Bear Down? Hopefully Not.

Before the season started Husky fans looked at the Stanford game as the most important game in determining how far this program has come along since the days of Keith Gilbertson and his run-run-pass-punt offense and the disappointing days of Tyrone "Coach Rone" Willingham. Halfway through the season the Huskies are 3-3, and, on paper, just about where people thought they would be. However, if you've watched every game, you know that this team should be better than the record would indicate, and the potential for success has not been achieved in any way conceivable, minus the Stanford game. UW beat Stanford, a win that fans thought at the beginning of the season meant this team is on its way back. But after a bad loss at Oregon and a disappointing performance against USC at "home", we Husky fans are scrambling a little bit.
If things couldn't get any more confusing, we now play an Arizona team that is playing better football than most experts predicted. This was supposed to be the beginning of an "easy" second half of the season but instead we open the last six game stretch against two teams that have been ranked at one point this season, including a surprising Oregon State team that is now ranked in the BCS top 10 (which is like that new little league team that was created back in the day who started really hot, but you knew they weren't that good, but you couldn't figure out how to beat them). With this "new" back end schedule, it is conceivable the Huskies could fall to 3-5 before the actual easy part of the season kicks off.

For once, I am going to be optimistic. I don't think this Arizona team is very good. I know they score a lot of points but their defense is terrible. I am not afraid of this team and if I were a player on this team I would go in with that kind of confidence. The Husky defense has been playing really well and the offensive potential is there and it is going to take one game to get this team feeling good about what it can accomplish.

This now becomes the swing game that determines how the rest of the season can go. Win, and the Huskies could be on track for a 9-3 season after proving it can win on the road against a decent team. Lose and next week's game against the Beavers could be rough and put the Dawgs in quite the hole. But I feel like the Huskies can slow this offense and Keith Price can start feeling it again. I like our chances......because......I have to.