With a 27-20 win over No. 20 Texas in the Alamo Bowl on Thursday night, No. 12 Washington moved to 11-2 on the season.

Yes, one year removed from a miserable 4-8 campaign, the Huskies have just their fifth 11-win season in program history. No Husky head coach had been this good this soon, but Kalen DeBoer landed in Seattle as one of the winningest coaches in the sport and Year 1 was a show of strength right away that UW is going to be a program to contend with as long as DeBoer is roaming the sidelines.

The Huskies closed out the 2022 season with seven straight victories. Here are three takeaways from the final one.

Michael Penix Jr. puts an exclamation point on the best season in program history

In Thursday night’s victory over the Longhorns, Penix moved past Cody Pickett to become the Huskies’ all-time leader in single-season passing yardage. Penix finished with 287 yards and two touchdowns, moving his season total to 4,641. Pickett’s record stood for 20 years. Penix needed one season to take it.

He also finished with the second-most completions in a single season in program history and the third-most passing touchdowns (31).

As he has been all year, Penix was the engine.

UW idled a bit in the first half as its star quarterback was a little off. Penix was 16-for-31 for just 139 yards and an interception. On the turnover, he and his receiver were just on different pages; Penix expected an in-breaking route, instead his target tried to get vertical. By Penix’s standards, it was as pedestrian a half as we’ve seen from him this season.

But he found his footing in the second half and fired UW out ahead. Washington flexed its muscle with back-to-back touchdown drives that both spanned more than five minutes of game clock and took at least 13 plays.

Penix ended the first — a 13-play, 75-yard drive in 5:47 — with a 6-yard touchdown toss to Taj Davis.

The score answered a quick touchdown drive from Texas to start the third quarter, and it planted UT quarterback Quinn Ewers on the sideline for an extended period right after the break.

When the Longhorns came back onto the field, the drive began with a false start and after three plays, UT was punting the ball back to the Huskies.

That’s when Penix mounted a 14-play, 90-yard touchdown march that took 6:57 off the clock. Wideout Jalen McMillan hauled in a ridiculous catch for an 8-yard score to make it a 27-10 game.

With 13:08 to play and Texas running a one-dimensional offense, that was that.

Penix completed 16 of his 24 pass attempts in the second half for 148 yards and two scores.

Texas hurt itself

It should come as no surprise that Washington was able to completely take away the run game; the Huskies boasted the Pac-12’s best run defense this season by per-play efficiency. UW gave up 3.6 yards a carry all year. Texas finished with 3.9 (adjusted for sacks).

The absence of all-star tailback Bijan Robinson loomed large over the game. He opted out to prepare for the NFL Draft. It greatly impacted Texas’ offense. Without even its No. 2 runner, the Longhorns mustered only 63 yards on the ground (again, adjusted for sacks). Their leading rusher had 27 yards on eight carries.

That puts quite a bit of pressure on the pass game.

Quinn Ewers needed wideout Xavier Worthy to come down with a few more balls than he did.

The Texas wideout finished with seven catches for 84 yards on 14 targets. He also had three drops to his name, including two on back-to-back plays in the third quarter where, had he hauled in either, Texas would have scored. The second drop was a killer.

UT punted after that, then Washington went down and scored again to make it 27-10. How different might things have looked if Worthy had scored to answer Washington’s long touchdown march?

Dawg defense holds

Self-inflicted wounds aside, Texas was nearly shut out by UW in the first half. After being gifted a turnover on the first possession of the game, Texas began with some momentum in front of a very pro-Texas crowd and did absolutely nothing with it. A three-and-out preceded a blocked punt by UW linebacker Edefuan Ulofoshio which gave the Huskies the ball at UT’s 29.

Texas had just 144 yards of offense in the opening half and was held under 5 yards a play. It was a 13-3 ballgame at the break, and UW was very much in control.

Bralen Trice led the way with six tackles and two sacks, earning the game’s defensive MVP honor for his efforts. Mishael Powell had six tackles as well. Six different Husky defenders each had five tackles.

It was a total team effort on defense.

Bonus: a 2023 prediction

Given what Washington has returning next season — namely Penix — this squad needs to be a preseason top-10 team. If pollsters disagree, it won’t be for any defensible reason.