TUCSON, Ariz. — The Washington Huskies, hoping to make a statement that they’re a team worthy of the upper echelon in the Pacific-10 Conference, took a step down Saturday during a difficult night in the desert.
Harassed by 15th-ranked Arizona’s league-leading defense and hampered by sore ribs that hindered quarterback Jake Locker, the Huskies couldn’t live up to their own expectations in a 44-14 loss at Arizona Stadium.
Despite turning to backup quarterback Matt Scott after star QB Nick Foles was injured last week at Washington State, Arizona ran and threw the ball against a Husky defense that was forced to turn and chase much of the game.
Scott completed 18 of 22 passes for 233 yards and two touchdowns. Arizona rushed for 233 yards and finished with 467 yards of total offense. Scott completed all but two of his 16 passes in the first half, and the Wildcats didn’t punt until 4:39 remained in the third quarter.
“Our inability to rush the passer in the first half was probably the biggest key to the ballgame, allowing a guy making his first start of the season to stand back and go 14-for-16 in the first half,” Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. “It opened things up for the run game.”
Locker, meanwhile, went 17-for-29 with 183 yards and a touchdown. He was sacked four times and, midway through the fourth quarter with the game out of hand, was replaced by redshirt freshman quarterback Keith Price.
“He’s just beat up,” Sarkisian said. “I just didn’t want expose him. I didn’t want to do that to the kid.”
Arizona held the Huskies to 290 total yards, 98 rushing. Washington running back Chris Polk was held to 67 yards, ending his streak of two straight 100-yard rushing games and three in the past four.
“Going in, I thought we would be able to run the ball better than we were able to,” Sarkisian said. “As the game wore on, the game got out of hand. You can’t just sit and rely on the run when you’re down by 20 or so.”
The Huskies, who began the day in a four-way tie for second place in the Pac-10, fell to 2-2 in the league and 3-4 overall. Arizona is 3-1 and tied for second with Stanford, and at 6-1 has qualified for a bowl game.
The Huskies, who snapped nine-game road losing streak at USC three weeks ago; haven’t won two in a row all season.
In their last loss, a surprising defeat at home to Arizona State two weeks ago, Locker was ill. Locker’s only full practice last week was Thursday.
Locker and the Huskies played well early Saturday night and, after recovering an Arizona fumble, drove impressively with their first possession to take a 7-0 lead.
After Desmond Trufant’s fumble recovery gave the Huskies the ball at their 38-yard-line, Washington scored in four plays. Among those was an 18-yard run by Chris Polk and a 13-yard pass from Locker to Jermaine Kearse to put the ball on the Arizona 26.
On the next play, Locker rolled left as Kearse sprinted past Arizona safety Anthony Wilcox. Locker hit Kearse on stride on the left side of the end zone for a touchdown with 11:33 remaining in the first quarter.
The Huskies’ lead lasted as long as it took Arizona to mount its own two-minute-style drill.
Scott, a junior starting for the first time this season, completed four of five passes on the 62-yard drive.
The final completion was a 17-yard rollout when he threw to Dave Roberts in the end zone for Arizona’s first touchdown and a 7-7 tie with 9:20 left in the first quarter.
The Huskies did nothing with their next possession and punted, and Scott marched Arizona again to a field goal that gave the Wildcats a 10-7 lead. He completed three of four passes on the 54-yard drive, including a 28-yarder to Bug Wright and a 21-yarder to Juron Criner.
The Huskies moved the ball well early in their next drive, taking it from their 31-yard-line to the Arizona 37 in seven plays before stalling out, and then pinning Arizona on its own 8 on Kiel Rasp’s punt.
One play later, the Huskies’ defense pushed Arizona even deeper when Hau’oli Jamora flushed Scott from the pocket and Mason Foster sacked him for a 4-yard loss to the Wildcats’ 4.
On the next play, the Huskies gave that yardage back — and much more.
Scott launched a long pass down the left sideline and UW cornerback Quinton Richardson, having fallen a step behind, ran into Arizona receiver Austin Hill and was called for pass interference.
Nine plays later, Arizona led 17-7 on Keola Antolin’s 2-yard run for a touchdown. Scott had two huge plays on the drive, running 32 yards before throwing a 16-yard pass to Dave Roberts.
Freshman Jesse Callier’s 43-yard return of the ensuing kickoff helped set up the Huskies for the second touchdown. Locker completed all five passes on the drive, including a 24-yarder to D’Andre Goodwin that put the ball inside the Arizona 20.
Three plays later, Chris Polk ran 7 yards for a touchdown and a 17-14 score.
On Arizona’s first play of its next possession, Antolin burst over left tackle and ran untouched through the Washington secondary for a 78-yard touchdown. It was Arizona’s longest play of the season and gave the Wildcats a 24-14 lead.
“The worst-case scenario, especially in the second quarter, is exactly what happened,” Sarkisian said. “They got out to a lead and forced us into a more dropback passing situation. In turn, their ends became the factor in the game that we feared they could. They put pressure on the quarterback and disrupted the game.”
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