Losing Saturday at UCLA means the Huskies have to win out to get to 6-6 and retain any chance of a bowl game.

That's a quest that starts this Saturday in Corvallis against Oregon State, and the key matchup in that one seems obvious --- an OSU passing game that is the best in the Pac-10 statistically against a UW pass defense that ranks among the worst.

The Beavers, despite having to make a change at QB from the injured Lyle Moevao to Sean Canfield, and losing two WRs off last year's team who each ranked among the top 10 in the conference (Sammie Strougther, Shane Morales) are leading the Pac-10 in passing offense at 279 per game. That's also 19th in the country.

The Huskies, meanwhile dropped to 111th in the nation in pass defense after Saturday's loss, when the Bruins threw for 371 yards, and are 110th in pass defense efficiency. UW is allowing 262.5 passing yards per game and opponents are completing 66.4 percent of their passes.

Obviously, stats don't tell everything, and comparisons across years can be tricky.

Still, if the current number holds up it would be the third-highest per-game total allowed by the defense in UW history --- highest is 2005 (275.7) followed by 1998 (271.3).

The 66.4 percent completion rate would also be third-highest in UW history behind only last year (66.8) and 2005 (66.7). Interestingly, UW had never allowed an opponent to complete 60 percent of passes for a season until 2004 (exactly 60 percent that season). But it's allowed at least 60 percent or more in every year since then. No question, passing offenses have gotten better and more sophisticated and rules changes favoring the offense through the years have contributed, as well. But it's also little coincidence that high passing numbers by opponents have come during the worst stretch of football in UW history.

Some of UW's specific problems this year can be traced to youth on the defensive line and in the secondary --- four true freshmen starting in those two areas at various times (two on the line, two in the secondary).

I focused on the defense for my story for Monday's paper, talking after the UCLA game with defensive coordinator Nick Holt. Holt said he knows some of the numbers and results haven't looked great but that he believes the defense is making progress and is better now than it was at the beginning of the season.

"Obviously when you give up more than what you get and you lose the game, obviously we didn't get the goal of winning the game,'' Holt said. "But there were some really good things out there. Whenever you get five turnovers, that's an excellent job.''