Everett, Wash.
Published: Sunday, October 5, 2008

Huskies get lost in the desert

Slow start dooms UW in humiliating loss to Arizona Arizona sophomore tight end Rob Gronkowski finishes with five catches for 109 yards and three touchdowns as UW gives up 449 yards off offense.

By John Boyle
Herald Writer

 TUCSON, Ariz. -- Every week seems to bring a new low for Washington football, and this game in the desert was no exception.

Three weeks ago, the Huskies got run out of their own stadium in embarrassing fashion by Oklahoma. Last week, coming off of a bye, the Huskies dropped another home game, this time to Stanford, a team thought to be one of the more beatable opponents on the schedule. Oh, and Washington lost quarterback Jake Locker for six to eight weeks in that one.

On a windy Saturday evening in Tucson, the Huskies somehow managed to sink even lower, suffering a 48-14 humiliation at the hands of Arizona in front of 55,624 at Arizona Stadium.

The loss drops the Huskies to 0-5 for the first time since 1969, and Washington is one of two winless teams, along with North Texas, in the 119-team NCAA Football Bowl Subdivision. The loss was also Washington's seventh straight going back to last season, the longest losing streak in the country.

This Husky team now looks like it might challenge the 2004 team, which finished 1-10, for the distinction of worst UW football team in recent memory. Saturday's loss also made a coaching change seem inevitable, though Washington athletic director Scott Woodward said again Saturday that he's not planning on making an in-season coaching change.

"I feel pretty low right now," said senior cornerback Mesphin Forrester. "Oh and five. Even when we went 1-10, we didn't go 0-5. That hurts. We've just got to find a way to get our heads up and win a game."

The Huskies needed a win if they had any hopes of salvaging their season, but instead were out of the game almost from the opening coin toss.

Arizona won the toss and deferred to the second half, and when Washington elected to receive, the Wildcats decided to open the game with the stiff breeze at their backs. The result was a field-position advantage that Wildcats used to build a 17-0 first-quarter lead.

Washington's first possession was a three-and-out, and Jared Ballman's punt went only 20 yards, giving Arizona the ball at the UW 40. That led to an eventual field goal, and Arizona's next two drives also started in UW territory. A possession starting at the UW 36 ended with a punt that pinned the Huskies at their own five, and when that drive ended with a punt, Arizona needed just two plays to go 40 yards for a 10-0 lead.

Finally working with a longer field, Arizona's offense had no trouble driving, going 72 yards on six plays to take a 17-0 lead at the end of the quarter.

"It's tough," sophomore linebacker Mason Foster said of the field position disadvantage. "That's always a disadvantage. We've got to do better, but it's tough to have them start on our side of the field. When they've got 40 yards to go, 30 yards to go, that's tough to stop."

The change in quarter brought a change in direction, and the Huskies took advantage quickly. Ronnie Fouch, who was starting in place of the injured Locker, threw a deep ball into double coverage, but Jermaine Kearse somehow came up with the pass for a 62-yard gain to the Arizona 19-yard line. Six plays later, Paul Homer plowed into the end zone for a 1-yard touchdown.

The Huskies then forced the Wildcats to punt on their ensuing possession thank in part to a Daniel Te'o-Nesheim sack. It was the second of three sacks for the junior defensive end, who ended a four-game sack drought for the Huskies.

But when Washington got the ball back, again at its own 5, it went three-and-out, and Mike Thomas returned the punt 48 yards for a touchdown. Fouch then threw an interception on Washington's next possession -- the first by a UW quarterback this season -- setting up an eventual touchdown pass from Willie Tuitama to tight end Rob Gronkowski.

Tuitama, who passed for 510 yards and five scores against the Huskies last year, was solid again, though with less gaudy numbers. He finished 17-for-21 for 193 yards and three touchdowns -- at one point completed 14 passes in a row -- and gave way to backup Matt Scott in the third quarter. As good as Tuitama was, however, Gronkowski was the star of the night for the Wildcats. The sophomore tight end finished with five catches for 109 yards and three touchdowns.

