Ranked the highest the program has ever been since 2001 at no. 8, the Washington Huskies football team is matching their performance with the fans' excitement thus far. After easily dispatching Rutgers two Saturdays ago, Chris Petersen's crew handedly turned away the Idaho Vandals to the tune of 59-14 at Husky Stadium.

The Huskies wasted absolutely no time in getting started, forcing and recovering a fumble on the opening kickoff. Sophomore star quarterback Jake Browning must have been comfortable starting the game on the sideline as he tossed the ball 21-yards to receiver Dante Pettis for the score on his very first attempt of the game.

Coach Petersen had only good things to say about his QB after the game, mostly because Browning only did good things. At one point he completed 13 straight passes in the first half before leading the Dawgs to a 35-0 halftime lead.

Before relinquishing the reins to backup quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels after the first drive of the third quarter, Browning threw five touchdowns in the game. Pettis and John Ross were the recepient of two each. Browning joins Keith Price (2012), Jake Locker (2010) and Chris Rowland (1973) as the only Huskies to throw five touchdown passes in a game. In all, Browning finished with 294 passing yards completing 23-of-28 attempts to accompany his five TD's. Carta-Samuels himself threw a touchdown, a 26-yarder to Quinton Pounds in the third quarter.

Pretty much the only "mistake" Browning made in his abbreviated game was losing a fumble in Washington territory after a hit from Kaden Bliss. His defense picked him up however, as Jojo MacIntosh forced a fumble with Idaho at the 1 yard line to keep the Vandals out of the end zone.

Idaho quarterback Matt Linehan finally got the visitors on the board with a 20-yard touchdown pass of his own, although it was way too late as Washington had already scored 35.

Up next for the UW is Portland State. Even though they may be but an FCS squad, they did manage to beat Washington State in last year's opener and therefore shouldn't be taken lightly. Coach Petersen definitely won't let his players do so, and it will be yet another sign that this team is for real if they are able to run another route when PSU comes to Montlake Saturday. 

They need to build up all the momentum they can before they start playing real teams in Pac-12 play. If they really want to contend for a playoff spot and silence any possible critics, they're going to have to keep stomping opponents as they have no non-conference opponents of note on their schedule this year.

Image: Flickr/McD22