Or, more accurately, thoughts from the Marriott hotel in Phoenix. But close enough.

Those 99-degree temperatures we expected here might have been a bit of an overestimate. It felt like it was in the mid-80s or so when we landed at about 4:45, and cooled considerably after that. So I don't know how much of a factor the heat will be for a 7:15 kickoff tomorrow night.

As I wrote about for today's paper, this feels like a swing game for Huskies bowl hopes this year. Win, and it seems pretty feasible that they can find two more wins on the schedule--especially since they still get to play WSU, which looks like about as sure of a thing as Thanksgiving.

But if they lose, not only is it going to be hard to find three more wins on the schedule--especially since the worst team they play, other than WSU, will be UCLA on the road--and it also means they still haven't found a way to win on the road. Then again, does that argument really hold that much weight after what they did at Notre Dame? They lost, yes, but they were obviously well-prepared and able to go toe-to-toe with a team that was favored to beat them by two scores. And if not for some questionable replays and their failure to get about three feet on 10 different occasions, this wouldn't even be a conversation. I think those doubting if UW could play well on the road after that Stanford game ended up seeing what they needed to see against Notre Dame.

On the flip side, if ASU wins, UW would be by far the best team the Sun Devils have beaten this season, their first three victories coming against Louisiana Monroe, Idaho State and WSU. And if they can't beat UW at home, they're kind of going to be in the same situation as the Huskies: at 3-4, wondering where three more wins are going to come from this season.

If there's any game this season where UW's defense can break out and maybe be a little more of a factor, it seems to be this one. ASU has been pretty weak up front for the past few seasons, except now, they have Danny Sullivan at quarterback and not Rudy Carpenter, who could somewhat make up for a lack of pass protection simply by being a pretty good quarterback. Sullivan hasn't been great, getting booed at home in a loss to Oregon State earlier this year. And they turned the ball over six times against the Cougars.

Of course, ASU is likely thinking the same thing, given the Huskies inconsistency moving the ball last week and the fact that the Sun Devils have some pretty incredible athletes on the defensive side of the ball.

This looks like a low-scoring slugfest, the kind of ugly game that has kind of seemed to typify this series.

Let's call it ASU 21, UW 17.