Pride on line for Huskies in the Apple Cup

So much for an Apple Cup for all the Pineapples.

Instead, only Washington State still has a chance at landing a berth in the Hawaii Bowl or some other postseason game after Saturday took most of the luster off the Apple Cup.

"We have to fight through this and try to wind them up for Washington State," Washington offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said after the Huskies' shocking 20-3 defeat against Stanford

The mood in Pullman was much the same after WSU was manhandled at Arizona State, 47-14. If his team doesn't play better than it did against the Sun Devils, Cougars coach Bill Doba said, "we don't deserve to go to a bowl."

But at least the Cougars have the motivation of getting a seventh victory and sewing up a bowl game.

Oddsmakers might have taken that into consideration while installing WSU as a nine-point favorite, the sixth consecutive year the Cougars have been favored to beat Washington.

The Huskies, meanwhile, only have pride and avoiding a few embarrassing distinctions to play for against the Cougars. Their defeat Saturday ensured they cannot finish with enough victories to get to a bowl game and fulfill coach Tyrone Willingham's preseason goal of becoming "a bowl victory team."

Now, the Huskies have to avoid losing a seventh consecutive game to end the season and falling to the Cougars for a third year in a row — something UW has never done.

"There are a lot of courses you can take," Willingham said Saturday when asked how he fires up his team now. "You can just throw out that it is the Apple Cup. You can talk about the opportunity to redeem themselves from the way we played today. You can talk about turning a new leaf for the program. We've got a chance to finish the year on a positive note."

That latter might be the most critical.

The defeat Saturday seemed to drain any momentum remaining from the Huskies' 4-1 season start. UW is 3-21 in Pac-10 play since 2004 and 3-13 under Willingham.

The Stanford defeat was judged by longtime observers as among the most humiliating at home in school history, considering the feebleness of the Cardinal entering the game. It might be considered worse than the 1985 defeat to Oregon State and the 2003 loss to Nevada.

Washington was held to its fewest points at home since 1983, its fewest yards (161) at home since 1984.

The major troubles for UW began when Isaiah Stanback was lost for the season with a foot injury against Oregon State. UW was 4-2 at the time, though already on its way to being 4-3 when Stanback was injured in the fourth quarter.

At first, there wasn't much of a drop off for the Huskies as a new-look offense featuring Carl Bonnell gained 446 yards the following week at California. Since then, however, UW has gained just 573 yards combined in the past three games, and just 299 in the last two.

"[Stanback] was critical to our offense," Willingham said. "But I still felt that over the last five or six games we've been in there have been opportunities for us to make the play or to make a better decision on my part that could have helped us."

And while Stanback's loss was obviously huge, the game Saturday only exacerbated some trends that started long before he was hurt.

The Huskies once again came out slow to begin both halves and have been outscored 54-30 in the first quarter and 93-27 in the third quarter. It also was the fifth consecutive home game in which UW was held to 279 or fewer yards in offense.

And now the Huskies enter the week with a ton of uncertainty at quarterback. Bonnell (thigh bruise) and Johnny DuRocher (concussion) each left the game with injuries.

Bonnell came back to finish the game, but Lappano said afterward it might be best for Bonnell to sit out this week considering the injuries he has had this season. He earlier suffered a concussion and a sprained shoulder.

If neither can go, the Huskies might have to go with fifth-year walk-on Felix Sweetman. Since Jake Locker is redshirting, the only other alternative after Sweetman is receiver Sonny Shackelford, a high school quarterback.

"It is going to be tough," said Bonnell. "There is going to be a lot of gut-checking going on. But we have to bounce back. Five-and-seven is a lot better than 4-8. It is going to be a pride thing."

Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Read his blogs on Washington football and basketball at www.seattletimes.com/huskies.