SEATTLE – In one sense, this should be a scary weekend for the Washington football team. There’s very little fun to be had for any opponent at Autzen Stadium, and even less for Washington.
Add the fact that Oregon is a Top-25 team, and there’s reason to be pessimistic if you’re a Husky fan.
On the other hand, this isn’t the first time Washington has been in this position this season. So far, for some reason, the Huskies seem to thrive on the road against a top team in a hostile environment.
On Oct. 7, Washington went to the Los Angeles Coliseum and took USC to overtime, losing 26-20. On Oct. 21, the Huskies took California to extra time in Memorial Stadium before falling 31-24.
Will the third time be the charm? It better be, because the Huskies (2-4 Pac-10, 4-5 overall) now find themselves likely needing to win their final three games in order to reach a bowl game.
“We know the situation that we’re in and we’re still thinking bowl victory,” cornerback Dashon Goldson said. “We have to win these games, we can’t settle for anything less.”
“We need to win and win now,” quarterback Carl Bonnell added. “We’ve let it slip the last two weeks and we have to get out and get it done.”
With four consecutive losses by a total of 26 points, Washington has gone from a 4-1 team with high bowl hopes to a team that now must beat its two top rivals on the road to have a shot at the postseason.
The Huskies have found nothing easy about going into Autzen Stadium. Washington has played Oregon (3-2, 6-2) in Eugene the past two years and lost by a combined 49 points. But if there’s good news, it’s this: the past two times the Huskies had gone to USC, they’d lost by a combined 58, and the last time they went to Cal, they lost by 47.
“It’s been a house of horrors for us lately,” senior linebacker Scott White said of Autzen. “We’ve struggled down there the last two years. Hopefully we can come out and match their intensity because they really come out and get the crowd behind them.”
None of the Huskies have an answer as to why the team seems to play better on the road than at home. Perhaps it’s an “us-against-the-world” attitude, or maybe the team is too comfortable and complacent in Husky Stadium. Whatever the reason, it is encouraging for this weekend, but a problem overall.
“We go in with our backs against the wall and we know that,” White said. “That’s been the mantra of this team. …When we go into hostile environments, we have that in our mind. We need to take that into our home games.”
“We go in waves and play well against really good teams, and that’s not good,” linebacker Dan Howell said. “It’s inconsistent and that’s what we’re trying to fix. …It happens to be we play really well against high-ranked teams and don’t do that against other teams.”
Washington enters the game as a 161/2-point underdog, and the players are using that to their advantage as they have at Oklahoma, USC and Cal. Of course, while those games were very important, they did not carry the magnitude that today’s does. Now it’s win and stay alive, lose and begin preparing for next year. And that’s a situation that this team has not faced this late in the season in several years.
Head coach Tyrone Willingham said one of the things he likes most about his team is its resiliency and its ability to overcome some poor play to remain in games. But he said that is not enough anymore.
“Nothing compensates for a loss,” Willingham said. “Playing close, that doesn’t get it. But our football team this year has put itself in a position to win almost every game we played. What we have to do is learn to get over the top in those situations and win the football game.”
Douglas Guy Award finalist: UW senior Sean Douglas is one of 10 semifinalists for the Ray Guy Award, given to the nation’s top punter. He was originally one of 47 nominees. The semifinalists will be pared down to three finalists and the winner will be announced Dec. 7.
Douglas ranks second in the Pac-10 and 11th in the nation with a 44.5 average. He’s the school career leader in average at 43.2 and earlier this season broke the school record with an 82-yard punt, and followed it with an 81-yarder in the same game. He was an honorable mention all-Pac-10 choice last season.
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