SEATTLE — In his long coaching career, Chris Petersen has shown both a fondness and a flair for trick plays.
But on Saturday afternoon, a late-game gambit by Petersen — a fake-punt running play from near midfield — not only failed to produce a first down, but also set up Stanford’s game-winning touchdown drive. The coaching miscue, along with a UW offense that went from quiet in the first half to stone-cold silent in the second, were the primary reasons the Huskies lost to the visiting Cardinal, 20-13, before a disappointed crowd of 66,512 at Husky Stadium.
The defeat, in Washington’s Pacific-12 Conference opener, dropped the Huskies to 4-1 this season.
With the score 13-13 midway through the fourth quarter, and with Washington facing a fourth-and-9 at its own 47-yard line, the Huskies lined up in punt formation. But the ball was snapped to Shaq Thompson, one of the backfield blockers, who tried to carry through the right side, only to be knocked down after no gain.
Three minutes later, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan scampered around right end on a 5-yard TD run, the only score by either team in the second half.
Afterward, Petersen pointed the finger of blame solely at himself. “That was on me,” said Petersen, explaining the fake-punt decision. Trying to gain 10 yards for a first down “was too much. … (But) I was trying to create some offense somehow.”
Still, despite trailing by seven points, Washington had a chance to win at the end, or at least to send the game to overtime. After a short Stanford punt, the Huskies took over at their own 48 with almost two minutes remaining.
It was enough time but, as it turned out, too much distance. The drive reached the Stanford 28, but a critical intentional-grounding penalty against quarterback Cyler Miles moved the ball back to the 40. Two plays later Washington’s last-gasp drive ended on downs, and the Cardinal was able to kneel once to run out the game’s final seconds.
The loss grimly highlighted the UW’s offensive shortcomings. The Huskies gained just 179 yards (Stanford had 364) and scored just one touchdown on 13 offensive possessions, with the other TD coming on a fumble return by Thompson, a linebacker.
Other than Washington’s one offensive touchdown, which came on a 25-yard pass from Miles to wide receiver Jaydon Mickens in the second quarter, the Huskies got no closer to the end zone than the Stanford 28 on their final drive.
The Cardinal has an outstanding defense, “so we knew it’d be tough sledding,” Petersen said. “But certainly we thought we’d be able to do it better than we did today. … We did nothing in the second half running the ball.”
“I tip my hat to them,” Miles said. “They have a really great defense, a great front seven. And at times their pressure did get to us.”
“(Stanford’s defense) was definitely what we saw on film,” added UW wide receiver DiAndre Campbell. “We just could’ve executed better.”
Defensively, the Huskies were more efficient, giving up a bunch of yards, but also getting three turnovers, including one that turned into Thompson’s touchdown.
“I thought we played really good on defense,” Petersen said. “Certainly good enough to win, and I’m proud of those guys for that. … They played at a really high level. They held a good offense to 20 points, and that should be good enough (to win).”
With a bye next Saturday, the Huskies will have an extra week to prepare for their next game, an Oct. 11 visit to California.
“We’re going to practice a couple of times, and certainly as coaches we’re going to go back and analyze every piece of tape we can get our hands on,” Petersen said. “(We’re going to) really try to simplify some things and get our offense in more of a groove.”
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