"I can't even give you an answer," cornerback Quinton Richardson said when asked about Gronkowski's success. "I didn't even know what was going on half the time. I knew what was going on, but we couldn't find an answer for the tight end. Same play, same play, they pretty much only ran like four plays the whole game."

Because the Wildcats had the game in hand so early and handed the keys over to the second-string offense, they actually finished with the lowest yardage total, 449, of any UW opponent this season.

Washington's offense never got going aside from the big pass play and a late drive when the game was out of hand.

The Huskies finished with just 63 yards rushing and 244 yards of total offense.

"We wanted to try to establish some type of run, but we struggled with that in the first half," said offensive coordinator Tim Lappano. "We weren't able to knock them off the football. I thought we could knock them off the football ... There wasn't a whole lot of area to run the football, two back or one back. And to give Ronnie the best chance to win, we've got to be able to do that."

Making his first start, Fouch completed 12 of 28 passes for 181 yards with one touchdown -- a 20-yard pass to Michael Gottlieb -- and one interception.

Despite another lopsided score, Washington coaches said their team put forth a good effort. On this night, however, effort was not nearly enough for Willingham's squad.

"I don't think our kids laid down," said Willingham who is now 11-30 in his fourth season at Washington. "I don't think that's even a question. I think they gave us effort. We just had a terrible hole to dig out of."

Contact Herald Writer John Boyle at jboyle@heraldnet.com. For more on University of Washington sports, check out the Huskies blog at heraldnet.com /huskiesblog

Arizona 48, Washington 14

Washington 0 7 0 7 -- 14

Arizona 17 14 17 0 -- 48

First Quarter

Ari--FG Bondzio 29, 10:47.

Ari--R.Gronkowski 37 pass from Tuitama (Bondzio kick), 7:10.

Ari--Grigsby 4 run (Bondzio kick), :00.

Second Quarter

Wash--Homer 1 run (Perkins kick), 11:55.

Ari--Thomas 48 punt return (Bondzio kick), 8:13.

Ari--R.Gronkowski 9 pass from Tuitama (Bondzio kick), 3:58.

Third Quarter

Ari--R.Gronkowski 8 pass from Tuitama (Bondzio kick), 10:50.

Ari--FG Bondzio 49, 5:42.

Ari--X.Smith 2 run (Zendejas kick), :38.

Fourth Quarter

Wash--Gottlieb 20 pass from Fouch (Perkins kick), 8:33.

A--55,624.





Wash Ari

First downs 12 28

Rushes-yards 28-63 51-256

Passing 181 193

Comp-Att-Int 12-28-1 17-21-0

Return Yards 0 52

Punts-Avg. 8-35.9 3-37.0

Fumbles-Lost 3-1 0-0

Penalties-Yards 3-31 1-10

Time of Possession 23:48 36:12

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING--Washington, B.Johnson 13-35, Griffin 3-21, Dailey 6-18, Homer 1-1, Fouch 3-1, J.Polk 1-(minus 5), Team 1-(minus 8). Arizona, Grigsby 14-113, Scott 6-58, X.Smith 7-36, Booth 5-33, Antolin 12-33, Beirne 1-4, Team 4-(minus 5), Tuitama 2-(minus 16).

PASSING--Washington, Fouch 12-28-1-181. Arizona, Tuitama 17-21-0-193.

RECEIVING--Washington, Aguilar 4-35, Hawkins 3-33, Chidiac 3-31, Kearse 1-62, Gottlieb 1-20. Arizona, R.Gronkowski 5-109, Thomas 3-26, Dean 3-16, T.Turner 2-25, B.Lopez 1-12, X.Smith 1-6, Simmons 1-4, Antolin 1-(minus 5).
© 2009The Daily Herald Co., Everett, WA