Last season, ASU football played Washington in Tempe, winning 27-17 in comeback fashion.
This season? No. 6 Washington (10-1) walloped the Sun Devils (5-6) by the tune of a 44-18 score that felt like it was an even larger margin.
UW got off to a slow start but quickly found a way to move the ball against ASU.
WOOF! Jake Browning connects with Dante Pettis for a 46-yard touchdown pass. #PurpleReign
— UW Football (@UW_Football) November 20, 2016
Watch: FOX https://t.co/cGai1J7oP9
That's the ASU pass defense fans know and love!!
Usually, blowout college football games in November don't prove much. This game is an exception because it shows that these teams are trending in opposite directions.
Washington is in the mix to make the College Football Playoff and win the Pac-12 while ASU flounders to a losing record and is still searching for bowl eligibility.
But, more importantly, this game also proves these programs are trending in opposite directions.
These two teams are no longer in the same class, and that was not always the case.
In recent years, Washington was an afterthought in the Pac-12, but with Chris Petersen coaching it looks like UW will stay near the top.
ASU on the other hand, has gotten worse since it had two straight 10-win seasons, the last one coming in 2014 — just two short years ago.
The program seemed like it was picking up steam. It was a group on the cusp of consistently competing for Pac-12 Championships and big time bowl games.
But instead, the Sun Devils have fallen off the map.
After an underwhelming 6-7 campaign in 2015, ASU has followed it up by sinking below the .500 barrier and now require a win in the Territorial Cup to become bowl eligible.
To put it simply, the Sun Devils just aren't a good team. It's an extremely obvious statement, but the team needs to improve.
Good college football teams don't have to resort to the last week of the season to become bowl eligible.
Good teams don't get blown out five times during a single season.
Good teams find a way to muster more than 48 yards of total offense at half ... no matter who the opponent is.
Unfortunately for the Sun Devils, all of these misfortunes apply to them.
People can make excuses by saying there are injuries. They can say that this was a "rebuilding" year and they can say that there is next year, and even though those excuses have some truth, the uncomfortable fact remains that the ASU football team is not good.
At this point, the Sun Devils should consider themselves lucky that they are even in contention to go to a bowl game, because the way they have played recently has not been at the level of a bowl-eligible team, and that is not saying much.
Conversely, Washington has gotten things rolling. The Huskies are in great position to win the Pac-12 and look to be in good shape for years to come.
Why should ASU fans care about Washington? Because the Sun Devils used to be better than the Huskies as a program. In fact, ASU had beaten UW ten straight times before this game.
That's a dominating streak and it came to a crashing end on Saturday night.
On a day where UW did not play its best football, the Huskies still dominated ASU, proving the balance of power between these teams has shifted and will probably stay that way for some time.
Just remember that there was a time when ASU consistently beat UW. That is over now, and don't expect that sort of dominance to resurface for a long time based on the trajectories of these two football programs.
Reach the reporter at mpharri7@asu.edu or follow @Harris_Mark7 on Twitter.
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