Michael Penix Jr. leaves the field after losing to No. 1 Michigan 34-13. / Skylar Lin Visuals
Not only does the University of Washington football team have to close the regular season at Oregon -- something it hasn't done in 106 seasons -- the Huskies find themselves facing the nation's No. 1 team in the polls.
They know this drill and it usually doesn't end well.
A check of the record book shows the Huskies have taken on college football's top-ranked entry 14 previous times.
They've won once and tied once.
Otherwise, it's been a punishing experience, with seven of the 12 losses to the team residing in the AP Poll penthouse decided by three touchdowns or more, including last January's 34-13 defeat to No. 1 Michigan in the CFP naitonal championship game in Houston.
That's right, the Huskies (6-5 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) will face the college game's No. 1 team for the second time in 11 months, which makes them, yes, a glutton for punishment. As of Sunday, they were 19.5-point underdogs to the unbeaten Ducks (11-0, 8-0).
The Huskies previously have faced eight different teams when they were ranked No. 1, including Oregon, which held the top spot in 2010 and dished out a 53-16 pummeling in Eugene to a Steve Sarkisian-coached UW team.
Seven, or half of the Huskies' No. 1 encounters, have come against USC, but it's been 17 seasons since the Trojans were so highly regarded while facing a team from Montlake.
In 1967, top-ranked USC came to Seattle with a running back named O.J. Simpson, who rushed 30 times for 235 yards and 2 touchdowns, and threw a fourth-quarter scoring pass, in the Trojans' 23-6 victory. On the third series of that game, Simpson took a handoff on a draw play and broke a breath-taking 86-yard touchdown run.
Beating No. 1 has not been impossible for the Huskies -- just near impossible.
Their only win came 63 years ago when a 9-1 UW team took on the top-ranked 8-1 Minnesota Gophers in the Rose Bowl and emerged with a 17-7 victory needing something akin to a Hollywood storyline to make it all happen.
Bob Schloredt was the returning first-team AP All-America quarterback and a Heisman Trophy candidate in 1960 who broke his collarbone at midseason and missed the Huskies' final five games of the regular-season schedule. At the Rose Bowl, Schloredt made a heroic return by coming off the bench and throwing for a touchdown and running for another against lofty Minnesota, and he received MVP honors for the second consecutive year in Pasadena.
The first time the Huskies faced college football's No. 1 team came 87 years ago against California in Berkley and it might have been the most frustrating of all of these match-ups against the football elite.
In 1937, the UW tied the top-ranked Golden Bears 0-0, but only after the Huskies drove to the opposing 20-yard line and Al Cruver's last-play field-goal attempt came up short.
Short?
Note to Grady Gross: Short just can't happen from chip-shot range against No.1 with the game on the line.