These Dawgs are neutered

I'm tired of this conservative crap.

This was supposed to be the week that the schedule gave them a break. This was supposed to be the first game in more than a month that the Huskies would have a chance to win.

In the end, it was a game that the Washington football team wouldn't let themselves win.

I listened -- because the Huskies are deemed not good enough to be shown on TV live -- as Arizona State's backup quarterback became another in the long line of opposing signal callers who looked like Heisman candidates in their game against the UW.

Redshirt freshman Rudy Carpenter passed for 401 yards and three touchdowns in a game that was his first collegiate start ever.

Ever.

The inability of the Washington secondary to cover anyone wasn't the most frustrating part of the game. That came in the fourth quarter.

During the entire game, I had been waiting for that one play to happen that signaled that the wheels were falling off for the Huskies. Through the third quarter, it hadn't happened yet.

Then, when the Huskies were on offense it came in the subtlest of ways I could have imagined. It wasn't a long punt return or a costly interception. It was simply a decision.

It was fourth and one at the UW's 43-yard line. The game was still winnable, with Washington down just 24-20 with 10 minutes left.

If you make that fourth down conversion, the momentum is in your hands. A chance to upstart an offense that had been stagnant all through the second half is suddenly yours.

But instead of giving junior quarterback Isaiah Stanback the ball and telling him to plow ahead, the Washington coaching staff decided to punt.

The Sun Devils then predictably drove down the field and their freshman quarterback scored his third touchdown of the day.

If you're going to win the game, you have to make that fourth down play.

If you want to talk about a single play that could have changed the fortune of the Huskies that day, it was right there in front of them.

On a day where fumbles were coming out of the hands of the Sun Devils only to bounce right back into them; a day where it seemed like Derek Hagan was open every time ASU needed a first down, it was a day that the Huskies could have come home as winners.

Instead, they moved to 1-7.

They wasted an unbelievable effort on the ground from senior James Sims and the kind of performance we've been hoping for all season from the defensive line as they sacked the quarterback seven times.

The Huskies have been conservative on offense all year long, which would be fine if they had a defense that could allow them to win low-scoring ball games.

Unfortunately, they don't.

In order to win, the UW has shown that it's going to have to out-score people.

The only way to do that is to take chances.

When you have a chance to score first, you need to get into the end zone; you can't just settle for a field goal. When you are presented with an opportunity on fourth-and-one to turn the game around, you have to take it.

You have to take it because I've never seen a team win by punting, but I just saw the Huskies lose because of it.