tough during the next few months.
During those 10 plays, Auburn’s offense did things they’d been told they couldn’t do. After a shaky start for the new offensive line, Jarrett Stidham had time to throw and the backs finally had gaps to run through.
That success gave the defense all the incentive they needed to put a cap on their terrific overall performance. Steele wisely abandoned the “prevent,” and his troops, led by a surging Nick Coe, emphatically smothered Washington’s outstanding passing game to seal the win.
It was better than just a big win; Auburn’s had lots of those. This was a model, a guide to the warts that need to be excised as well as the strengths upon which this season may be built.
And finally, despite the crummy acoustics of Mercedes-Benz and all the ugly penalties (let’s just agree to boycott anything associated the Big 10 from now on), this was a great, great example of what a college football game ought to be.
Washington brought a fine team and a whole lot of great fans (the only jerks in the stadium Saturday were a smattering of Georgia and Alabama fans who showed up to make asses of themselves) on their cross-country jaunt.
The good vibes weren’t limited to the stands — and didn’t end with the final bell. After three and a half hours of no-holds-barred, physical football, I absolutely loved seeing the Auburn and Washington front lines embracing each other in the final seconds.
You know, athletic director Allen Greene is a Seattle native. It’ll be a long time before Auburn has room on the schedule, but I don’t think the Tigers’ new AD would hear any complaints if he lined up future a home-and-home with UDubb.
This was an event well worth repeating.
