Faced with USC's messy play, UW couldn't clean up

The most talented team in the nation was vulnerable. Playing as if this were the spring game. Playing as if wet, windy Husky Stadium was the last place on the pigskin universe it wanted to be.

This is how upsets are born.

Top-ranked USC gave Washington more than a football field-and-a-half in penalties. It missed a 33-yard field-goal attempt. It had a punt blocked and committed a couple of turnovers.

Quarterback John David Booty looked awful. He overthrew some receivers. Threw behind others. Had passes tipped. Had passes dropped.

For much of Saturday night, USC looked DOA.

The Trojans committed penalties as if Al Davis was both the offensive and defensive coordinator. They played Oakland Raiders football. The bad Oakland Raiders.

They jumped offside. They hit Huskies out of bounds. They held. They grabbed face masks. They false-started.

Washington gained 190 total yards on its own. USC gave it another 161 in penalties.

Booty fumbled a snap at his 15-yard line and two plays later Jake Locker ran in for a score. Booty threw a pick that Mesphin Forrester returned 54 yards for a touchdown.

Some games don't make much sense. This was one of them.

The Trojans gave Washington every chance to steal this game. And Washington gave back too many of those chances.

Washington was outgained, outplayed, out-talented — but stayed alive. Huskies quarterback Locker played like a freshman, yet Washington hung around for 59 minutes. Hung around until the final onside kick was fielded by USC's Terrell Thomas.

"I definitely think we made too many mistakes," Washington linebacker Dan Howell said after the 27-24 loss. "We didn't play the kind of football that we can play. Coach [Tyrone] Willingham will tell you we didn't play our kind of football. Our standard is excellence. Period."

The Huskies (2-3) are a long way from excellence, but they've come a long way from last season. They are a long way from winning a conference title, but they are much closer to reaching a bowl.

"We knew we had a good football team," Willingham said. "I think for the most part we played in that manner. There are still some things we aren't doing perfectly, but I like our football team."

This was the kind of game that can set the tone for the season. Beating USC was a long, long, long shot. But hanging with USC was imperative if Washington was going to build something out of this season.

The Huskies had to bounce back from a miserable fourth quarter last week at UCLA. They had to enter this bye week with some faith that they can upset Arizona State or Oregon or Cal. That they can win at least seven games this season and get to a bowl game.

"We definitely think we're a bowl team," Howell said. "We wouldn't play with the fire, the fight we had if we didn't think we were capable of winning.

"I think the main goal for us is to find a way to play consistently. We know what kind of football we can play when we play great. We know what product we can produce. When we play consistently, it's really no contest. We believe in ourselves. Our spirits are high. Even now, guys are in the locker room talking about 'Let's make this the best bye week ever.' Our heads never go down."

Still, Washington needs wins. It has to believe it can win its next game at Arizona State, or the game after that against Oregon. To get to where these players think they belong, they have to do better than close.

"At some point our football team has to have the same picture of itself that I have," Willingham said. "And that is that we could have beaten Ohio State. We could have beaten UCLA. We could have beaten USC."

Remember, this is a program that has won just 10 of its past 39 games. It's a program trying to return from the conference's wilderness. It's a program looking for something positive, week by week.

Washington is better than it has been since its last winning season in 2002. Once again it showed it can hang with the best teams in the country, just as it did for more than a half against Ohio State and for three quarters at UCLA.

"I know we're a lot better than last year, but we're still not where we're supposed to be," Howell said. "That's the bottom line. We don't have the victories that we want to have.

"We're sitting two-and-three. We're sitting losing right now. None of us are happy with it and we're not going to be happy with it until it turns around and we start winning ball games."

They aren't stopping the run. They aren't making tackles. And they're still making too many mistakes.

The most talented team in the country gave them every chance for the upset of the conference season. But the Huskies still weren't good enough to take up the Trojans on their generosity.

Steve Kelley: 206-464-2176 or skelley@seattletimes.com