Pettis scores, and sets up Huskies teammates
If No. 8 Washington wants to get back to the college playoffs, the Huskies will have to pick it up after a less-than impressive opening victory over Rutgers.
Dante Pettis woke up Washington just before halftime with his sixth career punt return for a touchdown, and Jake Browning threw two second-half touchdown passes in a 30-14 victory Friday night in Piscataway, N.J.
Browning, the Pac-12 Conference’s offensive player of the year last season after throwing 43 touchdown passes, was frustrated.
“We got a standard that we try to play to, and that’s not the standard at all,” said Browning, who completed 17 of 30 passes for 284 yards. “So, yeah, we’re going to have a long week of practice. Friday game, so we got an extra day and we’ll be ready.”
The Huskies, who led Rutgers 24-0 after the first quarter of a 48-13 home win a year ago, were in danger of going to the locker room down 7-3 when Pettis fielded Ryan Anderson’s punt down the middle of the field and scored on 61-yard return to put Washington in front 10-7 with 3:50 left in the half. Pettis tied former Cal star DeSean Jackson’s Pac-12 record for punt returns for scores.
“Whenever a punter is backed up, for some reason they always boom the ball, so he kicked it 55, 60 yards or something,” Pettis said.
A senior receiver, Pettis played a role in the Huskies’ first three scores this season. His 51-yard catch set up the first of three field goals by Tristan Vizcaino, and his catches of 10 and 24 yards ignited an early third-quarter drive that Browning capped with a 7-yard swing pass to halfback Lavon Coleman for a 17-7 lead.