UW scores 45 points in second half to beat Georgia State

SEATTLE – This truth was inescapable, and Washington Huskies coach Chris Petersen put forth no effort trying to conceal it.

After Washington’s lackluster 45-14 victory over Georgia State, Petersen was fuming. No, he was irritated. Scratch that – he was frustrated. He was disappointed. He was all three at once, and then some, the even-keel task-master turning quotable as he fired from behind the podium.

His team won by 31 points. But the coach spoke of the performance afterward as if he just watched a 50-point loss. To a middle-school team. In the rain.

“I thought the first half,” Petersen said, “was probably about as bad of football as I’ve been around, maybe ever.”

Indeed, it was bad, perhaps as bad as any half the Huskies have ever played, considering the caliber of opponent. Georgia State is in its fifth season with a football program. The Panthers finished 0-12 last season. They were 36-point underdogs for a reason.

In the first half, they looked more like the New England Patriots than some overmatched Sun Belt team in its second year of FBS membership. And so the Panthers led at halftime, 14-0, the Huskies running off the field to a chorus of boos from a stunned crowd of 64,608.

GSU outgained UW 271-73 in the first half.

All that aside, the Huskies (4-0) deserve credit, at least, for scoring 45 unanswered points in the second half en route to what became a blowout. Sophomore quarterback Jeff Lindquist sparked the offense by rushing three times for 35 yards and two touchdowns, taking shotgun snaps and simply bulling forward or juking his way to big gains.

The defense settled down and dominated the way a Pac-12 team should against a Sun Belt team, allowing only 42 yards in the second half. Seven of GSU’s nine second-half possessions ended in punts. One ended in a fumble. And the other ended in a 35-yard interception return for a touchdown by linebacker John Timu.

But that first half …