Stanford Tops No. 22 Washington Thanks to Austin Jones's Two Touchdown Runs
SEATTLE (AP) — Austin Jones rushed for a pair of first-half touchdowns, Davis Mills threw a 3-yard scoring pass to Scooter Harrington early in the second half, and Stanford held off No. 22 Washington’s second-half comeback in a 31-26 victory Saturday.
A crazy week for Stanford that saw the Cardinal forced away from campus in California to continue their season ended with their first victory over the Huskies in Seattle since 2014. Stanford relocated its entire program from the Bay Area to Seattle this week, used a high school for practice and even had its Friday walkthrough in a public park in the suburb of Bellevue, just across Lake Washington from Husky Stadium.
The Cardinal (2-2 Pac-12) will remain on the road before next week’s game against Oregon State.
Mills was solid and had a pair of huge third-down conversion throws on Stanford’s final drive, hitting Semi Fehoko on both to convert third-and-10 and third-and-11. The Cardinal ran the final 7:54 off the clock with a 14-play drive that was capped by Jones’s 3-yard run on fourth-and-1.
Stanford was 10 of 13 on third downs and 2-for-2 on fourth down.
Mills was 20 of 30 passing for 252 yards. Jones finished with 138 yards on 31 carries.
Washington (3-1) will still likely have a chance at the Pac-12 North title if it can win at Oregon next week. But for the second straight week, the Huskies had a terrible first half and unlike last week’s comeback victory over Utah, Washington fell short trying to rally again from a 21-point halftime deficit.
Dylan Morris was 15 of 23 passing for 254 yards for Washington. The Huskies trailed 24-3 at halftime but scored on each of its first three second-half possessions. Sean McGrew had a pair of TD runs sandwiched around Morris’ 1-yard sneak. McGrew’s 2-yard run with 11:03 left pulled Washington within 31-23.
Trent McDuffie forced Jones to fumble on Stanford’s next drive and Edefuan Ulofoshio returned it to the Cardinal 10. But a pair of holding calls—one of which wiped out a touchdown—forced Washington to settle for Peyton Henry’s 45-yard field goal and a 31-26 deficit with 7:54 left.
The Huskies never got the ball back.