Washington's defense lost Danny Shelton, Shaq Thompson, Marcus Peters, Hau'oli Kikaha and John Timu before this past season.
Three of those players went in the first round of the NFL draft, one went in the second round, and one was the Huskies' leading tackler in 2014.
As a result, expectations were not high. In Vegas, oddsmakers set the Huskies' win total at four games. Many pointed to the seemingly gutted defense as justification for that paltry line. And back in August, linebacker Travis Feeney took that as a slight.
"They have us among the last teams in the Pac-12," he said.