TUCSON, Ariz. — Nic Grigsby and Keola Antolin ran for two touchdowns apiece, Matt Scott had no trouble replacing Nick Foles and No. 15 Arizona easily handled up-and-down Washington 44-14 Saturday night.
Arizona (6-1, 3-1 Pac-10) overcame occasionally poor tackling with a balanced offense and by harassing Jake Locker into an ineffective game.
Scott held his own after Foles went down with a knee injury last week against Washington State and looked like he was the starter all along against the other Evergreen State school. He threw for 233 yards and two touchdowns, including a fumble-the-snap, 21-yard heave to Juron Criner in the fourth quarter, and added 65 yards on seven carries.
Washington (3-4, 2-2) continued its season-long, win-one, lose-one pattern, following last week’s thrilling double-overtime victory over then-No. 24 Oregon State with a defensive clunker.
Locker finished 17 of 29 for 183 yards with a touchdown and lost 24 yards on six carries before being replaced by Keith Price early in the fourth quarter.
Antolin finished with 114 yards on 14 carries and Criner caught eight passes for 108 yards to give Arizona its best start since opening the 1998 season 6-1.
The Wildcats had hoped to be on better footing than last year’s game at Washington.
Arizona lost what’s now known as the “Shoe” game in Seattle when Mason Foster returned an interception 37 yards for the go-ahead touchdown after the ball caromed off the size 14 1/2 cleat of Arizona’s Delashaun Dean. The Wildcats disputed the call — Dean said it hit the ground — but were kicking themselves more for being in position to cough up a 12-point lead in the final four minutes.
Arizona made sure it didn’t get tripped up by a close call this time by steamrolling Washington’s noodle-strainer defense — 199 points the past five games — for 467 total yards.
The only question mark came early; Taimi Tutogi fumbled on Arizona’s opening drive and Locker marched the Huskies for a quick score, rolling left and throwing across his body for a drop-it-in-there 26-yard touchdown to Jermaine Kearse in the corner of the endzone.
After that, all Arizona almost all the time.
Led by Scott, the Wildcats carved up Washington’s 98th-ranked defense, piling up 356 total yards on their way to a 30-14 halftime lead.
Scott looked a lot like Locker on Arizona’s first score, rolling left and throwing across his body for a 17-yard touchdown to David Roberts. He then led the Wildcats to a 29-yard field goal by Alex Zendejas and set up Antolin’s first TD, a 1-yard dive left, with a 32-yard rumble on an option.
Locker tried to rally the Huskies by setting up Chris Polk’s 7-yard touchdown run, but the defense parted on the next play, allowing Antolin to burst up the middle for a 78-yard touchdown.
The Wildcats still weren’t done.
Grigsby capped the first half with a 4-yard touchdown run and opened the second with another after Ricky Elmore stripped Locker and the Wildcats recovered.
Scott added a put-it-out-of-reach scoring pass early in the fourth quarter, dropping the snap out of the shotgun and firing a TD strike to Criner just before being laid out on a roughing the passer call.
The starter over Foles the first three games of 2009, Scott finished an efficient 18 of 22 and gave Arizona a confidence boost if Foles isn’t ready to play next week at UCLA.
