By John Sleeper
Herald Writer
SEATTLE — It’s difficult to determine which is more maniacal, Cody Pickett’s tolerance for pain or his will to win.
Pickett, whose separated right shoulder probably should have forced him out of the game Saturday, somehow got it together enough to not only set a University of Washington record for passing yards, but also finished off the winning drive with a 3-yard TD run with 13 seconds left to give the No 15 Huskies (5-1, 3-1 Pacific-10 Conference) a 31-28 victory over Arizona (3-4, 0-4).
The onetime rodeo cowboy bit the bullet, hitched up his chaps and threw for a school-record 455 yards, breaking Cary Conklin’s 1989 record of 428 yards he passed for against Arizona State.
Pickett completed 29 of 44 passes for three touchdowns with four interceptions, but he was at his grittiest on a last-ditch drive with two minutes remaining. Down 28-24, Pickett engineered a six-play drive that ended with him rolling out to his right, dodging blitzing linebacker Kirk Johnson and burrowing himself between safety Brandon Nash and free safety Jarvie Worchester for the game-winner.
The play was called several plays earlier, but a delay of game penalty dusted even an attempt to put it into action. The play was Pickett’s option to either run the ball in or pass to wideout Patrick Reddick.
It appeared Reddick was open in the end zone for a split second, but Pickett cut inside and dove into the end zone.
"After the delay of game, we had the same play called, so I knew I was going to have a chance to run it in," Pickett said. "I was just glad to have another chance to run the play."
In fact, Pickett was so overjoyed the first time, he was caught admiring the situation, noticing the perfect way the Wildcat defenders were lining up was ripe for a run. But then the play clock ran out.
"I wasn’t paying any attention to the clock," Pickett said. "I had no clue."
Perhaps no quarterback — no player — in school history obliterated so many obstacles, including some of his own.
Forget the separated shoulder. Of Pickett’s three second-half interceptions, one blew a promising drive in the third quarter when corner Jermaine Chatman picked off a dying quail in the end zone, and the other turned into a Wildcats go-ahead TD in the fourth quarter.
Indeed, when Arizona tailback Clarence Farmer burst through a leaky UW defense for a 16-yard TD run to put the Wildcats up 28-21 with 5:18 left, it appeared that all the Huskies’ sins for the game finally would catch up to them.
After all, the Huskies gave up 394 yards to a team ranked at or near the bottom of each statistical category in the conference. They also made numerous mistakes in all phases of the game and nearly let the Wildcats snap a three-game losing streak.
And what a losing streak. Included in that was a piddling 159-yard effort against Oregon State and a 63-point yield to Oregon. The Wildcats had been outscored 149-52 in their last three games.
Yet, they stood toe-to-toe with Washington, a 14-point favorite.
"We were the major culprit as to why the game was so exciting," UW coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We kept shooting ourselves in the foot and not executing to the level we were capable."
But this is Washington, remember, an outfit that can trademark fourth-quarter comebacks.
The Huskies turned a sizzling, 74-yard kickoff return by Roc Alexander into a 39-yard field goal by John Anderson with 4:04 left to make it 28-24.
The Washington defense, a sieve up to then, finally came out roaring when it needed to. Farmer finished with 147 yards on 21 carries, but managed just 4 yards on two carries on the drive, and linebacker Ben Mahdavi led a fearsome Husky blitz on third-and-6 to sack quarterback John Rattay.
"We had to step up and do something for the team, because we made some mistakes early on," Mahdavi said. "We had to get the ball back into the offense’s hands, because they were making things happen for us."
The Huskies took over at their own 45 and finally finished it with Pickett’s TD.
It was Washington’s 17th come-from behind victory in Neuheisel’s 22 regular-season victories at UW coach. Twelve have come in the fourth quarter.
"I knew it the whole time," UW tailback Rich Alexis said. "We’ve been doing it so much, we’re used to it. We don’t want it to come down to the end like that, but I never get nervous and never panic when it gets down to it like that. We just believe."
It appeared the Huskies could blow the top off the game early, considering the offense reached a level it hadn’t reached since the 53-3 pasting of Idaho.
Pickett connected on TD passes of 21 yards to Todd Elstrom, 78 yards to Paul Arnold and 73 yards to Pat Reddick — and that was just in the first quarter. In the quarter, Pickett rang up 212 passing yards.
Still, it was a tight game because of UW lapses on defense and special teams.
The Wildcats hung with the Huskies in the first half on the strength of two touchdown passes by Jason Johnson to Bobby Wade (4 yards) and Andrae Thurman (12 yards) in the first quarter.
The most glaring special-teams flop came in the third quarter, when punt returner Charles Frederick fumbled after colliding with teammate Matthias Wilson. Arizona’s Gary Love recovered and ran to the Husky 15-yard line. One play later, Rattay scored on a 15-yard run to tie the score at 21.
Pickett himself wasn’t perfect. His third-quarter interception was an ill-advised throw into the end zone that ruined a promising drive. Chatman had flypaper coverage on intended receiver Wilbur Hooks and made a leaping grab in the corner of the end zone to snuff out the drive. The game was tied at 21 at the time.
Still, the late-game heroics again saved the Huskies. This time, they came from a sore-armed quarterback who refused to accept defeat.
"I’m just glad we won," Pickett said. "If we hadn’t the record wouldn’t have meant anything."
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