Huskies Replay: UW 38, Arizona 14

The good: This could be the win that finally gets the Tyrone Willingham era turned in the right direction. If so, that will be the biggest positive of all out of this game. But there were lots of other positives — the hard running of James Sims, the resilience of Isaiah Stanback, and the continued improvement of the defense, which has played pretty well for most of the last three games. Maybe the biggest thing is that it showed that the players hadn't given up in the face of what had been another dark season.

The bad: Hard to find anything on the best day in Huskies football in almost two years. An injury to Dashon Goldson could prove crucial this week, however. Statistically, the Huskies committed a season-high in penalties (nine for 95 yards) and need to keep the emotions in check this week.

Next up: vs. Washington State, Saturday, 12:15 p.m.

Offense: As offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said, this looked like Huskies football of old as UW rushed for its most yards in almost five years (333). Stanback and Sims were the obvious stars. The unsung heroes were the members of the offensive line — tackles Chad Macklin and Joe Toledo, guards Tusi Sa'au and Stanley Daniels and center Brad Vanneman. Those five started together for the first time this year, and the lineup rarely changed. Tight end Robert Lewis and fullback Mark Palaita also provided some good blocking. And then there's Craig Chambers, who made the biggest catch of the season. Grade: A

Defense: A week after Arizona blitzed UCLA for 52 points and 519 yards, UW held the Wildcats to 14 points and 322 yards. The Huskies did it by continuing to be creative up front, throwing a lot of diverse looks at the Wildcats. Steady Evan Benjamin had another good game (10 tackles, 2.5 for loss, one interception), and Tahj Bomar filled in nicely for the injured Joe Lobendahn. But the key was the play of the much-maligned secondary, which was fortified by the return of Josh Okoebor from injury. Roy Lewis and Matt Fountaine played their best games as UW broke up seven passes. The unsung hero was sophomore backup safety Chris Hemphill, who played well after Goldson was hurt. Grade: A

Special teams: Hard to find much to complain about here, as well, other than one long kick return by the Wildcats. The kicking and punting were flawless, and UW got a couple of decent returns of its own from Lewis and Sonny Shackelford. Grade: A-

Bob Condotta