Hard to imagine a worse night for the Huskies than what happened here Saturday.

Not only did they lose a must-win game, but they also lost QB Jake Locker for what offensive coordinator Tim Lappano said will be at least six weeks, and apparently also may have lost leading receiver D'Andre Goodwin for a significant time with a rib injury. Lappano indicated that Goodwin's injury is more serious than Locker's, saying "he has issues.''

Add it up, and Lappano concluded that "it's a nightmare.'' No better way to really describe it.

In fact, hard to see the season really being salvaged now.

Ronnie Fouch will add some curiosity value to next week's game at Arizona. But the Wildcats will also have a week to prepare for what will be a different Husky offense now --- very little, if any, of the spread option, which is the only way the Huskies have mounted any real running attack all season. And without Goodwin, he's without the team's most dependable receiver.

Lappano said afterward that true freshmen Cody Bruns and Anthony Boyles will have to get ready to play now with Goodwin out.

As bad as all that is, just as ominous is that the defense showed no visible improvement even after a bye week in which the team was said to have gotten back to basics in practice, working on improving tackling and other fundamentals.

A not-very-good Stanford offense gained 466 yards despite shooting itself in the foot a few times with penalties, a dropped pass on third down, and a fumble. It was the second-highest output of the Jim Harbaugh era at Stanford, topped only by a 506-yard outing last year against San Jose State.

Asked what the problem is with the defense, UW coach Tyrone Willingham said: "We can't seem to get the right rhythm. We put pressure, but then on pressure they catch it in front of us, they break tackles, they do things. And then we don't put pressure, we don't stop them that way. We're just not where we'd like to be. We're trying to figure it out and get everyone where they need to be. And we just haven't found that cure.''

Willingham frankly sounded like he has run out of ideas of what to do now, calling this "a very disappointing loss. ... I felt like we had a football team that would be able to go out and win this football game. I'm not being disrespectful to Stanford; they played a good football game. But I felt like we could win the football game.''

But the Huskies didn't, and getting to six wins now looks almost impossible.

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With that, on with some grades:

QUARTERBACK --- Like everyone else has this year, Stanford was zeroing in on Locker early and he managed just 17 yards on 10 carries. To be accurate, he gained 34 yards on nine carries and lost 11 on one sack. Still, he had a long run of just seven as the Cardinal was determined not to let him beat them. he was 5-9 passing and missed a couple of open receivers before leaving the game with the injury (and to be fair to him, the injury contributed to the last missed pass when he overthrew an open Goodwin). Fouch threw some nice passes and the Cardinal didn't seem as prepared for a more spread passing look from the Huskies. Some will rush to say that the UW offense will be better off with Fouch, who led a couple of nice drives. But it will be interesting to see how he performs as a starter, with opponents having a week to prepare for him. GRADE: B.

RUNNING BACKS --- David Freeman was having a nice game before he suffered an ankle injury, that doesn't sound serious. He had 64 yards on seven carries. But no one else did much --- none of the other UW runners had a carry as long as six yards. And without the spread option, which may be pretty much nixed now with Locker out, yards may be harder to come by. GRADE: C.

RECEIVERS --- Lappano said there was only one drop, and the young guys seem to keep getting better. They'd better if Goodwin is really out for an extended period. Aside from Goodwin, the only Huskies with more than one catch were Jermaine Kearse and TE Michael Gottlieb. Alvin Logan isn't doing much and Devin Aguilar was kept in check. But this was a Stanford secondary that statistically ranks among the worst in the conference (so does Oregon now, for that matter). Arizona ranks No. 1, so that'll be interesting. GRADE: B.

OFFENSIVE LINE --- Lappano said he thought the line played better. But it seemed like there's still lots of room for improvement. UW needed three plays to get it in from the 1 late in the game, for instance, and once Locker and Freeman went out, the running game was pretty non-existent. UW had 28 yards on 12 carries in the second half. Harbaugh could be heard telling his team how proud he was of their physical domination afterward, and it was hard to argue. GRADE: C.

DEFENSIVE LINE --- Four games, no sacks, and another blistering from an opponent's running game. Stanford averaged 6.8 yards per carry and that was almost solely without leading rusher Toby Gerhart, injured early. The Huskies were again pushed around all night. GRADE: F.

LINEBACKERS ---- Donald Butler was having a real nice game early before leaving with a concussion. But other than Butler, not many highlights. There were still some key missed tackles ---- Matt Houston on the fourth down play in the first half that set up Stanford's second touchdown, to note one. GRADE: D.

SECONDARY --- Stanford, which came in with one of the worst passing offenses in major college football, had receivers open all night and hit big play after big play. And that was without its most talented receiver, Richard Sherman, out with an injury. GRADE: F.

SPECIAL TEAMS --- Nothing especially noteworthy good or bad, though the kickoff coverage team allowed a couple of decent-sized returns. Goodwin's loss would mean another punt returner has to be found. GRADE: C.

COACHING --- (Whoops, I see from reading some of my, uh, fan mail that this didn't make it on the initial post. Hit send too soon. Anyway, Here it is:

Comment --- A home loss to Stanford to fall to 0-4 in year four speaks more loudly than any grade. This team simply isn't making the needed progress. GRADE: F.