Huskies will use bye week to get recharged

After the kind of game that could make a team want to go into hiding for a while, the Washington Huskies will pretty much do just that.

Licking their wounds following Saturday's 43-19 home loss to the Oregon Ducks, UW will take this coming weekend off — their first of two in-season byes. UW is the last Pac-10 team to get its bye and it's much needed for a team that has played eight consecutive Saturdays, all but one against teams that have received AP top 25 votes at least once this season, four of which have been ranked.

"It's going to be great to have a bye," said UW's first-year coach Steve Sarkisian. "We are obviously a pretty nicked-up football team right now so the bye couldn't come at a better time to hopefully get our guys back fresh, get our minds fresh, and go into this last quarter of the season with a vengeance and finish strong."

A strong finish will now be necessary for the Huskies to make a bowl game — a goal that seemed rather outlandish in August, looked surprisingly reachable in September, and as October closes again looks like a longshot.

After the bye, UW has two straight road games — at UCLA on Nov. 7 and at Oregon State on Nov. 14 — and then gets another bye. UW won't play at home again until the Apple Cup on Nov. 28, a span of 35 days, by which time its postseason fate could be sealed

UW fell to 3-5 overall with the loss to Oregon and will have to win one of the road games against the Bruins — the best possibility as UCLA is 3-4 overall and 0-4 in Pac-10 play under former Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel — or Oregon State to have a chance at finishing 6-6. That's the minimum required for a bowl game.

Lose both, and the Huskies will be left playing for pride the next time it plays before its home fans.

Players insisted after the Oregon loss that the postseason dream is still alive.

"The season is not over," said running back Demitrius Bronson. "Yeah, it's a loss. Another loss. But it's not over. We have to keep going, try to get to a bowl game."

First, though, Sarkisian said the Huskies have to worry about themselves.

After the 2-1 start that included a rousing upset of USC, the Huskies are 1-4 — the only victory coming on the miracle interception return by Mason Foster against Arizona. UW has been outgained an average of 459-355 per game in those five games, the defensive number on par with the 451 the Huskies allowed last year that was the highest in school history. UW ranks 107th nationally in total defense at 423.5 yards per game overall.

Saturday, the Huskies looked like a team that collapsed a little bit under the weight of playing eight straight pretty intense games. The Ducks outscored UW 36-3 in the second and third quarters after a couple special-teams plays broke things open.

"There are some things we are getting better at every week," said UW defensive coordinator Nick Holt. "I don't think we wore down or anything like that but it will be nice to get a little break, get caught up on some stuff and get healthy and come back fresh."

The Huskies will practice today, Tuesday and Wednesday, and Sarkisian said among the items on the to-do list is to "assess what we are doing schematically and from a personnel standpoint." He said players who haven't seen much action of late will get a chance during the bye to show if they deserve to be in the lineup.

The Huskies may also assess how Jake Locker is being used as a quarterback. In Sarkisian's scheme, Locker is mostly eschewing the running ability that was a major factor in making him one of the most recruited QBs in the country out of Ferndale High School.

But Sarkisian seemed to hint after the UO loss, when Locker had just three carries for 9 yards when you exclude sacks, that it may be time to let Locker run a little more.

"The challenge is on me as well to call things that allow him to play within a system but also utilizing some of his strengths," Sarkisian said.

Mostly, though, Sarkisian wants to see if that team that beat USC and took Notre Dame to overtime can be relocated.

"Our goal is we've got to just get back to playing football the way we are capable of playing it," he said. "The positive is we are playing hard still. Our kids are trying hard. We've just got to get back to playing our brand of football."

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