Orange hope Washington's Locker is less like 2007

For all the losses that have mounted during Jake Locker's career, his only meeting with Syracuse happened to be one of the handful of times where seemingly everything went right for Washington's quarterback.

And it came in his first collegiate game.

The Orange (1-0) come West on Saturday to face the Huskies in Washington's home opener and provide a bookend to Locker's career. He started his redshirt freshman season on the road at Syracuse and now plays the first home game of his final season against the Orange.

"It does seem like a long time ago. But I can also remember a lot of those plays very vividly," Locker said. "It was a good experience, a good first game, a good place to start your career off."

Locker's debut three years ago in the Carrier Dome was one of the most anticipated in Washington history. One of the most lauded recruits in school history - and the biggest get in Tyrone Willingham's tenure - Locker's first game was met with an air of excitement and belief that the Huskies were on their way back.

Locker did his part that day, even if three years later the Huskies are still rebuilding and trying to find their way back into the upper half of the Pac-10. He completed 14 of 19 passes for 142 yards and ran for another 83 yards and two touchdowns in Washington's 42-12 win.

That 2007 season was the last time Washington (0-1) won a game on the road, a streak that was extended to 13 straight losses last week when the Huskies dropped a 23-17 decision at Brigham Young.

And while the Huskies are home this Saturday, they're also conscious of a potential hangover after lofty expectations entering their season opener were replaced by the disappointment of another road defeat.

"The reason is there is so much disappointment is higher expectations, and that's OK. We have very high expectations within our locker room and in our team room and I think that's why there is such disappointment," Washington coach Steve Sarkisian said. "But I can tell you we are not going to dwell on this football game. We are going to learn from it, learn from out mistakes and move forward."

The loss couldn't have gone much worse for Locker's Heisman hopes. While he was solid, throwing for 266 yards and a touchdown and running for another TD, Locker failed to convert a pair of fourth-down opportunities in the fourth quarter deep in BYU territory that could have led Washington to a go-ahead score.

The Huskies' problems went deeper than that. Running back Chris Polk had just 16 carries, despite averaging nearly 6 yards per rush against BYU. Defensively, the Huskies failed to force any turnovers, leading to a nearly 10 minute time of possession advantage.

"Turnovers are probably the most important part of any game. Whoever wins the turnover battle wins the game, usually," Washington linebacker Cort Dennison said. "We didn't do a good enough job of that against BYU, and the coaches really got on us about that."

While Washington tries to bounce back at home, Syracuse is hoping to keep the road momentum going in what coach Doug Marone considers a game that could lead to a huge upward swing for the rebuilding Orange.

Last week was a good start for Syracuse, which won at Akron 29-3, thanks to a stout defense that gave up just 55 yard rushing to the Zips. It was the fewest points allowed by a Syracuse defense in nearly five years, dating back to a 31-0 shutout of Buffalo at the start of the 2005 season, and the first road victory for the Orange under Marone.

Despite having relatively recent game film of the Huskies, Marone isn't looking too deeply at the 2007 game.

"Obviously, we've gotten better with team speed and we're bigger and stronger. I think we're a better-looking team. I don't know what that means, but we're taller, we have more range in our players," Marone said. "I don't know what happened out there (in 2007), I didn't look at that game. I'm looking at how the 2010 team facing the 2010 Husky team looks.'

And all the Orange acknowledge that slowing down Locker and Washington's offense will be a far more difficult task than slowing down Akron a week ago.

"I don't want to put the whole focus on Locker. You really have to play very fundamental football against a team like this because anytime you try to make that big play or lose contain on your gap, that can be the difference between a tackle for loss or a touchdown, especially against a team like Washington," Syracuse nose tackle Bud Tribbey said. "Our defense is up to the challenge, but it's hard to do."