Huskies hurting after 3 routs in row

If there was any doubt the Washington Huskies are not yet ready for prime time, it was erased emphatically the past three weeks.

Playing three straight games against what are generally considered the top three teams in the Pac-10 — Arizona, Stanford and Oregon — the Huskies were humbled.

They lost all three by 30 points or more, were outscored a combined 138-30 (matching the most points allowed in any stretch of the winless 2008 season) and were outgained a combined 1,459 yards to 660 (an average of 486.3 to 220).

This is, in fact, the first time in school history UW lost three straight games by 30 points or more.

The last of the three came Saturday in Eugene as UW was defeated 53-16 by the top-ranked Ducks.

Washington stayed with the Ducks for about 32 minutes, trailing just 18-13 two minutes into the third quarter, before Oregon's relentless up-tempo offense took its toll, outscoring the Huskies 35-3 the rest of the way.

Still, it was more of a fight than the Huskies had put up in a 41-0 home loss to Stanford the week before, and in that UW players and coaches took some solace.

"The score speaks for itself," said cornerback Quinton Richardson. "But from the bottom of our hearts I feel like we left it all out on the field. I felt like there was a big difference (from the Stanford game). We played a lot harder, smarter. We played football."

The result, though, left UW with no margin for error as it enters the last quarter of the season. The Huskies are now 3-6 and need to sweep their final three games to achieve their preseason goal of a bowl game.

Players said they believe that's still possible.

"We've just got to win out so we can be bowl eligible," Richardson said.

And the good news is the schedule now downshifts in difficulty.

After taking next weekend off, the Huskies will host UCLA in a Thursday night game Nov. 18, then play at California and Washington State. Those three teams are a combined 10-19, compared to the 24-3 of the three foes the Huskies just played.

Both UCLA (4-5) and Cal (5-4), though, are surely looking at the Huskies in a similar fashion — as a team they can and need to beat to get to a bowl game. And that the Cougars won't be an easy mark in the Apple Cup hardly needs to be stated.

The weekend off will afford UW some time to heal physically, though coach Steve Sarkisian said it was too early to know if quarterback Jake Locker will make it back for the UCLA game.

Safety and co-captain Nate Williams said what the team may really need is some time to heal mentally after a tough stretch of games that doused the Huskies with some harsh realities about where the program is right now compared to the optimism of the offseason.

"We are going to take this week off and everyone just rest their minds, because I think that's where most guys are hurting right now," Williams said. "We just need to rest mentally more than anything, so just take this week off and get right in all aspects and come out on fire again."

Williams said he thinks once the Huskies get a few days removed from the disappointment of losing the Oregon game that players will focus on some of the good things that happened — holding the Ducks scoreless in the first quarter, for instance — and use that as motivation to move forward.

"Obviously everyone is a little hurt and let down a little bit," he said. "But I think once we watch the film and the coaches let us know that there were a lot of good things that we did, everything will be all right. We did do a lot of great stuff — we were holding the No. 1 team in the nation to three-and-outs and to three points in the red zone, which a lot of teams couldn't do. So we did a lot of great things. We just need to clean a lot of things up."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com.