Everyone else is talking about the game and everything, but I just want to say something about the venue:
The weather was beautiful (the mountain was out!) and the venue was fantastic. I sat way the hell up in 326 (maybe five-yard-line going straight up on the north side) and thought it would be terrible, but the view was as good as I could want, and I could see the entire field. Stuff like Bryce Kirtz being wide open on a play where Jack Lausch never looked at him, or that Himon was clearly going to break one on his long KR but that another fast guy had an angle on him for like 40 yards and they were going to meet right around the end zone. I could truly tell when Lausch held the ball too long (which was a lot) because I could see it all.
There were obnoxious fans in our section, but they were regular obnoxious and not "I fear for my life" obnoxious. The place got LOUD at times, including before the controversial field-goal attempt. I don't know if Braun and company were intimidated by the noise, but I can imagine that they felt like getting the three points would quiet the crowd somewhat, whereas a fourth-down stop would effectively make it nearly impossible to overcome the crowd the rest of the way. I'm not saying I would have kicked there, but my guess is they were weighing the pros and cons considerably at that moment and just couldn't pull the trigger the way a more experienced coach might. FWIW, Fitz would have gone for it there for sure, but maybe not in just his second season as a coach.
Overall, loved Seattle and the purple everywhere, even though 95% of the purple we saw was for U-Dub. Campus was great and my son will definitely apply there, even going so far as to say these are his two top choices at this point and jokingly telling me before the game that his top choice is riding on the result. He said, "Go Cats!" to every Northwestern shirt/hat he saw the whole trip, but when he was rocking his brand-new Washington sweatshirt on the plane yesterday, he got his first "Go Dawgs!" from a stranger and my heart died a little.
The weather was beautiful (the mountain was out!) and the venue was fantastic. I sat way the hell up in 326 (maybe five-yard-line going straight up on the north side) and thought it would be terrible, but the view was as good as I could want, and I could see the entire field. Stuff like Bryce Kirtz being wide open on a play where Jack Lausch never looked at him, or that Himon was clearly going to break one on his long KR but that another fast guy had an angle on him for like 40 yards and they were going to meet right around the end zone. I could truly tell when Lausch held the ball too long (which was a lot) because I could see it all.
There were obnoxious fans in our section, but they were regular obnoxious and not "I fear for my life" obnoxious. The place got LOUD at times, including before the controversial field-goal attempt. I don't know if Braun and company were intimidated by the noise, but I can imagine that they felt like getting the three points would quiet the crowd somewhat, whereas a fourth-down stop would effectively make it nearly impossible to overcome the crowd the rest of the way. I'm not saying I would have kicked there, but my guess is they were weighing the pros and cons considerably at that moment and just couldn't pull the trigger the way a more experienced coach might. FWIW, Fitz would have gone for it there for sure, but maybe not in just his second season as a coach.
Overall, loved Seattle and the purple everywhere, even though 95% of the purple we saw was for U-Dub. Campus was great and my son will definitely apply there, even going so far as to say these are his two top choices at this point and jokingly telling me before the game that his top choice is riding on the result. He said, "Go Cats!" to every Northwestern shirt/hat he saw the whole trip, but when he was rocking his brand-new Washington sweatshirt on the plane yesterday, he got his first "Go Dawgs!" from a stranger and my heart died a little.
