SEATTLE – In a football matchup of top-10 teams, No. 7 Stanford suffered a 44-6 loss to No. 10 Washington at Husky Stadium on Friday night.
Washington scored on every first-half possession and had eight quarterback sacks in a dominating performance that put the Huskies in the driver's seat for the Pac-12 North title and a berth in the conference championship game.
Because Washington (5-0 overall, 2-0 Pac-12) now owns the tiebreaker in the North, the Huskies must lose twice and Stanford (3-1, 2-1) must be perfect in conference play for the Cardinal to return to the Pac-12 title game.
"That was as poorly as we could play from start to finish," said David Shaw, Stanford's Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. "We did not rise to the challenge. We just did not play well. It's not the noise, it's not anything else."
A 57-yard kickoff return highlighted Christian McCaffrey's night. He had 223 all-purpose yards, largely because of 144 on kickoffs. However, he was held to 49 yards on 12 carries, and caught five passes for 30 more. Stanford was limited to 213 total yards, and only 29 on the ground.
Washington's Jake Browning threw a 3-yard touchdown pass to Dante Pettis on a crossing route in the back of the end zone on the Huskies' first drive and had two TD passes by halftime. Stanford was unable to pressure Browning and was picked apart. Offensively, Stanford could not sustain a drive.
A pivotal moment came with the Cardinal down 13-0 in the second quarter, but finally moving the ball after Keller Chryst entered the game for a series. But on fourth-and-two at the Husky 35-yard line, center Jesse Burnett snapped the ball before Chryst expected it and the quarterback was buried for a loss, surrendering possession.
After Washington built a 23-0 lead, Stanford advanced to the Washington 28, but Ryan Burns was sacked on consecutive plays, and the Cardinal slipped out of field-goal range.
"We got ourselves behind the eight ball, by not being able to stop them, and then not being able to convert our third downs, and staying in manageable third downs," Shaw said. "That's just a bad recipe, in particular on the road."
Stanford appeared to be headed that direction at the outset of the second half when it halted Washington for the first time. But a Husky punt bounced into Stanford blocker Ben Edwards and thee ball was recovered by Washington. Moments later, running back Myles Gaskin scored his second TD to put Washington ahead, 30-0 with 11:56 left in the third quarter.
Stanford averted a shutout with 24 seconds left in the third quarter when a 14-play, 80-yard drive ended with a 19-yard Burns to JJ Arcega-Whiteside TD pass. The play was a duplicate of the one the pair used on the winning score against UCLA last week. The Cardinal tried for two, but Burns' pass fell incomplete.
"We'll scrutinize what we can do better and come out and play better next week," receiver Michael Rector said. The Cardinal plays host to Washington State on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.
This was Stanford's worst loss since a 41-3 drubbing at the hands of Arizona State on Sept. 29, 2007, and its worst loss in history while ranked in the top 10.