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Huskies dominate Cardinal
By Jeremy Kahn November 3, 2007 |
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STANFORD-When you give up 539 yards of total offense, including 388 on the ground, most of the time you are not going to win the football game. Louis Rankin carried the ball 36 times for 255 yards, as the Washington Huskies defeated the Stanford Cardinal 27-9 at Stanford Stadium. This was the first Pac-10 win of the Huskies, and the Huskies also stopped six-game losing streak overall, and two-game losing streak to the Cardinal. “We did a wonderful job today. The players did an excellent, excellent job. It’s been a long time coming. We’ve been knocking at the door, and all we wanted was to get it done, said Tyrone Willingham. “Defense stood up. For the most part they did a hell of a job. Our offense was, for the most part, really aggressive.” Rankin, who played his high school ball at Lincoln High School in Stockton also scored on a one-yard run that stretched the Huskies lead from 13-9 to 20-9 with 14:57 remaining in the game. The 255 yards gained by Rankin on the ground were the most by a Huskies running back since Corey Dillon gained 259 yards against the Oregon Ducks during the 1996 season. “The line did really good, we did everything really good upfront and the whole offense opened up. I think we played as an offense and they just called my number a lot, so that made me get a lot of yards, “ said Rankin. It was also the fourth most for a Huskies running back since 1947. Huskies quarterback Jake Locker not only went 16-for-32 for 151 yards in the air, but Locker also carried the ball 16 times for 97 yards and two touchdowns. Locker got the Huskies on the board with 3:44 remaining in the first quarter, as he scampered 17 yards into the end zone to give the Huskies a 7-0 lead. By scoring two touchdowns against the Cardinal, Locker became the all-time single season rushing quarterback in school history. Locker, who ran for 97 yards against the Cardinal broke the record that was previously held by Dennis Fitzpatrick, who set the record in 1974. “I think we found a way to win in the end. It wasn’t prettiest game we played. We missed a couple opportunities, we had it in the red zone a couple times and didn’t get touchdowns. That’s stuff we go to take advantage of. We’ve been waiting a couple weeks for that, and now we got to take that momentum and carry it into the next couple of week. Everybody’s really excited about the win today obviously, it’s been a long time coming,” said Locker. Tavita Pritchard played sparingly, as he was taken to the locker room after the second Cardinal possession of the game. Pritchard was diagnosed with a AC sprain to his shoulder, this according to Jim Harbaugh. “I felt a little pop when I got hit in the second quarter. I didn’t even go down, but I came out later and was able to throw, but eventually the pain just kept getting worse and I couldn’t get back into the game,’ said Pritchard. T.C. Ostrander played for the first time at Stanford Stadium since the Cardinal lost to the Arizona State Sun Devils 41-3 on September 29. The following day, Ostrander had a seizure while watching former teammate Trent Edwards and the Buffalo Bills play the New England Patriots. Ostrander went 16-for-28 for 133 yards, but was sacked six times. “This was one of the most frustrating games I have ever played in. We are just killing ourselves with all the penalties and the missed throws and sloppiness in our play. I don’t know if it is guys thinking too much and not just playing football but we are definitely not doing a good job out there and we need to go back and look at some things to get better. There were just a lot of things that just didn’t go our way and I thought Corey (Gatewood) went out there made a lot of nice plays. It was tough to not score when we got the ball on the two band I feel that if we were able to convert there, tee game would have been much different,” said Ostrander. Between Ostrander and Pritchard, the two combined for only 137 yards passing on the afternoon. That is fewest yards passing of the season for the Cardinal. Their previous low was 149 yards against the USC Trojans on October 6, the night that the Cardinal shocked the college football world when they defeated the Trojans 24-23 on a Pritchard to Mark Bradford touchdown pass with 49 seconds remaining in the game that broke the Trojans 35-game home winning streak. Tyrone McGraw had a good day on the ground, as he carried the ball 11 times for 89 yards and a touchdown. Corey Gatewood, a defensive back until last week may have had only five carries for 63 yards, but 43 of those yards came on one play, as he raced down the sideline before being tackled at the Huskies 15-yard line. “I felt it was a pretty tough transition from defensive back because a lot of my defensive preparation is back pedaling, It’s tough at first to see everything that is going on out there, but once you get a few plays out there you can start to read a lot of things and start to make big plays,” said Gatewood. Despite getting into the red zone, the Cardinal were unable to score, as Derek Belch missed a 32-yard field goal that went wide right. Gatewood also fumbled the ball on the Huskies one-yard line, as the Cardinal were about to go into the end zone and tie up the game. NOTES: By gaining 255 yards against the Cardinal, Rankin became the first running back to top the 200 yard plateau since Washington State’s Jerome Harrison ran for 219 yards against the Cardinal during the 2005 season. The Cardinal return to the field next Saturday, as they will face the Washington State Cougars in Pullman. |
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