SEATTLE -- Jake Browning matched Washington's school record with five touchdown passes -- two each to Dante Pettis and John Ross -- and finished with 294 yards in the No. 8 Huskies' 59-14 victory over Idaho on Saturday.
Browning has helped Washington (2-0) to its highest ranking since 2001. After throwing for 287 yards and three touchdowns last week against Rutgers, Browning was nearly flawless against Idaho.
After a fumble on the opening kickoff by Lloyd Hightower that was recovered by Washington, Browning threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to Pettis on his first attempt of the game. He completed 13 consecutive passes at one point as the Huskies marched through the Vandals en route to a 35-0 halftime advantage.
Browning deferred to backup K.J. Carta-Samuels after the opening drive of the third quarter after his fifth touchdown pass of the day, an 8-yard strike to Ross that gave Washington a 42-0 lead.
Browning joined Keith Price (2012), Jake Locker (2010) and Chris Rowland (1973) as the only Huskies to throw five touchdown passes in a game.
The Vandals (1-1) kept it in reach in the first quarter. Kaden Elliss forced a fumble on a sack of Browning to give Idaho the ball in Washington territory. But after driving into the red zone, Jacob Sannon fumbled at the 1 after a hit from Jojo McIntosh, and Azeem Victor recovered to keep Idaho out of the end zone.
Washington scored 35 consecutive points afterward before the Vandals finally got on the board with a 20-yard pass from Matt Linehan to Trent Cowan in the third quarter.
In other games involving Sun Belt teams, Tim McVey returned a kickoff 99 yards for a touchdown and scored on an 18-yard run, helping Air Force beat Georgia State 48-14 for the Falcons' 14th consecutive home victory. Receiver Tyler Williams added two rushing TDs and QB Nate Romine gained 124 yards on the ground for Air Force (2-0), which hasn't lost at Falcon Stadium since Nov. 21, 2013, against UNLV. ... Marcus Cox ran for 133 yards with three first-half touchdowns and Appalachian State (1-1) ran away from Old Dominion 31-7 in Boone, N.C. Cox scored on runs of 1, 2 and 10 yards -- all after long drives -- to build a 24-7 lead at intermission. ... Anthony Jennings threw for 170 yards and one touchdown, and Elijah McGuire rushed for 139 yards to lead Louisiana-Lafayette to a 30-22 victory over McNeese State in Lafayette, La. ... Favian Upshaw ran for 108 of Georgia Southern's 304 yards rushing and the Eagles beat South Alabama 24-9.
Sports on 09/11/2016