Stanford will take one more step toward closing the book on what may be their worst football season in history with a visit to picturesque Husky Stadium this Saturday.

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Alvin Chow

Junior quarterback T.C. Ostrander tries to elude the USC defense in last week’s 42-0 loss to the Trojans. He will try to improve on his 55 yards per game average this week against Washington in Seattle. It won’t be an easy task, given the wet conditions expected for tomorrow’s game.

The fact that the Cardinal (0-9, 0-6 Pacific-10 Conference) enter the contest 19-point underdogs speaks volumes about the distance between them and Washington (4-6, 2-5 Pac-10), the league’s next-worst team and losers of five straight. For former Cardinal head coach Tyrone Willingham, next-to-nothing has gone right this season for the Huskies.

Starting quarterback Isaiah Stanback went down with an injured foot just when the team (4-3 at the time) — and Stanback himself — appeared to have finally turned the corner. New signal caller Carl Bonnell has struggled mightily, throwing five picks to California in his first start and an additional three in his last two games. Stanford will need to harass Bonnell into as many mistakes, if not more, to have a shot tomorrow.

On defense, Washington has yielded 26 points per game, and looked helpless against the run last week as Oregon racked up an incredible 31 first downs in a 34-14 blowout. On the season, the Huskies have allowed 235 pass yards and 155 rush yards per game, both next-to-last in the Pac-10. However, the Huskies have reshuffled their defensive front, and an anemic Stanford ground attack might be just what the doctor ordered.

With 68 yards per game, 2.2 yards per carry and no running back averaging over four yards per touch, the numbers reflect what the fans have seen with their eyes: arguably the nation’s worst rushing attack. Junior Anthony Kimble had two of his best runs of the season against USC and freshman Toby Gerhart packs a punch — though he lacks shiftiness — but behind an outmanned offensive line, Stanford typically can gain only a yard or two per carry early in the game, and is therefore forced to ditch the run game.

That puts the ball in the hands of junior quarterback T.C. Ostrander, who has yet to live up to the reputation with which he arrived on campus as a national top-five quarterback recruit. Like senior Trent Edwards, the starter before a season-ending foot injury last month, Ostrander has alternately held onto the ball too long, leading to 37 sacks allowed, and not long enough, leading to incompletions, interceptions and two-yard scrambles aplenty. Ostrander is completing just 45 percent of his passes for 55 yards-per-game, though to be fair, freshmen and walk-on receivers have received the bulk of playing time with senior starters Evan Moore and Mark Bradford injured for much of the season.

Whether the blame falls on the shoulders of the offensive line, quarterback, receivers or play-calling is the ultimate Rorschbach test for the Cardinal faithful, but the bottom line is clear: The Stanford offense last engineered a touchdown drive in September.

The Cardinal have similarly found little success in recent years against Washington. Stanford has not won in Seattle since 1975, and Huskies are 20-3 against the Cardinal in the past 30 years.

The Huskies were the Pac-10’s premier program at the turn of this millennium. However, after Rick Neuheisal stepped down from the head coaching position under a cloud of controversy, USC started to snag the league’s top recruits and Washington has suffered ever since. The team went just 2-10 last year and 1-10 the in the previous year. However, with wins against Stanford this weekend and Washington State in the season-finale Apple Cup, the Huskies would be eligible for their first bowl since a 2001 victory in the Granddaddy of Them All — the Rose Bowl.

Kickoff is at 12:30 p.m. PST. The game is not being covered on television, but will be broadcast on KNBR 1050 am.