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<< Previous   of   Next >>   ADVERTISEMENT   ADDITIONAL ITEMS • University of Washington athletics (External Link) • UW Athletics (External Link)   Related Stories • Boss, the dog ate my keys 10/28/07   CONTACT THE HERALD Report scores and results to 425-339-3470 or 1-866-6-SCORES (Call after 4:30 p.m.) E-mail information including items for Tuesday's Communities Sports Roundup and Thursday's Outdoor Calendar, to sports@heraldnet.com Kevin Brown, Sports Editor kbrown@heraldnet.com   Published: Sunday, October 28, 2007 That's the best your team can do, Ty? Yikes! John Sleeper Herald columnist SEATTLE -- Can it get any worse? If so, when's the next flight to Barbados? Certainly, watching cricket couldn't be any more excruciating than Saturday's 48-41 travesty to Arizona at Husky Stadium, another in a series of weak-willed exhibitions Washington is renowned for in its recent history. Forty-one points should be enough to win a college football game. Forty-one points should close the show and send everyone home happy. That's what Washington dropped on Arizona, despite five turnovers. Yep, 41 should be enough under any circumstances. For the Washington Huskies, they aren't. "We let them pass all over us," UW free safety Darin Harris said. "They did not have a tough time moving the ball at all." After a pair of victories to start the season, including one against a Boise State team that hasn't lost since, Washington's once-promising season is in the dumper. Look at the rest of the schedule. See any winnable games left? Not Cal. Not Hawaii. Oregon State? Forget it. Hell, Stanford beat USC and Arizona. How are the Huskies supposed to compete against the colossal, 3-5 Cardinal? Apple Cup was looking pretty competitive. Until now, that is. After playing a schedule filled with the nation's elite, Arizona was supposed to be a team on which Washington would erupt, much like the number Mount St. Helen's did on Spirit Lake. The Wildcats lost to BYU, New Mexico and Stanford, for crying out loud, while Washington was playing national powers Ohio State, USC and Oregon fairly even up at times. After every UW defeat, we heard the same mantra out of this bunch: We're close. We're just making little mistakes. We're going to win our share of games and go to a bowl. In fact, watch out. We could win out the rest of the year. Boy, can they parrot the coaching staff. They just can't play. That much is obvious. This is what UW coach Ty Willingham had to say after Saturday's disaster, 14 words that will come back to haunt him: "I still think this is the best effort our young men could put forth." Really, Ty? That was the best possible effort? The absolute best the defense could do was to mommy up to the FieldTurf and let Arizona pile up 535 yards? The zenith of production your scholarship defensive athletes could manage was to dress up as human yield signs for Arizona quarterback Willie Tuitama, who was 38-for-51 passing for (gulp!) 510 yards and five TDs? Byron Davenport gets beat like a used mule for a deep TD pass, is saved by an Arizona drop, then gives up another TD pass on the next play? On the same pattern? Yikes! That's the BEST they could do, Ty? If it is, you and the staff had better hope for a recruiting class that includes Tony Dorsett, Peyton Manning, Cortez Kennedy and the 1985 Chicago Bears. That is, if you get another crack at a recruiting class. Let's give the Husky offense its due, although five turnovers are difficult to overlook. Six weeks of coaching a team that was once 2-0 and the Huskies have a defensive team that has given up 103 points and nearly 1,200 yards the past two games. Throw in Arizona State and the past three foes have saddled Washington for 147 points, an average of 49 points a game. Instead of improving, the defenders are regressing and regressing at historically fast levels. At least they vary in the way they bow down to the opponent. Against Oregon, the defense gave up 465 rushing yards. This time, it yielded even more passing yards than that. As we've heard enough times to vomit, balance in this game IS important. And so the Magical Mystery Tour moves south to Stanford, owner of the biggest upset this side of Appalachian State. Some Huskies still have the nerve to repeat the tired mantra, one that sounds more empty with each passing week. "I believe in this football team," defensive tackle Jordan Reffett said. "What we need to do is go down to Stanford and show them our team." Please, God. Anything but that. Sports columnist John Sleeper: sleeper@heraldnet.com. For Sleeper's blog, click on www.heraldnet.com/danglingparticiples.

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