In a game Stanford Football had to win to keep alive any realistic hopes of bowl eligibility, the Cardinal was run over by Washington on Saturday, allowing the Huskies a season-high 388 yards on the ground in a 27-9 rout. UW snapped a six-game losing streak with the victory, improving to 3-6 on the season and 1-5 in the Pac-10.

Enlarge
#gallery http://daily.stanford.edu/image/full/8135
Alvin Chow

Fifth-year senior quarterback T.C. Ostrander replaced sophomore Tavita Pritchard in the first quarter after Pritchard left the game with a shoulder injury.

It was a signature day for senior Huskies running back Louis Rankin, who finished with 255 yards and a touchdown on 36 carries as one half of the two-headed backfield monster that dominated the Cardinal (3-6, 2-5).

Washington’s other star behind center — redshirt freshman quarterback Jake Locker — terrorized the Cardinal all afternoon with play-action fakes and quarterback keepers, rushing for 97 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries. He also completed 50 percent of his passes for 151 yards.

The Husky attack slowly ground down the Cardinal defense, dominating the time of possession. Washington held the ball for 38 minutes, 30 seconds, compared to Stanford’s mark of 21:30.

Making matters worse for Stanford was a shoulder injury sustained by starting sophomore quarterback Tavita Pritchard toward the end of the first quarter, pressing senior T.C. Ostrander into action for the remainder of the game.

Coach Jim Harbaugh, who termed the injury a “mild AC sprain,” explained that — although halftime X-rays came back negative — he was not comfortable enough with Pritchard’s warm-up throws on the sidelines to insert him back into the game.

“We chose to stay with T.C.,” Harbaugh said. “I could’ve put Tavita back in, it just felt like, watching him throw on the sideline, he didn’t have it. [He] didn’t have the same pop on his ball.”

The switch seemed to adversely affect the Cardinal’s protection scheme, as Ostrander was sacked six times in three quarters of play.

While the passing game struggled, the Cardinal rushing attack was fairly productive, despite a severely injury-depleted backfield.

Stanford came into the game clearly looking to establish the run after last week’s miserable negative 8 yard output at Oregon State. The team netted 53 yards on the ground alone on their first drive against the Huskies. A 43-yard run by freshman cornerback turned emergency-running back Corey Gatewood put Stanford in business at Washington’s 16-yard line. But the offense stalled inside the 20-yard line before senior Derek Belch’s 32-yard field goal attempt sailed wide right.

Missed opportunities proved to be the theme of the day for the Cardinal offense, which finished with 116 yards rushing, led by redshirt freshman Tyrone McGraw’s 89 yards on 11 carries and Gatewood’s 63 yards on five carries.

The Cardinal had a golden opportunity to tie the game at 10 with just over six minutes remaining in the first half. Junior defensive end Pannel Egboh forced a fumble inside Washington’s 10-yard line that was recovered at the 1-yard line by sophomore defensive tackle Levirt Griffin. But Gatewood returned the favor, fumbling away Stanford’s best chance to get back in the game as he attempted to power his way over the goal-line.

“There were some big shifts in momentum that just didn’t go our way,” Ostrander said. “I thought Corey Gatewood played awesome, [but] obviously he lost that ball on the 1-yard line on a close call. But we punch that in, and a couple of other things go our way and it’s a different ball game — you just can’t have all those mistakes and not take advantage of the opportunities.”

The Cardinal’s lone touchdown of the game came on a one-yard plunge by McGraw, which capped an eight-play, 39-yard drive late in the third quarter. Following a botched hold by senior punter Jay Ottovegio, the game still seemed within reach for the Cardinal at 13-9, but the Huskies would go on to score 14 unanswered points in the fourth quarter.

In the locker room following the game, Harbaugh intimated that he and the coaching staff would have to take a long look at their depth chart as well as their approach to coaching the squad in the coming weeks. But the first-year Cardinal coach stopped short of saying major changes to the starting lineup were imminent.

“I think we’ve really got to analyze it position by position and make sure that we’re doing a good job coaching, in terms of the fundamentals, and who we’re playing who gives us the best chance to win,” Harbaugh said. “On a lot of levels we have to get this offense back on track.”

With the loss, Stanford dropped to 1-10 at home since the new Stanford Stadium opened in 2006. The Cardinal has yet to defeat a conference foe at home over that span.

Jim Harbaugh’s squad is still three games shy of the six wins necessary for bowl-game eligibility.The Cardinal has three opponents left on its 2007 schedule: on the road against Washington State (3-6, 1-5) next Saturday and at home against Notre Dame (1-8) and Cal (6-3, 3-3).