Huskies Season Slipping Away

Once again the Huskies showed as if they belonged, but only for a portion of the game. They just can't seem to put it together for a full four quarters of football. That being said, although the score was close for the first three quarters, the Dawgs never had an answer for Oregon's offense. It wasn't realistic for the offense to keep up with them the whole game. Jake Locker continues to show promise, but he still hasn't played with the consistency you need out of the quarterback position. The four touchdowns to just one interception is great, but it's tough to sustain long drives when your QB is completing less than 50% of his passes. No doubt he is a special talent and will be great in the future, but at this point it looks like asking him to shoulder such a big load is just too much. With a bowl game all but out of the picture, the Dawgs just need to focus on winning the games they are capable of and build some confidence for next season. Arizona and and WSU at home are both winnable games and Stanford and Oregon State will both be tough road games, but teams they can match up with talent wise. That leaves Cal at home and at Hawaii, both very tough games. Going 4-2 of the last six games would certainly be respectable and be a nice end to the season.

Weekend Picks

Huskies +13 over Oregon - Not so sure the Dawgs will pull out the win, but Oregon has a few key injuries on offense, scoring should be kept in check by the Seattle weather and you have to take into account that inspired effort at home against USC a few weeks ago. Of course with the Huskies this year I wouldn't be shocked at a blow out either.

Huskies can win if: They can get some points off turnovers and Jake Locker makes a few big plays with his legs. Oregon 37, UW 31

Rams +8.5 over Seahawks - I fully expect the Hawks to take this one, but there is no way I'm laying down 8.5 points after the performance the last couple weeks. At this point the Seahawks are the last team I would put into a parlay. But the Rams have been just awful, so there are no excuses this week (not there really were any last week).

Seahawks can win if: The defense can make stops on 3rd down for once and establish even a little but of a running game. At this point why would any team let the Hawks throw it? If I'm a D coordinator I'm dropping everyone into coverage like the Steelers did. Seattle 27, St.Louis 20

Bellotti Overrated?

With the Ducks coming to town this weekend (finally, it seems like Eugene has been permanent on the UW schedule) and a certain coach of said team making a few snide remarks, I was reminded of an article I saw this summer written by Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury News. Wilner put together a list of the top 10 coaches in the Pac-10 over the past twenty years. Hard to argue with Pete Carroll at #1, but Oregon's Mike Bellotti at #2? Ahead of Don James? Wilner did say that James was bumped down, because of violations at the end of his tenure at UW, but it's still hard to see a coach without a Rose Bowl appearance near the top of any list for the Pac-10. Bellotti does have a Pac-10 championship and BCS Bowl victory in the Fiesta Bowl (the Rose Bowl was the National Championship host) with his 2001 squad. However, Bellotti only has three other bowl victories compared to six losses and the Ducks have only finished in the top 2 in the conference two other times during his tenure. Bellotti is certainly a good coach and his teams are a model of consistency when it comes to the regular season. But even with Phil Knight funding state of the art facilities to help lure recruits, the Ducks have seen six different Pac-10 teams make Rose Bowl appearances during Bellotti's time as coach. Of course maybe Rose Bowls aren't exactly the best barometer for success for an Oregon coach, because you have to go back to 1916 to find a coach who has won one.