Washington Pulls Rank on Nebraska : College football: Cornhuskers’ losing ways against top teams continue. No. 2 Huskies capitalize on turnovers and roll to a 29-14 victory.

As if Nebraska hadn’t suffered enough Saturday night at Husky Stadium, some Washington wise guy decided to put the school’s 1991 national championship trophy directly behind the Cornhusker bench. Of course, if Nebraska’s 29-14 loss to the Huskies is any indication of things to come, it will be about as close as the Cornhuskers get to postseason hardware.

Nebraska did what it could, but this was an evening when No. 2-ranked Washington decided to reassert itself. Rumored to be ripe for an upset, the Huskies proved they still belonged in top-rated Miami’s rearview mirror.

It wasn’t as easy at it looked. No. 12 Nebraska, determined to avenge last year’s embarrassing 36-21 loss in Lincoln, unveiled all sorts of little tricks for the Huskies.

The Cornhuskers used a new defensive front at times. They tried fake punts. They even--egads!--passed. A lot, too. Screens . . . bombs . . . flea-flickers . . . audibles galore. The works.

Sometimes they succeeded. Most of the time they didn’t.

In the end, Nebraska Coach Tom Osborne was left to answer the growing number of questions regarding his program’s inability to win vital games.

Counting the loss to Washington, Osborne, the winningest active coach by percentage, has not beaten a top 10 team in his last eight tries or a top five team in his last 10 attempts.

The Cornhuskers have not recorded a victory against a higher-ranked team since the 1987 Orange Bowl. And against No. 1- or No. 2-ranked teams, the Cornhuskers are a dismal 1-9 since 1978.

Lots of numbers, but the bottom line is this: too many victories against the Middle Tennessee States of the world and not enough wins against teams with pedigree.

“I’m not down on our football team,” Osborne said. “We played well throughout the game. We didn’t move the ball on three or four occasions when we needed to.”

Of course, there is no shame in losing to Washington (3-0). The Huskies have a 17-game winning streak and one of the nation’s most prominent mean streaks. Motivated and angered by suggestions that they were vulnerable, the Huskies silenced Nebraska (2-1)--and maybe the critics, too.

Not so quiet was the Husky Stadium crowd of 73,333, which disrupted the Nebraska offense time and time again with its cheering, something of a novelty here. So flustered was Cornhusker quarterback Mike Grant by the noise, that he used two timeouts in the first four minutes of the second half. He couldn’t hear a thing.

Still, if Washington’s win streak was going to end, this was supposed to be the week it happened. After all, the Cornhuskers had supposedly been counting the moments until Saturday night’s rematch.

When you give up 27 unanswered points in the second half and blow a 21-9 lead at Lincoln, as Nebraska did last season, you don’t forget about it. And if you do, the Cornhuskers’ devoted followers are there to offer countless reminders.

Not to worry. Nebraska’s players remembered. Most of them stayed in Lincoln during the summer for workouts.

Also in Nebraska’s apparent favor was the absence of 11 Husky stars of a year ago, including defensive tackle Steve Emtman, cornerback Dana Hall and wide receiver Mario Bailey. Nor did it hurt the Cornhusker chances that running backs Beno Bryant and Jay Barry entered the game nursing injuries and that Washington had struggled, relatively speaking, against Arizona State and Wisconsin.

Especially suspect was the Huskies’ ability to stop the run. Against the Cornhuskers, who began the week as the No. 1-rated rushing team in the country (444.5-yard average), there is no more important priority.

Of course, there was also the infamous spitting incident, where Nebraska linebacker Mike Petko, since graduated, allegedly scored a direct hit on fullback Matt Jones during the 1991 game. To add a little more oomph to the ill feelings, Jones reported that Petko called the Huskies “West Coast punks.”

No wonder then that this was the most highly anticipated Washington home games since 1971, when the Huskies, led by quarterback Sonny Sixkiller, faced Stanford and Jim Plunkett. This time ticket brokers were asking $50 for a ticket and easily getting as much as $150.

Yes, well, so much for advantages. Barry played. So did Bryant. As for the Washington defense, it finished the night with three sacks, one safety, two fumble recoveries, one interception and held the Cornhusker attack to 309 total yards (Nebraska had been averaging 558.5 yards). Just for fun, it also foiled a daring fourth-down run attempt by Nebraska’s punter.

By the time it was finished, the N on the side of the Cornhuskers’ helmets stood for Numb.

“Our defensive line has been criticized, but they came out and played great against Nebraska,” linebacker James Clifford said. “Hopefully, this will shut some people up about our defensive line. They are great players.”

The safety came first. For reasons not entirely understood, Osborne called a play-action pass from the Nebraska one-yard line. Grant faded back into the Cornhusker end zone and was promptly sacked by Washington strong safety Tommie Smith, who gave the Huskies a 2-0 lead with 3:14 remaining in the first quarter.

Grant fumbled again on the next drive, too. Linebacker Andy Mason did the hitting and Clifford did the recovering, this time at the Nebraska 39-yard line. Seven plays later, Bryant scored on a one-yard run with 12:14 left in the second quarter.

The score didn’t come cheaply. Quarterback Billy Joe Hobert suffered a pinched nerve on the drive and was replaced by Mark Brunell. Hobert later returned, but he wasn’t overly impressive. Then again, pinched nerves in the neck can do that.

“We’re still in the national race, that’s the main thing,” Hobert said.

Nebraska junked some of the fancy stuff shortly thereafter and returned to its annual meal ticket: the run. With 7:40 remaining in the first half, Grant pitched the ball to Calvin Jones and then watched as the I-back ran 73 yards for the score. Unfortunately for the Cornhuskers, they would get no closer than 9-7.

That’s because Washington scored on its next possession--sophomore Napoleon Kaufman did the honors with a one-yard run. And then, after cornerback Walter Bailey intercepted a pass by Grant, Washington scored again, this time with 47 seconds left in the half.

A 29-yard touchdown pass from Hobert to flanker Joe Kralik increased the Husky lead to 23-7. Never mind that replays seemed to indicate that Kralik might have been out of bounds and/or not in full possession of the ball.

Washington later gave up a third-quarter touchdown run by Grant, but that was it for Nebraska highlights. The Cornhuskers scored those seven points, but Washington nearly matched it with two field goals by Travis Hanson, one from 42 yards and the other from 32 yards.