Saturday is Going to be Brutal

This was supposed to be the year that glory was restored to the UW football program. We had an exciting second coach, a potent offense and a Heisman Trophy candidate QB who passed up millions of dollars to return for his senior year. This was the year.

When we beat USC, to put us at 2-2 on the season, I wrote that the next two games were of highest importance. Beating the Trojans was a great feeling, but if we could not beat both the Sun Devils and the Beavs, there was a good chance we would stay home for the holidays again. It wasn't a huge shock that they laid an egg against ASU before beating OSU in OT the following week. At 3-3, the Huskies were staring at the conference's top 3 teams: @ AZ, Stanford, @UO. Losing to Arizona sucked, but we were on the road. Surely we had a chance at home against the Cardinal. Wow, were we all wrong. The defense was terrible. the offense even worse. We lost 41-0.

Now this weekend we have to go to Autzen Stadium to play the top-ranked Ducks. It is not going to go well. Let me give you the facts:

• The Ducks average 51.0 points a game (1st nationally); the Huskies give up 34.1 (106th)
• The Ducks average 308.8 rushing yards a game (3rd); the Huskies give up 144.3 (74th)
• The Huskies average 21.8 (93rd) points a game; the Ducks give up 17.9 and Jake Locker is not playing
• Oh, did I mention that the Huskies haven't won at Autzen since 2002 and have been outscored on average by UO 42-17 during their 6 game series losing streak
  

The Ducks are going to run ALL OVER the Huskies. I have been joking with my friends that they might set a single game record by running for 1000 yards (Interestingly, the single game record is 768 by Oklahoma vs K-State in 1987) and while that may not be realistic, LaMichael James certainly has the opportunity to approach LaDanian Tomlinson's single game rushing record of 406 yards set in 1999 against UTEP. Afterall, James ran for 257 four weeks ago against Stanford and 239 last week against USC - both defenses which are head and shoulders above UW.

The only thing worse than a rout by UO is that the game will be nationally televised on ABC, which means the rest of the country can learn what we in Seattle already know - this team is not any closer to relevance than they were last year. At least we have basketball.