Huskies Have Seen The Worst UW Has No More Opponents That Compare To Nebraska

Look at the bright side, Washington football fans. Nebraska has left town.

After a bye this week, during which the Huskies hope to get quarterback Brock Huard healthy, Washington will begin its Pac-10 season here Oct. 4 against Arizona State.

And the good news for Washington is: The Huskies won’t see Nebraska’s kind again.

In reality, that is a double-edged sword. While there is nothing left that resembles Nebraska - in particular, its devastating line play on both sides of the ball - there is also nobody with the kind of national profile that could enable Washington to shuck the perception that it can’t win the big ones anymore.

After a bullish Saturday on Sept. 13, the Pac-10’s stock took a dip Sunday, with Arizona State’s home defeat to BYU and a handful of surprisingly tight games against middling opposition. Washington is still the clear favorite for the Rose Bowl, although Washington State will argue that.

“We’re gonna learn from this,” vowed Mac Tuiaea, the UW nose tackle. “The Huskies have always been good at bouncing back.”

Last year, after the 54-20 annihilation at Notre Dame, Washington rebounded to win six straight and put a positive spin on the season.

This loss was nothing of that magnitude. What was startling was Nebraska’s domination in the trenches.

Perhaps the Cornhuskers’ ability to run shouldn’t have been surprising. Nebraska has been running this stuff now for, oh, about 30 years. Washington began working at defending it last Monday.

This is what the video showed: Nebraska took advantage of the inexperience of the UW inside linebackers. While the Cornhuskers rolled to a 21-0 lead, Huskies inside defenders overran ball-carriers speeding past them, or got spun around completely several yards downfield by blockers.

Aaron Taylor, the Nebraska All-America guard, was all that and more, the best offensive lineman on the field this day.

Taylor said his unit was miffed at the publicity accorded the Huskies, especially an offensive line considered by some the best in the country.

“Most definitely,” he said. “We even had a comment from (Nebraska defensive tackle) Jason Peter: ‘Hey, all five of those guys (UW linemen) are going to the League.’ We wanted to go out and prove to our defense and the rest of the nation that we can butt heads with anybody.”

Not only did Nebraska watch video of the Washington-Notre Dame game, the Huskers even “copied a play” from the Irish, Taylor said. The Nebraska offensive line would wall off one side of the defense and the back-side guard, often Taylor, would pull to cut off pursuit. That’s how Ahman Green got some of those inside yards against Washington.

“When you give up 390 yards (actually 384 yards rushing),” Tuiaea said, “you can’t say you did much right.”

What was harder to fathom was the Washington offensive line’s problems against the Huskers when the game got away early. Offensive tackle Tony Coats couldn’t block Grant Wistrom, guard Benji Olson played decently, but Nebraska’s Jason Peter answered him at times, and various Huskies were flagged four different times for holding.

“Their three interior guys are pretty darn good,” Wistrom said. “The farther away you get from the ball, they’re a little more suspect.”

Asked if the Huskies could have done more double-teaming against Wistrom, offensive line coach Steve Morton said Sunday, “There were times he was double-teamed. But sometimes you’ve got to do your job blocking one-on-one, just like he (Wistrom) has to defeat somebody.

“I’m their coach, and they weren’t prepared. Three of them played well and a couple of them struggled a little bit. You can’t have that happen in big games.”

Washington was without Ben Kadletz, a starting guard who has tendinitis in a foot and was replaced by Brad Hutt. Kadletz should return for ASU, but inasmuch as the injury is apparently related to the ankle-foot condition that sidelined him late last season, it will bear watching.

“Not trying to take anything away from them,” Wistrom said of the Huskies, “but when people keep telling you how good somebody else is, and you’re supposed to lose, you tend to get fired up a little bit.

“Every time I went to the weight room this summer, this is the game I thought about. Every rep I did, this is what I thought about.”