On Saturday night, Stanford football lost to Washington at home by a final score of 20-13. The Huskies rushed for a combined 229 yards as senior tailback Sean McGrew rushed for 114 yards while redshirt freshman tailback Cameron Davis rushed for 99 yards. Washington wide receiver Jalen McMillan had 6 receptions for 84 yards including the game winning touchdown. As for Stanford, junior running back Austin Jones rushed for 62 yards while sophomore tight end Benjamin Yurosek had 6 receptions for 93 yards. Washington improves to 4-4 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 3-5 overall and 2-4 in the Pac-12.
“Not the way we wanted to come out after the bye,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Give credit to Washington. Washington played a good game, physical game. Tried to impress upon our team this week, if they've noticed, we get teams' best shots. It's the reputation I think we've built. Teams come after us, and they play well. We have to match that.
“We still have some growing pains in a couple different positions that you would hope by this time in the season you wouldn't have, but we still do.
“Very similar to the last game, it's a combination of three things. Offensively we drive down there early in the game, had an opportunity for at the very least a first down if not a touchdown, and we don't connect between the quarterback and receiver. Got down there again on the offensive side, didn't connect between quarterback and receiver. Tipped pass, interception. Two opportunities to score which at the most can give us 14 points, we got three and a turnover.
“At the end of the game got an opportunity between running the ball, and very infrequently, right, we throw the ball in that situation late in the game. We couldn't connect. Good call, bad call. It's a bad call if it doesn't work. So that's on me. Probably shouldn't have done that. Trying to find a way to get a first down to try to end the game.
“Get a delay of game penalty, shouldn't have. We don't get the punt that we'd like. But we got some time on the clock, an opportunity to play defense. Honestly played good defense the entire game. Played good defense the entire game.
“Once again, it comes down to two minute and we can't get the stop to end the game. That's how you lose. That's how you lose. Have a locker room full of guys that are not happy right now, and they shouldn't be. We looked at some things this week, we'll look at some more things next week.
“This team is better than it's playing and it's up to me to find out why we're not and what we can do to get there because we can play much better than we played tonight. I'm tired of saying that. We're going to find a way to get more out of this football team and get us back into the win column.”
This game was rather ugly for much of the night as each team only scored one touchdown and they weren’t scored until the 4th quarter. Through the first three quarters, it was only field goals. Stanford struck first with Josh Karty making a 35 yard field goal to give Stanford a 3-0 lead with 7:56 to go in the 1st quarter.
Stanford would lead 3-0 at the end of the 1st quarter, but the 2nd quarter was a field goal barrage by the Huskies as Peyton Henry made a 24 yard field goal with 14:07 to go in the quarter, a 37 yard field goal with 6:39 to go in the quarter, and a 32 yard field goal right as the clock expired for halftime. As a result, Washington led 9-3 at halftime.
On the same drive that led to Washington’s third field goal of the night, Stanford almost had a turnover go their way as Kyu Blu Kelly forced a fumble that was nearly recovered by Jimmy Wyrick. Call on the field was Stanford ball, but upon review, Washington kept it. Had Wyrick not tried to scoop it up and instead fallen on the ball, it likely would have resulted in a turnover and Stanford ball.
One odd part of that sequence was the length of time it took for the review to happen. After looking like the refs were in the process of reviewing for a couple of minutes, they then announced the review, stretching things out and creating a bit of confusion.
“Nope,” Shaw said when asked if he got an explanation for the delay. “We were told it was a fumble, called down again to say they wanted to review it again. I didn't get a good, clear view of it. We had an opportunity to get the ball. I think Jimmy will learn from that.
“It's one thing when you're out in the open, the ball is up there, you can pick it up and go. It's another thing when you're around other people. You just got to fall on it. He's a freshman. He's going to be a heck of a football player. Tried to make a play. Hard to blame him. But with people around you, you just got to jump on the ball.”
The 3rd quarter was pretty uneventful as well as Stanford did a nice job of getting stops and forcing punts, but their offense was unable to capitalize. Washington likewise was unable to much on their end, though Henry was able to punch in another kick from 35 yards out to give the Huskies a 12-3 lead with 5:17 to go in the 3rd quarter.
With not much signs of life on offense, things looked bleak for the Cardinal as they trotted out onto the 25 yard line with possession. However, this is when the offense finally started to click. Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee found wide receiver Elijah Higgins for a nice 16 yard completion to the Washington 47 yard line to move the chains and on a critical 4th and 4, Stanford got the first down thanks to Washington being offsides, a five yard penalty. From here, Austin Jones was able to go to work as he rushed for 12 yards in two plays, helping Stanford move the chains even further.
