Martinez thrives, Locker shaken in 56-21 loss

Washington coach Steve Sarkisian better hope he is right about the Huskies, as they were railroaded by Nebraska 56-21 on Saturday.

"I know we're a better football team than what we put on the field today in all three phases," he said after the drubbing. "I know we can tackle better than that, I knkow we can throw the football better than that, I know we can protect the quarterback better than that."

The Big Red dominated the Dawgs in every facet of the game - in some cases to a degree that Washington football fans have never seen before. Nebraska became the first Washington opponent in program history to have three players rush for 100 yards apiece.

"Primarily, the scheme that they run makes them a difficult team to play," said senior linebacker Victor Aiyewa. "Pretty much everybody could have trouble with that type of scheme so we just have to play sound defense and have a good gap integrity so that scheme isn't so hard to play against."

Nebraska piled on 533 yards on offense, which started with a pair of 24-yard plays on its first drive to get a 7-0 lead on Taylor Martinez's pass to Mike McNeill. The Huskers intercepted Jake Locker's pass on the first play from scrimmage, which took him out of rhythm for the entire game, as he finished the day completing 4 of 20 passing attempts for 71 yards with a touchdown and an interception. It was the first time since 1981 that the Huskies only completed four passes.

Meanwhile red-shirt freshman Martinez faced a hostile Husky Stadium attendance of 72,876 - although approximately 20,000 of the crowd were wearing red - to wreak havoc on the Dawgs' defense, gaining 156 yards with three touchdowns on 19 carries on the ground and going 7-for-11 through the air for another score. He seemed unaffected by the noise of the Husky crowd most of the game.

The Cornhuskers earned a 14-0 with 10:45 to go in the first quarter, but the Huskies came back on an 11-play, 80-yard drive to score on Locker's 7-yard sprint to the pylon. That is the closest the Dawgs would get, however, as the halftime score was 28-14.

Getting into the end zone for the Dawgs were Chris Polk on a 6-yard run and Jermaine Kearse on a 45-yard pass from Locker.

The Dawgs now have a bye week to put this game out of their minds before traveling down to USC to try and repeat the upset they pulled off a year ago.

"We get a bye to, one: kind of heal our wounds. We're a little beat up right now," said Sarkisian. "Two, fix some of the problems we're having assess where we're at, and then get back to work to get ready to play USC and start Pac-10 play. It's unfortunate today went the way it did because we're better than that. We need to find a way to maximize our potential and play to our potential."