STANFORD, Calif. — A lackluster start turned promising when Washington marched down the field and scored to open the second half. Then Stanford responded right away.
It was that kind of night for the Huskies, who struggled to move the ball behind a backup quarterback and had little chance of slowing Stanford star Christian McCaffrey.
McCaffrey caught a touchdown pass, ran for another score and gained 300 all-purpose yards in another sterling all-around performance to lead No. 10 Stanford to its sixth straight victory, 31-14 over Washington on Saturday night.
“They’re a good team that can answer right away, which they did and put us back on our heels,” coach Chris Petersen said. “Good football team. Down the road we’ll be a good football team. But not tonight.”
The Huskies (3-4, 1-3) were no match for the Cardinal, especially with starting quarterback Jake Browning watching after he appeared to hurt his right shoulder late in last week’s loss to Oregon. Backup K.J. Carta-Samuels completed just 9 of 21 passes for 118 yards, and Washington didn’t even cross midfield until the third quarter.
In all, Washington gained just 231 yards of offense and held the ball for less than 20 minutes.
“When we can’t get anything going in the first half offensively, it just puts too much stress on everybody else,” Petersen said. “It makes it a very, very hard game.”
Things have been awfully easy for Stanford (6-1, 5-0) since a season-opening loss to Northwestern. They have topped 30 points in each game since the opener thanks to efficient play from quarterback Kevin Hogan and McCaffrey’s game-breaking ability.
Hogan threw for 290 yards and two scores but took a backseat to McCaffrey, who entered the game with an FBS-best 253 all-purpose yards per game and did even better.
McCaffrey had a 50-yard touchdown catch and 7-yard scoring run in the third quarter. In all, he ran 23 times for 109 yards, caught five passes for a career-high 112 yards and added 79 yards on kick returns in his third 300-yard all-purpose game of the season.
“He’s a great back,” Washington safety Budda Baker said. “He read the holes, went slow and then hit it. They use him everywhere, passing game, kick returner, punt return and running. I saw on film that he was a great back and a great receiver. Nothing different.”
Washington freshman running back Myles Gaskin ran for 108 yards and a score for his third straight 100-yard game. He ran five times for 57 yards on the opening drive of the third quarter to cut Stanford’s lead to 17-7.
McCaffrey took over from there. He sneaked out of the backfield on the next drive and hauled in a deep pass from Hogan before outrunning the defense for the touchdown.
“I just tried to get it to him and let him do what he does,” Hogan said. “He made a guy miss and took it the distance.”
McCaffrey then iced the game with his TD run to cap the next drive, making it 31-7. McCaffrey became the fourth Stanford player to top 100 yards receiving and rushing in the same game and first since Glyn Milburn did it in 1991 against Oregon State.
The matchup between the Pac-12’s top offense and top defense was one-sided from the start. Stanford took the opening kickoff and drove 62 yards in six plays for the score on Hogan’s 21-yard pass to Austin Hooper.
The Huskies struggled to move the ball in Carta-Samuels’ first career start.
He entered with three career pass attempts, was frequently off-target and could not even make the easy completions. The Huskies had just two first downs and 58 yards in the first half and never stood a chance.
“There’s a lot of things we as an offense can clean up,” receiver Dante Pettis said. “It’s hard to throw him into the middle of the season like that.”
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