Can Washington prove victory wasn’t a fluke?

Published 10:50 pm Thursday, November 8, 2007

As the losing continued, as it went from a loss, to a losing streak, and from a losing streak to a cause of panic in Husky fans, the mantra within the football program stayed the same.

Finish.

Finish the play, finish the drive, finish the game.

Now, it’s time for the big finish. Time, Huskies, to finish the season.

A six-game losing streak left Washington no margin for error. It’s finish 4-0, or finish earlier than the team had hoped. All along, the goal has been a bowl game, and now, one more loss will kill those dreams.

And while winning four in a row for a team fresh off a six-game losing streak seems unlikely, the Huskies at least showed they can finally finish a game last week.

Like they have all year, the Huskies looked good in the first half, but unlike earlier losses, they played a strong second half. After a Stanford touchdown cut the lead to four, the Huskies drove 75 yards for a touchdown. When Washington had the ball in the fourth quarter with a chance to put the game away, the Huskies did just that, keeping the ball for nearly five minutes before scoring the game-clinching touchdown.

Now the Huskies need to show it wasn’t a fluke. That they didn’t finish strong because it was “only” Stanford.

So this week the mantra for the Huskies was, you guessed it, finish.

“That’s a theme every week,” coach Tyrone Willingham said. “That’s what every team has to do. It’s something that you’ve got to be in the habit of doing all the time. It’s not something you can stress one week and then lay off. It’s something you’ve got to talk about every week. You’ve got to finish.”

To pull off what seems like a daunting task of winning four straight, everyone needs to be better. Everyone needs to finish.

That means receivers, who have dropped too many passes, need to finish by catching the ball more consistently. It means Jake Locker, who has been brilliant throwing the ball at times, and struggled other times, needs to finish a play when a receiver gets open. It means Louis Rankin needs to finish the season running like he has in recent weeks, hitting holes hard and talkers harder.

Most importantly, it means the defense needs to finish the season playing better defense than it did in the middle part of the season. Last week was a good start, but again, it was Stanford. Can the Huskies tackle consistently against a quality running back like Oregon State’s Yvenson Bernard? Can the defensive backs handle Cal receiver DeSean Jackson or Washington State’s passing game that averages 297 yards per game? Can they go on the road and slow down the pass-happy Hawaii offense? Can they finish?

If nothing else, the Husky defense is now playing with a renewed confidence after Saturday’s win in which it gave up only nine points.

“To finally get one, it was good, because we know what we can do, we just have to finish,” cornerback Byron Davenport said. “Finish, finish, finish. That’s the big thing.”

Having finally finished a game, the Huskies have been noticeably more upbeat this week. There are more smiles, more laughter and more fun being had. But that hasn’t changed the sense of urgency. It hasn’t changed the need for a strong finishing kick.

“The emotions around the locker room have been a lot better the last couple of days,” Locker said. “It’s exciting to be able to get wins and we still have a chance to make the season a really good one. We have an opportunity to play after our regular season is over and that’s something a lot of guys are excited about. That’s the great thing about this game. We had a really tough six weeks, but we still have an opportunity to make some pretty good memories for the season.”

The Huskies are still chasing a bowl game, but they know the margin for error is now zero. Washington showed last week that it knew how to finish. Now comes the hard part of doing it four more times.

“We know that sense of urgency is there,” senior receiver Anthony Russo said. “These are our last four games here, so we’ve got to finish strong.”

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