On a critical 3rd down and 3, Isaiah Sanders came in for Stanford as part of his wildcat quarterback packages. Sanders picked up five yards and got Stanford the first down as the clock expired to end the quarter.
To start the 4th quarter, Stanford had the ball on the Washington 12 yard line. On the opening play of the quarter, Austin Jones rushed for 9 yards down to the 3 yard line. After a false start on Jay Symonds, Jones rushed it for 5 yards to get the ball right back to the 3 yard line on a 3rd and 1. Jones would then rush it for two yards to make it 1st and goal on the 1. On 2nd and 1, McKee was able to scramble outside and get the ball across the plane to make it a 12-10 game with 12:52 to go.
“Austin Jones is a leader in that room,” Shaw said of Jones’ efforts in the game. “Showed that again last week. Just some great runs. He breaks tackles, he makes people miss. Stretches of every game we're going to lean on him. Still going to spread those guys around a little bit, but Austin really gave us a lift there in that second half.”
Stanford would get a stop on the next possession, giving the offense a chance to take the lead and the offense was able to do just that. After starting with the ball on their own 45 yard line, Stanford was able to gain 10 yards on the opening play of the drive thanks to McKee connecting with Jones to the Washington 45 yard line. On a 3rd and 7, McKee got sacked, but there happened to be a holding penalty on Washington that gave Stanford an automatic first down on the Washington 33 yard line.
From there, Jones would rush for seven yards on 2nd down to get the ball to the 26 yard line and his next rush would prove to deliver nothing, making it 4th and 3. Karty came out to kick and knocked down the 43 yard field goal to give Stanford a 13-12 lead with 7:05 to go.
Washington’s next drive didn’t result in any points as on a 4th and 5 from the Stanford 35 yard line, Stanford cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly got a huge pass break up aided by a rush from Gabe Reid to give Stanford the ball on their own 35 yard line with 3:12 to go as Washington had two timeouts.
Stanford’s drive didn’t go as planned as Jones only gained five yards in two plays, setting up a 3rd and 5 that ended up being an incomplete pass by McKee intended for Symonds. With it being 4th and 4 on the Stanford 40 yard line, the Cardinal trotted out Ryan Sanborn, who had already had a bit of a mixed night punting. Stanford would then pick up a five yard penalty for delay of game making it 4th and 9 on their own 35 yard line. Sanborn then punted it about as poorly as possible, just 32 yards out of bounds to the Washington 33 yard line. With 2:51 to go and no timeouts left, it really helped the Huskies that Sanborn’s punt was a dud.
After their offense being rather sleepy for much of the night, the Huskies’ offense came alive in this final drive in a big way. Washington quarterback Dylan Morris connected with Jalen McMillan on an 11 yard reception and then Sean McGrew rushed for 16 yards to the Stanford 40 yard line. After getting the ball to the Stanford 20 yard line, Washington on a rather gutsy 3rd and 2 went for broke and connected as Morris found McMillan for a 20 yard touchdown to give Washington an 18-13 lead. Rather than going for the extra point, Washington went for the two point conversion and got it, making it a 20-13 lead with just 21 seconds to go.
With so little time left, after the 36 yard return from Nathaniel Peat, McKee chucked up a prayer that was intercepted, ending the game in a 20-13 win for the Huskies.
For Stanford this loss hurts as they were hoping to come back from the bye week recharged and ready to get in the win column. They were without wide receivers Michael Wilson and John Humphreys, so that didn’t help. But even so, they had a chance at the end to put the game away by just getting 10 yards and they were unable to do so. Even worse, Sanborn once again punted a rather weak punt. This game truly was a reminder of the importance of excelling in all three phases of the game.
Up next for Stanford will be a home game on Friday, November 5th against Utah. That game will kick off at 7:30 PM PT on FS1 and KNBR Radio.
“Yeah, short week,” Stanford junior linebacker Levani Damuni said looking ahead to next week. “Just like ASU. Tomorrow is going to be huge for recovery, getting started on that day one, since we're one day shorter.
“U-Dub is in the past already. Learn what we need to learn from it. Yeah, we got to move on. It definitely hurts right now. Yeah, it stings. Come tomorrow, yeah, it's on (indiscernible). Just got to learn and get better, got to start stacking these wins.”
