UW Turns Tables, Still Loses Rather Than Squander Late Lead, Huskies Unravel From The Start

Apparently weary of seeing impressive early leads wither embarrassingly in the fourth quarter (see: loss to Notre Dame and tie with USC), the Washington Huskies tried a new ploy on Saturday.

And that was spotting Oregon a 24-point halftime lead by stumbling through 30 minutes of uninspired play.

Yes, the Ducks were lulled into complacency.

And the Huskies scored 22 unanswered points in the second half.

But in the final 3 minutes, two short John Wales field goals missed the mark - one blocked, one sailing wide - as Oregon held on for a 24-22 Pacific-10 Conference win.

Combined with USC’s win over Stanford, the loss damages the Huskies’ Rose Bowl hopes as the Trojans stand 5-0-1 in conference with Oregon State and UCLA left on the schedule, while the Huskies (4-1-1) have UCLA and Washington State on the docket.

“We had it, it was our game; we did what we had to do and it was just unfortunate at the end that we couldn’t put some points on the board,” said UW quarterback Damon Huard, who had a career-high 327 yards passing, hitting 21 of 36. “We came back and fought hard and should have won the game.”

But Wales’ 34-yarder to win the game with 3:02 left was blocked as the Oregon defenders collapsed the inside of UW’s protection.

Huskies linebacker Ink Aleaga gave UW another chance, though, by forcing a fumble and getting the ball back at the Oregon 21 with 2:14 left.

But amid the swirling winds that gusted around Husky Stadium all day, Wales missed badly to the right on a 36-yarder with 1:07 remaining.

It was his third miss of the day, as he also missed to the left on a 34-yard try in the second period.

“The character of a football team is shown in whether they even have a chance to come back,” UW coach Jim Lambright said. “And we certainly did, but it’s obvious that our tools there at the end weren’t enough to create the kicks that we needed.”

The misses, Lambright said, were a combination of the snap, hold and kick. “All three of them get credit for the ball not getting up.”

The loss continues the puzzling struggles of the 1995 Huskies at home. Prior to the last three home games (two losses and a tie), the Huskies had won 32 of 34 games at Husky Stadium.

Any mystique that had grown through years of success has certainly dimmed.

“This is a place where we should win, where we should just be able to chalk up that win,” said UW safety Lawyer Milloy, who finished with 17 tackles. “This is like some burglar coming into your house, you’ve got to defend your house, and we haven’t been doing that.”

It’s been more than burglary to Huskies running back Rashaan Shehee, who saw UW’s customarily powerful rushing attack held to 16 net yards.

“It’s like somebody came into my house and stabbed me in my heart,” Shehee said.

It took about 15 seconds for the Ducks to plunge the first knife, as Pat Johnson returned the opening kickoff 89 yards for a touchdown.

Johnson, the fastest player in the conference (he took eighth in the NCAA 100 meters as a freshman), seemed hemmed in at the 30, but slipped out of a knot of players and easily outran all pursuers.

“This is a game of emotion, and when a team gets a big play like that to start the game, it really creates momentum,” UW tight end Ernie Conwell said.

The Ducks added three Joshua Smith field goals and a 4-yard rushing TD by Ricky Whittle to pump the score up to 24-0 at intermission - outgaining the Huskies 273 yards to 71 (minus-2 rushing).

All the while, Oregon receiver Cristin McLemore was simply unstoppable, curling free into seams of the Husky zone for eight catches for 143 yards in the first 30 minutes.

Lambright had seen enough.

“I did a lot of screaming at halftime,” Lambright said. “It was like, we better get this thing going. Changes in the game plan are great, but the effort level has to increase a great degree as well.”

The Huskies began blitzing more and rolling the secondary to help cover McLemore.

And Huard awakened. In the final 30 minutes, he completed 14 of 22 passes for 254 yards, including a 42-yard score to tight end Cameron Cleeland and a 49-yarder to Dave Janoski.

Shehee also ran for touchdowns of 5 and 4 yards, and Huard ran for one two-point conversion and passed to Conwell for another to put the Huskies back in position to win.

But they didn’t.

“There’s so many what-ifs,” Huard said. “It just makes you sick. We should be 8-1 and in the Rose Bowl. We should have this thing wrapped up already.”

Oregon coach Mike Bellotti sympathized with the Huskies.

“To Washington’s credit, they came out a different team in the second half and played great opportunistic defense,” Bellotti said. “I feel sorry for Washington because they mounted a good second-half attack.”

Oregon 24, Washington 22

Oregon 10 14 0 0 - 24

Washington 0 0 14 8 - 22

Ore-Johnson 89 kickoff return (Smith kick)

Ore-FG Smith 30

Ore-FG Smith 22

Ore-Whittle 4 run (McLemore pass from Graziani)

Ore-FG Smith 34

Was-Shehee 5 run (Huard run)

Was-Cleeland 42 pass from Huard (kick failed)

Was-Shehee 4 run (Conwell pass from Huard)

A-74,054.

Ore Wash First downs 21 18 Rushes-yards 38-77 24-16 Passing 282 327 Return Yards (minus-6) 6 Comp-Att-Int 22-37-2 21-36-1 Punts 5-33 6-41 Fumbles-Lost 3-1 2-0 Penalties-Yards 8-71 9-77 Time of Possession 33:13 26:47

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHINGOregon, Whittle 15-62, Parker 4-12, Jelks 8-11, Graziani 11-(minus 8). Washington, Shehee 14-50, Thomas 2-3, Huard 7-(minus 13), Team 1-(minus 24).

PASSINGOregon, Graziani, 22-37-2-282. Washington, Huard 21-36-1-327.

RECEIVINGOregon, McLemore 9-155, Wilcox 4-50, Jelks 3-28, Ricketts 3-23, Whittle 2-19, Winn 1-7. Washington, Shehee 6-66, Janoski 4-91, Coleman 4-50, Conwell 3-36, Cleeland 1-42, Pathon 1-22, DeSaussure 1-17, Thomas 1-3.

, DataTimes