SEATTLE_It took months of planning for the Washington athletic department to pull off a fitting tribute for the Huskies' 1991 national-championship team at halftime Friday night, complete with fireworks, a standing ovation, long-stemmed roses and many a fond memory.
It took 30 minutes of first-half domination for the Washington defense to give that '91 squad the most perfect tribute, its fireworks coming in the form of six first-half sacks and two shutout quarters against a Stanford team that has bullied the Pac-12 Conference for much of the past half decade.
Final: No. 10 Washington 44, No. 7 Stanford 6.
Just like old times.
The Huskies improved to 5-0 for the first time since 1992 and firmly entrenched themselves as the Pac-12 favorite_and, as the calendar flips to October, into the conversation for their first College Football Playoff berth.
They did so before the largest_and rowdiest_crowd at Husky Stadium in six years, a sellout of 72,072, and a nationwide ESPN audience. Surely, none of them could see this coming. Not like this.
In the most significant victory for the program since the 2000 Rose Bowl season, the Huskies (2-0 Pac-12) finished with eight sacks and shut down Heisman Trophy favorite Christian McCaffrey by beating Stanford (3-1, 2-1) at its own game_with a physical, bruising brand won at the line of scrimmage.
The win is the Huskies' most lopsided over a top-10 team since 1990, when UW walloped Todd Marinovich and the USC Trojans 31-0 at Husky Stadium.
Jake Browning, UW's sophomore quarterback, had his coming-out party on the national stage, leading the Huskies to touchdowns on its first two possessions.
The Huskies went right after a Stanford secondary missing both of its starting cornerbacks, with Browning throwing a perfect long ball to Dante Pettis for a 35-yard gain inside the Stanford 10. Three plays later, Browning found Pettis in the back of the end zone for a 3-yard touchdown pass.
Sophomore running back Myles Gaskin's 4-yard TD run capped UW's second possession to make it 13-0.
Cameron Van Winkle added a 19-yard field goal in the second quarter to make it 16-0.
Browning then threw his best pass of the night on a 19-yard TD pass to John Ross III_between two defenders_to give the Huskies a 23-0 halftime lead.
UW's defense closed out the first half with back-to-back sacks, by Psalm Wooching and Greg Gaines. The Huskies had six first-half sacks against a Stanford offensive line that had allowed just four sacks in its first three games.
Defensive end Joe Mathis bulled his way through Stanford's line for two first-half sacks, and Wooching finished with three_including a third-quarter fumble-sack inside the UW 10-yard line that wiped out Stanford's most promising drive to that point.
After Stanford fumbled a punt, Gaskin scored his second touchdown on an 8-yard run to make it 30-0.
Stanford didn't score until there were 24 seconds left in the third quarter, when Ryan Burns hit JJ Arcega-Whiteside for 19-yard TD.
The Huskies then iced the game with a 16-play, 75-yard drive that chewed up nearly 10 minutes off the clock_a drive that ended with true freshman receiver Aaron Fuller, on his birthday, hauling in his first career touchdown catch from Browning.
And Lavon Coleman, the UW star a week ago at Arizona, capped the rout with a 25-yard touchdown run.
