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After an “embarrassing” 41-0 loss to Stanford last year at Husky Stadium, the older, wiser and tougher Washington Huskies were supposed to find some redemption Saturday against the No. 7 Cardinal at Stanford Stadium.
Instead, they found more of the same in a 65-21 pounding by a bigger, stronger and better team.
“We got beat,” coach Steve Sarkisian said. “We got beat in all three phases.”
Don’t let the score fool you. Washington was able to put points on the scoreboard, something it couldn’t do last year. But with a No. 22 ranking and a renewed confidence, the Huskies weren’t thinking about just scoring. They were thinking about winning.
Those hopes were trampled by a running attack that racked up 446 yards on 44 carries – 10.1 yards per carry – as Stanford’s myriad of ballcarriers ran over, past and through the Washington defense.
“We always want to be physical,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “We we’re going to play the style of football we love to play. We took advantage of what we felt the defense was giving us.”
And the Huskies gave them plenty.
It was the most points a UW defense has allowed since a 65-7 loss in 2001 at Miami.
And it was the most yards rushing allowed since the 2007 Oregon game when the Ducks ran for 465 yards.
“It’s embarrassing,” safety Sean Parker said. “I know we are a better defense than that. It’s just unacceptable.”
Washington believed it could not only withstand Stanford’s physical attitude, but match it. Instead, they were on the wrong end of a third consecutive beatdown from the Cardinal.
“I don’t think anybody expected this,” middle linebacker Cort Dennison said. “When you are preparing to win a football game, this is the last kind of thing you think about.”
Unlike the two previous losses, Washington was competitive for about a quarter and a half in this one. During that time, a win appeared to be a possibility.
Stanford was abusing the Washington defense, scoring on its first three drives – two touchdowns and a field goal – using an assortment of long runs and deft passes from quarterback Andrew Luck.
And yet, Washington was right there, thanks largely to running back Chris Polk.
The hard-running junior ripped off a 61-yard touchdown run, aided by blocks from Austin Seferian-Jenkins and Kevin Smith to cut the score to 17-14.
And then it all fell apart.
On the first play of the next series, Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor slipped through a truck-size hole in the line and went 70 yards for a touchdown without so much as one Huskies defender near him.
Suddenly, a three-point deficit was back at 10 in the time that it took for Taylor to run three-fourths of the field and the Cardinal to kick an extra point.
In a game in which Washington needed to get points on every possession, they came away with nothing on the next possession when Nick Folk’s 46-yard field goal clanked off the right upright.
“We just didn’t capitalize,” Sarkisian said. “We couldn’t keep pace with them.”
Stanford scored on its fourth consecutive possession as Luck hit Drew Terrell on a 5-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing drive.
Down 31-14, Washington tried to salvage a score before halftime. But on a third-and-4, Keith Price made a rare mistake, not seeing a wide open Devin Aguilar and instead trying to throw the ball to Jermaine Kearse. Stanford safety Michael Thomas stepped in front of the pass and returned it 62 yards.
Instead of going into halftime down two scores, Washington trailed 38-14.
“The pick six was a real blow to our psyche,” Sarkisian said.
And it showed in the third quarter. The diminishing hopes of a rally were killed with two three-and-outs to start the quarter, and two Stanford scores – a 4-yard run from Tyler Gaffney and a 30-yard field goal from Jordan Williamson to go up 45-14.
Sarkisian blamed the third quarter woes on his poor play calling, saying he lost his “mojo.”
But down that many points, it was unlikely Washington would get the requisite stops defensively to even make it a game.
Ryan Divish: 253-597-8483 ryan.divish@thenewstribune.com blog.thenewstribune.com/uwsports
