Twenty-four hours after watching Louisiana's longest high school football losing streak end Friday night, I watched Washington compete with LSU and threaten to end the longest losing streak in major college football.

The Tigers prevailed, keeping Les Miles undefeated in 20 nonconference games with LSU, and the 31-23 victory against the improved Washington Huskies left evidence of plenty of work awaiting the Tigers after returning from Seattle.

You can find a summary of the game at the link above, and if you click here you will find postgame quotes filtered through the Washington and LSU sports information offices.

LSU kept Miles' nonconference streak intact. Washington lost its 15th consecutive game, but did not look like the team that was 0-12 last season. The Huskies showed how much they missed quarterback Jake Locker in 2008 after his early-season injury took him out of the lineup until Saturday night against the Tigers.

Big plays for LSU: Jacob Cutrera's 29-yard interception return for a 10-7 lead late in the first quarter, Terrance Toliver's 45-yard touchdown reception for a 17-10 halftime lead and Toliver's 39-yard catch and run for a 24-13 lead in the third quarter.

Biggest play for LSU: After Washington closed to within 24-16, Brandon LaFell showed up, catching a 6-yard pass for a touchdown and a 31-16 lead that put the Tigers out of reach.

Washington used the remaining 1:48 to drive 81 yards on 10 plays to score with no time left on the clock, a 9-yard pass from Locker to Kavario Middleton to give the Huskies a feel-good touchdown and give the game its 31-23 final score.

If you are a glass-half-full kind of person, you're probably embracing LSU's ability to win a game when it wasn't at its best. Every championship contender needs to be able to win that kind of game, often more than once.

If you are a glass-half-empty kind of person, you'd look at the notes I took on LSU's rough edges, nod your head and probably offer a dozen more criticisms and worries.

If you're wondering where you left your glass, be thankful. Seattle's open-container laws call for sizeable fines.

The coaches and players said the expected things, at least based on what the schools' information personnel want you to read, and both teams got some of what they wanted as they begin trying to put distance between themselves and 2008.

Washington showed better focus and played the Tigers more evenly than expected.

"I'll say first, there's no moral victories, but I'm very proud of our football team," first-year Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. "They played hard, they played physical, they fought through adversity, they competed until the last second on the clock, and that's all we could have asked for coming into this ballgame. I think the initial goal I set earlier in the week is that when this game was done, that other football team respected us. I have a feeling they respect the Washington Husky football team.

"With all of that being said, it's not acceptable. We play the game to win and unfortunately, we were in the red zone five times and we settled for four field goals and had a turnover. That's how you can lose. We talked about the turnover battle coming in, and we talked about red zone execution, and those were two areas that didn't happen for us, and I think that was the key to the ballgame."

LSU's first opportunity to make 2009 better than 2008 ended with a victory and a lot of video that will be analyzed and used as a teaching tool before Saturday's home opener against Vanderbilt.

"Offensively, we turned it back to our opponent a couple of times, and when they got it, they kept it," Miles said. "It was the dangdest thing. I want to say in the first half we got four possessions and in the second we got not many more."

The Tigers had five possessions in each half and ran 48 offensive plays in the game for a total of 321 yards. They would have a lot more explaining to do today if not for Cutrera's interception return for a touchdown and Washington's fumble at the LSU 4, both in the first quarter.

Washington's success on third-down conversions (7-for-9 in the first half, 11-for-19 overall) and 478 yards of total offense will be talk-show fodder all week -- and all season if the defense doesn't live up to the expectations created by the players and Miles with their glowing offseason reviews of new coordinator John Chavis.

"I think our new defensive coaches did a good job," Miles said. "They put the team in position to do make tackles and do things. I think we missed some tackles early on. If we don't miss those tackles I think we're much better on defense. There were times that I saw that Tiger defense as the kind of defense that I want to see."

For all of the ink and dead trees devoted to the notion that Chavis was on a different level than his predecessors, that he would put a vastly improved product on the field, Saturday's game was a reality check. He inherited many of the players who were part of the defensive struggles in 2008, plus he has to develop new starters in a hurry, including on the defensive line. It's worth noting NCAA rules prohibit him from going on the field and doing the tackling for his players.

The Tigers looked out of their league on Washington's opening drive. There were players out of position, poor technique on tackles and a decision that backfired. Blitzes are popular -- all but required by the LSU faithful -- but when you gamble and lose, it hurts. Locker's 54-yard pass play to the 15-yard line illustrated the point and was the key play of the drive.

LSU didn't force a single three-and-out possession by Washington's offense. The Huskies defense required the Tigers to go three-and-out five times.

Patrick Peterson was all over the field, so much so you had to wonder whether he had a twin. The linebackers were solid. A lot remains to be tweaked on a defense that played with more cushion than LSU fans enjoy seeing.

Truth is, it's a different college game than it was in 2003, the year of press-man coverage and blitzes named for every state in the union and every animal on the planet. Chavis has to find a mix that is aggressive at the right times, doesn't leave the Tigers vulnerable against spread offenses and is simple for players who are new to his system to grasp.

When you get to do some teaching and win in the process, you go home thinking it was a good day. That's what I took from Miles and his mostly positive postgame quotes. Sarkisian was the one left to ponder the what-if possibilities.

"I would have hoped that we would have completed a couple of those balls in the red zone for touchdowns," he said. "It would have made me feel a lot better. I think it would have changed a little bit of the complexion of the game. We score that second-to-last drive to possibly cut it to a three-point game. That puts a little more pressure on them, the crowd's really in the game, but instead we settle for a field goal and an eight point game. Then they go down and drive and score. I think that just changed a little bit of the complexion of the game."

Washington defensive tackle Alameda Ta'amu agreed the Huskies hurt themselves too often.

"We cannot have any DAPs, dumb-arse plays," he said, a quote the UW information staff cleaned up for mass consumption. "We played really well today, but we shot ourselves in the foot with penalties and turnovers."

Jordan Jefferson was 11-for-19 for 172 yards and three touchdowns. It's easy to forget it was his third college start.

Toliver began to look like the receiver he was billed as when he arrived at LSU, catching four balls for 11