Kavario Middleton’s smack talk put the Apple Cup focus on the Washington Huskies’ offense. Would the Huskies be able to hang 50 on the Cougars? Would the UW offense run up the score as payback for two straight defeats to their intrastate archrival?

The offense, it turned out, was decent on Saturday, piling up yards more with efficiency and sound fundamentals than spectacular individual efforts. But it was the defense that dominated, playing with a purpose that rekindled memories of an era when the Huskies were synonymous with a rough-and-tumble kind of football that beat up the other team’s bodies as it beat down their spirit.

What’s astounding isn’t that Washington State, for the first time since 1964, was held scoreless in the Apple Cup. What’s astounding is that, save for a gimmick play doomed by Kevin Lopina’s overthrown pass to a wide-open-in-the-end-zone Gino Simone, the Cougars never really threatened to score

They got as far as the UW 33-yard line on their next-to-last possession of the first half, when defensive end Darrion Jones sacked Lopina for a 7-yard loss on fourth-and-4. And that was that.

Over the final five minutes of the second quarter and the entire second half, the Cougars’ longest drive would be eight plays. They would advance no farther into Huskies territory than the UW 48-yard line.

It should be noted that the Huskies did not exactly clamp down on a multi-dimensional offensive juggernaut. Washington State came into Seattle averaging a fraction more than 13 points a game, lowest in the Pac-10. What little spark the Cougars had been able to generate before Saturday was the work of freshman quarterback Jeff Tuel, who was out with a kneecap injury. Starting in place of Tuel was Lopina, who got flattened moments after throwing a first-quarter pass that was intercepted by linebacker Mason Foster.

Lopina, who had to be helped off the field, was relieved by Marshall Lobbestael, who got hurt when he plowed into Jason Wells during a futile attempt to pick up a first down.

Lopina came back on the Cougars’ next possession and took a blind-side hit after an incompletion, which became head coach Paul Wullf’s cue to summon fourth-team quarterback Dan Wagner.

“When they get that far down on their depth chart,” said Butler, “you key on the run. He was No. 19, right? I’d never seen him before.”

Wagner, who appeared briefly in a mop-up role last season against Oregon State, was under orders to hand off the ball and get the Cougars into halftime.

“Our options were the guys we played,” said Wullf. “Dan Wagner came in there and did a good job at the end of the first half … that was our option. After that, it would be Jeffrey Solomon if Marshall wasn’t going to be able to come back.”

Jeffrey Solomon, by the way, is a junior wide receiver.

The Cougars never did quit. Even when they were down by 30 points late in the fourth quarter, with their backs to the end zone, they showed an admirable feistiness in picking up a first down that avoided a safety – but they weren’t going to score with a hobbling Lobbestael at quarterback, or a dazed Lopina at quarterback, or a virtually unknown Dan Wagner at quarterback.

“I’m not going to say hurting guys is a good thing, but those injuries played to our advantage,” said Jones, who along with fellow senior Daniel Te’o-Nesheim gave Washington a speed-rush presence at defensive end that hasn’t been seen this season.

Because the front four forced the action, the linebackers were unleashed to make the kind of plays that show up on a stat sheet. Cort Dennison contributed a sack among his eight tackles. Trent Tuiasosopo had two tackles behind the line of scrimmage. Josh Gage had a sack and forced a fumble.

“To be able to hold a team to zero points, especially after what happened in the game last year, obviously showed we were playing with a little chip on our shoulder,” strong safety Nate Williams said. “We wore them out, and we wore them down.”

No, the Huskies didn’t score 50 points. But this Apple Cup wasn’t about the pregame comments of a tight end who would catch one pass for 8 yards. This Apple Cup showed how it’s possible to make an even louder statement on the other side of the ball.

“You always want to kill WSU,” said Butler, a senior who played in his final Apple Cup. “Now, at least for the next year, I’ll be able to say: ‘we shut those guys out.’ ”