By Aaron Coe
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — Wow, did it look easy.
It had to have been the easiest 16 yards of Clarence Farmer’s career.
The Arizona Wildcats running back ran through a hole as wide as the Grand Canyon — and suddenly the Washington Huskies were behind 28-21 with 5:04 left Saturday’s game at Husky Stadium.
To Arizona, no less. A supposedly inferior opponent that was supposed to be nothing more than a chew toy for the 15th ranked Dawgs.
But coming back from behind is nothing new for these Huskies.
This is the team that has trailed opponents in 17 of its 22 victories under third-year head coach Rick Neuheisel, including 12 times in the fourth quarter.
"Are you kiddin’ me?" asked UW defensive tackle Larry Tripplett, whose team found a way to win yet again. "I’ve been around here for a long time in a lot of close games. You just wait for something to happen because you know it’s gonna happen."
But few of those deficits were as hard to take as this one.
The Huskies kept wasting chances to take over the game and throttle an Arizona team that had embarrassed itself for three consecutive weeks with blowout losses to Pac-10 opponents.
Farmer’s run came just three plays after Washington quarterback Cody Pickett’s fourth interception of the game. In a span of 1 1/2 minutes, the UW offense and defense couldn’t have looked much worse.
The struggles continued even after UW’s Roc Alexander returned Arizona’s kickoff 74 yards to the Wildcats’ 15-yard line. The Huskies managed to lose six yards on three plays before settling for a John Anderson field goal and a 4-point hole.
Surely Arizona would be able to run the remaining four minutes off the clock. All they needed was a couple of first downs via a few more rushing yards to add to the 241 they had compiled in the game to that point and it would be over.
Asking the UW defense to force a three-and-out and bring an end to its production Stinkfest 2001 seemed as silly as asking someone from PETA what kind of bait they were using at the fishin’ hole.
"It wasn’t a good feeling (when Farmer scored)," Huskies linebacker Sam Blanche said. "As a team we looked at it as — there’s still time on the clock. And if there’s still time on the clock, there’s still time to get the W."
Suddenly, the Washington defense looked like the ‘85 Bears or the ‘91 Huskies. Farmer carried twice for four yards. On third-and-5 from the Arizona 27, UW gambled and sent everyone but the First Lady at quarterback John Rattay. Anthony Kelly hit him and Ben Mahdavi finished him off for a 4-yard loss.
OK, the defense came through, but could anyone expect an offense that had not scored a touchdown since the first quarter to cooperate?
"We knew we could move the ball," said quarterback Cody Pickett, who passed for a school-record 455 yards despite the lingering effects of a separated shoulder suffered two weeks earlier. "We moved the ball well in the second half, but it was those interceptions that stopped us. Luckily, we got it done."
Pickett methodically moved his team down the field to set up first-and-goal from the 3. Seems like a pretty easy deal, but not for a team that managed only 83 rushing yards Saturday. Pickett, however was licking his chops. He was going to roll out to his right, give a token look into the end zone in case there was a wide-open receiver, then run it in himself. He was thinking about scoring so much that he didn’t notice the play clock expiring.
First-and-goal, 8-yard line.
Pickett then lobbed a pass toward 6-foot-4 receiver Reggie Williams, but didn’t put enough on it. The weak throw was knocked away by defender Michael Jolivette and was nearly Pickett’s fifth interception of the game.
After a short pass to Todd Elstrom, Pickett got a second chance at the play he’d visualized earlier.
He rolled out and considered throwing the ball to receiver Patrick Reddick, who Neuheisel later said looked open enough. Pickett decided to run, but had linebacker Kirk Johnson ready to pounce. He evaded Johnson, who earlier in the game had been called for a late hit when he painfully nailed Pickett’s injured shoulder, then dove between safeties Brandon Nash and Jarvie Worcester for victory.
31-28 Washington. Another inconceivable comeback. Another game the Huskies should have lost but found a way to win.
"We kept shooting ourselves in the foot and not executing to the level we were capable," Neuheisel said. "It was unfortunate that the game had to be the kind of dramatic ending it resulted in. Given all that, I’m very proud of the resiliency of the kids that play here at Washington and the willingness to keep fighting until the bitter end.
"This had a happy ending."
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