There would be no letdown from last week’s emotional victory over Oregon at Autzen Stadium. There would be no lookahead to the Apple Cup. Washington handled its business against Colorado at home on Senior Day, blasting the hapless Buffaloes 54-7 at Husky Stadium Saturday night.

The Huskies (9-2, 6-2 Pac-12) remained alive in the Pac-12 title race, though they’ll need a ton of help in the final week of the regular season. The victory gave UW a perfect record at home this season for just the third time ever and the first since 2017. It also dropped the Buffs to 1-10 on the year and 1-7 in Pac-12 play.

Here are three takeaways from the game.

The DeBoer Effect

Husky head coach Kalen DeBoer won his ninth game in his debut season, a program record for a first-year head coach. His impact on this program has been as large as any first-year coach in college football. The immediate and profound offensive turnaround has been unmistakable. But the Huskies showcased another something else on Saturday you can trace back to DeBoer.

All season the head coach has talked about responses. What’s the response to adversity? What’s the response to when things don’t go your way? In this game against an overmatched Colorado team, UW needed a different kind of response. It needed to be able to compartmentalize the Oregon win and focus on the task at hand. The Huskies likely knew they wouldn’t need their best to beat CU. But ranked teams went down all across the country this weekend and the beauty of college football is that anything can happen to anyone, even the safest of programs.

UW learned that against Arizona State.

So it went out and put things to bed as quickly as possible.

Washington scored touchdowns on each of its first three possessions. UW opened its offensive day with a 12-play, 85-yard drive that included a fourth-down conversion from its own 47. Wayne Taulapapa took a handoff from Michael Penix Jr. and went straight up the middle from 8 yards out to give UW its first score of the game. The defense punched CU off the field after three plays, then Penix hit Jalen McMillan on a reverse throw-back for 27 yards and another touchdown.

The Washington defense was able to create a three-and-out after the touchdown, the perfect response to get an early foothold on the game. And Washington imposed their will quickly on the next drive, as Penix took a double reverse and threw it to Jalen McMillan, who went 27 yards for six.

UW got a fourth-down stop on CU’s third drive, then marched 57 yards in 12 plays and more than four minutes to go up 21-0. A missed field goal prevented six consecutive scoring drives to open the game, but UW took a 33-0 lead into the break nonetheless.

That included a 273-56 advantage in total offense. Washington was able to run the football 43 times and get Penix out of the game early. You could not have asked for a better outing if you’re a Husky fan, and DeBoer could not have gotten a better response from his team. That tells you the locker room is tuned into what the head coach is selling.

Taulapapa has himself a day to remember

Washington running back Wayne Taulapapa, mourning the loss of three of his former Virginia teammates who were fatally shot last weekend, had his first 100-yard rushing performance since Sept. 24 against Stanford. Taulapapa scored from 8 and 2 yards out to get the Huskies to an early 21-0 lead. He finished with 107 yards and the two scores on just 11 carries. As a team, UW ran for 280 yards and only allowed a single tackle for loss to be had by the Buffs.

Kickers are people, too, and Washington loves its leading man

Fifth-year senior kicker Peyton Henry spent each of the last two weeks kicking game-winning field goals. When he took the field for senior day festivities, he reportedly got one of the biggest cheers from the crowd. Then he went out and set a new program scoring record. With a 33-yard field goal and six extra points, Henry moved his career total to 384 points, topping Jeff Jaeger’s record of 380 set from 1983-86.