Our beloved Huskies are going to be at "home" tomorrow against the Stanford Cardinal in what is being considered by some, me, one of the biggest games in this program's most recent history. UW goes into the nationally televised, Thursday night showdown with the record of 2-1, a record most people expected after playing the A-B-C schedule the athletic department lined up for the team. A sloppy but effective win against San Diego State, a crap-tastic in every single way type of loss to Louisiana State University and a blowout, unfair win against Portland State. Now, we play a Stanford team that barely beat San Jose State, then crushed Duke and upset a national championship contender in USC. Makes for a very interesting game tomorrow at the CLink.
I think more than anything it will determine how the rest of the season will go. I know that it is just one game, and the Pac-12 has proven this year that anyone can beat anyone on any given Thursday-Friday-Saturday, but this Husky team has become predictable enough that I think we will know UW's record by the end of tomorrow's match.
If the Stanford Cardinal beat the Huskies.....
This obviously is the worst case scenario for many reasons. I believe it means that the Huskies are still not ready for the big time and our injury issues are a bigger deal than Coach Sark has led us to believe. Therefore, if we can't win, the rest of the season looks a little something like this:
At Oregon, Huskies lose by more than 40 points, team record; 2-3
Vs USC, Huskies lose by about 20 points, team record; 2-4
At Arizona, Huskies lose in a shootout by a TD, team record; 2-5
Vs Oregon St., Huskies lose by a field goal, team record; 2-6
At Cal, Huskies finally get back on track with upset win, team record; 3-6
Vs Utah, home field advantage is key, Huskies win, team record; 4-6
At Colorado, not the season we wanted, but it's still the Buffs, team record; 5-6
At Wazzu, they really do suck, Huskies win close one, team record; 6-6
Remember, this is the bad news. And don't forget I am just some idiot Husky fan that thinks he knows the team really well. 6-6 in a year with the hardest schedule in the country with a terrible list of important injuries is not so bad, right? I mean, it still gets you to a bowl game and the future continues to look bright. But, not beating Stanford at home means all of the questionable games on the schedule will likely go to the opponent, and also puts in question some of the "locks".
If Huskies pull off the upset and beat the Cardinal...
I do not think that this is so outlandish. This is not the same Cardinal team that we saw last year in Palo Alto. We are talking about a freshman QB on the road for the first time ever, Stanford's last game was against USC so they should be a little more beaten up than UW and we have this game at "home", not on "The Farm". It will not be easy to beat the Stanford Cardinal for many reasons, but I do not think it is out of the realm of possibility. Therefore, if we win, the rest of the season looks a little something like this...
At Oregon, Huskies still lose by about 30 points, team record; 3-2
Vs USC, Huskies win by a field goal because they can beat a USC team, team record; 4-2
At Arizona, Huskies still lose to a shootout type of team on the road, team record; 4-3
Vs Oregon St., Huskies win by a field goal, team record; 5-3
At Cal, Huskies are feeling good at this point, team record; 6-3
Vs Utah, home field advantage is key, and the Huskies are better, team record; 7-3
At Colorado, Buffs only win in the last several weeks will be against WSU, team record; 8-3
At Wazzu, they really do suck, Huskies win big, team record; 9-3
In this ultimate dream scenario, the Huskies go 9-3 with a 7-1 conference record in the Pac-12 North, which will be good for second place behind Oregon unless they lose to USC and are upset by a Stanford type of team. I know that it looks crazy for UW to beat USC and Stanford in three weeks with an Oregon game squished in there, but that is the kind of confidence I will have in this team if they beat Stanford.
This game is huge, I hope Sark has them ready for it.
Go Dawgs!!!
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