After all the early emotion Saturday, after all the reverse passes and trick plays, Washington's 39-19 loss to Arizona State came down to two simple seasonlong truths — the Huskies can't run the ball on offense and can't stop the run on defense.

Even against a mediocre team like Arizona State, the game revealed that even though the schedule may be easing during the last few weeks of the Tyrone Willingham era, Washington's problems aren't.

When the FieldTurf settled Saturday, Arizona State had rushed for 182 yards, or 51 more than the Sun Devils had rushed for in any other game this season, and 96 more than their average. And UW had rushed for 52, just the second time all season the Sun Devils had held an opponent below 100, and 106 yards below ASU's average.

"You can't replace [the running game]," Willingham said. "That's something we've got to have and it's something we've struggled with."

AP

Washington quarterback Ronnie Fouch (8) and wide receiver Cody Bruns (7) hang their heads as they sit on the bench late in the game during an NCAA college football game against Arizona State in Seattle, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2008. Arizona won 39-19.

Indeed, Washington is averaging just 85.3 yards rushing, which would be the second-lowest in school history other than the 74.3 of 2002 when the offense revolved around the Cody Pickett-to-Reggie Williams passing attack. That's the only time in school history UW has rushed for under 100 yards a game.

And indicative of how UW's defense has struggled this year, ASU's rushing total was actually the second-lowest against the Huskies in 2008. Still, Washington is allowing 236.4 yards, which remains well ahead of last year's total of 184.5, a defense regarded as maybe the worst in school history.

The UW school record for rushing yards allowed per game is 257.8 in 1975, Don James' first season as coach. But that Huskies team played the likes of a Darrell Royal-coached Texas squad, and a Bear Bryant-led Alabama team, allowing 400 or more rushing yards to each. Huskies opponents that year averaged 58 rushes per game, getting 4.4 per carry.

This year's team is allowing 5.7 yards per carry and 41 rushing attempts per game.

Washington's problems with stopping the run make some sense, however, given the youth of the team's defensive line. The Huskies have had three new starters up front all season, and have given significant playing time to three true freshmen.

The offensive running game issues are more of a mystery. With four returning starters on an offensive line that last year helped UW average 203.1 yards rushing — most since the 2000 Rose Bowl winners — the thought was that the Huskies would again be able to run well despite the loss of leading rusher Louis Rankin.

The loss of Jake Locker to injury has undoubtedly hurt. Still, UW had averaged just 117.7 rushing yards in the three full games Locker played, a mark that has fallen to a paltry 62.6 in the five full games he has missed.

Willingham laid some blame on the running backs Saturday, saying the backs were impatient at times, not waiting for holes to develop. Some of that was to be expected, however, with a lot of new players in the backfield.

The biggest issue has been a veteran offensive line that has underperformed all season.

In an ominous note for the future, the Huskies haven't seen fit to give any real playing time to any of the youngsters up front. With two seniors leaving after this season, the Huskies will have to break in two new starters next year, neither of whom will have played much.

Offensive line coach Mike Denbrock said last week that he has thought about trying to get some of the younger players in the game but "there is still some definite difference between the first-team guys and the second-team guys."

The Huskies will try to get the running game going this week against the coach some blame for its initial downfall — Rick Neuheisel, whose UCLA Bruins come to town Saturday night.

After some initial success running the ball with Marques Tuiasosopo, Neuheisel's last two UW teams struggled to consistently run, something the Huskies have never really reversed. Some Huskies fans may find it not so coincidental that the only Pac-10 team averaging fewer yards rushing than UW is UCLA.

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