Huskies Remain Unbeaten, But Can't Deliver Knockout Punch

The UW picks up 92-yard scoring strike but has trouble slowing Stanford.

PALO ALTO, California — They held a Pac-12 football game at Stanford Stadium on Saturday and, outside of the guys on the field, it almost seemed as if nobody cared.

On a sunny day with a light breeze wafting through this picturesque Bay Area campus, otherwise perfect conditions to play four quarters, fewer than 10,000 people filled the stands — possibly the smallest crowd, to witness a University of Washington matchup in modern times, of course, without rigid pandemic conditions in place. 

The best guess is the Cardinal fan base figured the fifth-ranked and unbeaten Huskies, roundly criticized the week before for not punishing an overmatched opponent, would take it out on the home team.

It didn't happen. While leading throughout, the UW never could put that much distance between it and the Cardinal and felt fortunate to walk away with a 42-33 victory in the sparsely attended stadium, where the attendance was announced at 24,380 but not even half that was on hand.. 

Kalen DeBoer's guys (8-0 overall, 5-0 Pac-12) scored the first time they had the ball, after getting shut out on offense by Arizona State the week before, led throughout the game and methodically worked their way to their 15th consecutive victory, and will next face USC in Los Angeles.

"It's just finding a way to win," UW quarterback Michael Penix Jr. said. "That's what we're all about, is finding a way to win."

While coming out upright, the Huskies still weren't their high-powered, flamboyant selves. They tried to establish their run game with minimal success. Quarterback Michael Penix Jr., the nation's leading passer entering play but looking jumpy in the pocket at times, was just 2 for 6 starting out, with normally sure-handed receivers Rome Odunze and Jalen McMillan each dropping one of his balls.

Ah, but those were just temporary restraints with the Huskies ultimately showing flashes of what their offense is made to do.

In the second quarter with the UW nursing a 14-7 lead, Penix wound up and and delivered a 92-yard touchdown strike to a wide-open Ja'Lynn Polk — for the second-longest scoring toss in school history, behind only Marcel Reece's 98-yarder in 2007 against Arizona.

Penix finished with 21 completions in 38 attempts for 369 yards and 4 touchdowns, while Polk wound up with 5 catches for 148 yards and 2 scores. Penix battling an illness for more than a week clearly wasn't as sharp as he usually is.

"He's definitely not feeling good," DeBoer said. "But he's not going to make excuses. He was battling through it."

Until the long one, the Huskies preferred to grind things out and be workmanlike in approach.

After forcing Stanford (2-6, 1-5) to punt on the game's opening series and the Cardinal's Connor Weselman shanking it for just 13 yards, the UW moved 50 yards in six plays to score on tight end Jack Westover's 1-yard run. 

Jack Westover scored the UW's first touchdown on a 1-yard run :: D. Ross Cameron/USA TODAY Sports

Shades of the Jimmy Lake/John Donovan 2021 pro-style offense, Westover lined up as a quasi fullback, took a handoff going up the middle and scored standing up, picking up his 5th TD of the season with 6:26 left in the opening quarter..

The teams next traded two punts each before Stanford finally got something going on offense. Helped by a couple of UW penalties, the Cardinal drove 74 yards in eight plays for quarterback Ashton Daniels' 5-yard scoring run on a weird play. 

Nobody moved except for Daniels, who took a quick shotgun snap and darted up the middle and into the end zone, creating a 7-7 tie at the 12:24 mark of the second quarter.

The highly mobile Daniels, a 6-foot-2, 215-pound sophomore from Buford, Georgia, made it difficult for the UW all game, completing 31 of 50 passes for 367 yards and a score and running 17 times for 81 yards and 2 TDs.

The Huskies responded immediately for a second touchdown. After offensive linemen Troy Fautanu and Nate Kalepo head-butted each other before the first play to get properly motivated, the UW went 75 yards in nine plays to reclaim the lead at 14-7. The points came on a 7-yard fade route to Rome Odunze from Penix, beating cornerback Collin Wright, soon to become a multiple victim. The score was set up by a 29-yard screen pass from Penix to tight end Devin Culp that put the ball on the 7. 

Forcing Stanford to punt once more, Penix and Polk needed just one play to create their record-book entry. Polk got bumped at midfield by the aforementioned Wright, who suffered the double indignity of committing pass interference on Polk and then falling down near midfield. 

Polk, the 6-foot-2, 204-pound junior speedster from Lufkin, Texas, made him pay. He caught the pinpoint Penix pass without breaking stride or with anyone around him. With 5:09 left in the opening half, the Huskies led 21-7 and Stanford was momentarily dazed.

UW cornerback Jabbar Muhammad contests Stanford's Tiger Bachmeier for this ball :: D. Ross Cameron/USA TODAY Sports

To the Cardinal's credit, they were able to regroup and pick up a pair of Joshua Carty field goals, from 23 and 47 yards, before intermission, making it an eight-point game. 

Following the break, Stanford forced the Huskies to punt and scored in four plays to make things real interesting. Alic Ayomanor, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound sophomore from Alberta, Canada, got behind UW cornerback Elijah Jackson to haul in a 39-yard TD pass from Daniels to pull the Cardinal within 21-19. 

Stanford went for the tie, but UW corner Jabbar Muhammad knocked down a pass at the goal line. 

The teams next traded touchdowns, with Polk wrestling a ball away from Stanford cornerback Zahran Manley for his second score of the night, coming on a 10-yarder, and the Cardinal coming back for a 2-yard TD run by Daniles, closing the score to 28-26 with 1:17 left in the third quarter.

The Huskies built a bigger cushion again, with Penix finding Culp wide open in the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown pass just 46 seconds into the final quarter. Culp caught the ball on the goal line and backed into the end zone, finally falling over and doing a somersault for a 35-26 advantage. 

After forcing a punt, the UW had a chance to put this one away early in the quarter, but Odunze had the ball stripped from him at the Stanford 15 with 11:37 left to play.

The Huskies ended up trading touchdowns down the stretch, giving up a 2-yard TD run to Stanford backup QB Justin Lamson and receiving a 13-yard TD run from Johnson with 1:36 left and the Huskies had survived. Johnson led the UW in rushing with 18 carries for 84 yards.

"It was a gut check all the way around," DeBoer said. "I'm proud we fought to the end and made enough plays to get it done."

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