Cousins comes through late as Washington stuns Seattle 17-14

SEATTLE (AP) — Kirk Cousins drove Washington 70 yards in 35 seconds, capped by Rob Kelley’s 1-yard touchdown run with less than a minute remaining, and the Washington Redskins rallied late to stun the Seattle Seahawks 17-14 on Sunday.

Seattle (5-3) took a 14-10 lead with 1:34 remaining after Russell Wilson found Doug Baldwin for a 30-yard touchdown pass after the Seahawks had scuffled on offense all day. But Cousins had an unexpected answer.

Taking over at his 30-yard line, Cousins hit Brian Quick for 31 yards and Josh Doctson for 38 on consecutive throws to get to the Seattle 1 with 1:02 left. Doctson beat rookie Shaquill Griffin down the sideline and made an impressive diving catch. Kelley bulled his way in from the 1 on the next play.

Kelley finished with two touchdown runs, while Cousins was 21 of 31 for 247 yards. He was responsible for a fumble in the first half, but otherwise took care of the ball against Seattle’s standout defense. He also withstood six sacks and a number of other quarterback hits behind a makeshift offensive line of backups and rookies.

Wilson couldn’t match his magic from last week against Houston, when he threw for a franchise-record 452 yards and put together a winning touchdown drive in the final minute. Wilson was 24 of 45 for 297 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He got Seattle to the Washington 38 in the final minute. Instead of spiking the ball, Wilson tried to run a play and was sacked by Terrell McClain back to the Redskins 46. After a lengthy review, Seattle had the ball with 4 seconds left after Washington (4-4) called time out to get organized.

Wilson’s desperation toss on the final play in the direction of Jimmy Graham and Tanner McEvoy fell incomplete and Seattle saw its four-game win streak snapped.

Falk leads No. 25 Washington St. over No. 18 Stanford 24-21

PULLMAN, Wash. (AP) — Luke Falk led No. 25 Washington State on a 94-yard drive in the fourth quarter that produced the winning points in a 24-21 victory over No. 18 Stanford on Saturday.

Washington State finished 7-0 at home this season, and stayed in the race for the Pac-12 North title.

“It’s been a great ride and we’ve just got to finish the ride,” Falk said.

He completed 34 of 48 passes for 337 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception, and also became the career passing yards leader in the Pac-12.

“It was the same old Luke we have seen the last couple of years,” running back Jamal Morrow said. “Calm, steady.”

Washington State likely needs to win at Utah next weekend and at No. 12 Washington later this month to win the Pac-12 North title.

“We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Falk said.

Snow started to fall heavily at the end of the first quarter, hampering both offenses. Stanford hadn’t played in snow since a 1936 game against Columbia in New York.

Morrow rushed for 66 yards for Washington State (8-2, 5-2 Pac-12, No. 25 CFP), chewing up time at the end of the game.

Bryce Love, slowed by an ankle injury, was held to 69 yards, his worst outing of the season for Stanford (6-3, 5-2, No. 21 CFP). He came in as the nation’s leading rusher, averaging 198 yards a game.

“I thought we really played hard the entire game,” Washington State coach Mike Leach said. “It was a great team win.”

Stanford coach David Shaw blamed himself for the loss.

“I feel like I let my team down,” Shaw said. “I didn’t give our guys a chance to be successful today.”

“Offensively we didn’t get enough production from the passing game,” Shaw said after the Cardinal were limited to 105 passing yards.

Stanford was outgained 430 yards to 198 in the game.

“We wanted to stick with the running game but we weren’t as efficient as we needed to be,” Shaw said. “We should have mixed it up a little bit.”

Love ran 52 yards for a touchdown on Stanford’s first play of the second quarter. But he rushed 15 more times for a total of 17 yards otherwise.

Falk replied with a 12-yard pass to Tavares Martin Jr. to tie it.

On WSU’s next possession, Falk threw a 27-yard pass to Renard Bell in the end zone for a 14-7 lead that held up at halftime. A fan jumped out of the stands after the touchdown and mooned the players in the end zone before being hustled away by security.

Washington State drove to Stanford’s 13 on its first possession of the second half, but had to settle for Erik Powell’s 41-yard field goal and a 17-7 lead.

Stanford quarterback K.J. Costello fumbled the ball after the snap, but it bounced back into his hands and he ran 14 yards for a touchdown that brought Stanford within 17-14 in the third. He completed 9 of 20 passes in his second career start.

On Washington State’s next possession, the Cougars went for it on fourth-and-1 at midfield. But Falk’s pass was intercepted by Bobby Okereke and returned 52 yards for a touchdown that gave Stanford a 21-17 lead.

Falk led the Cougars 94 yards, culminating in an 11-yard touchdown pass to Jamire Calvin, for a 24-21 lead with 6:56 left in the game.

“We focused on what we needed to do,” Falk said of the drive.

Stanford went three-and-out and WSU chewed up more than three minutes of clock before punting the ball with 35 seconds left in the game. Frankie Luvu’s interception ended the Stanford threat.

Pettis sets NCAA mark as No. 12 Washington rolls Oregon 38-3

SEATTLE (AP) — Dante Pettis became the NCAA’s career leader in punt return touchdowns and had a 47-yard TD reception, helping No. 12 Washington beat Oregon 38-3 on Saturday night.

A year after breaking a 12-game losing streak to the Ducks, Washington (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12, No. 12 CFP) kept alive its hopes for a return to the College Football Playoff by thumping its rival to the south.

Pettis sparked Washington’s blowout on a frigid, wet night along the shore of Lake Washington. After a sluggish start, Pettis’ ninth career punt return touchdown started an avalanche of Washington points.

Pettis caught the line drive punt from Oregon’s Adam Stack, made the initial defenders miss, hurdled an attempted tackle from Stack at the Oregon 40 and found open space as he sprinted to the end zone. The 64-yard play was the fourth punt return for a score this season by Pettis, tying a Pac-12 record. He had punt return touchdowns in three straight games in September to pull even with Antonio Perkins (Oklahoma) and Wes Welker (Texas Tech) on the NCAA list.

“Punt returns for touchdowns are rare ... and I already had three this year so it wasn’t like, ‘I haven’t got a punt return in a long time,’” Pettis said. “Each week I was going into it and just trying to get the best return that I could.”

It was just the start of a big night for the senior. He finished with four catches for 87 yards and put the game out of reach on the first drive of the second half, getting behind the Oregon defense for his seventh touchdown reception of the season and a 24-3 lead.

“He’s just got a knack,” Washington coach Chris Petersen said. “He’s a really deceptive guy even as a receiver. He’s a long strider that has tremendous suddenness to him.”

Lavon Coleman added a remarkable 31-yard, catch-and-run touchdown later in the third quarter. Coleman was just trying to get a first down on third-and-12, but ended up in the end zone. He was spun down by Oregon’s Jimmie Swain, but instead of hitting the turf, Coleman’s backside bounced off Swain’s chest. Coleman popped up and raced the final 20 yards for the score.

Myles Gaskin rushed for 123 yards, including a 34-yard touchdown in the first half where he faked a reverse to Salvon Ahmed, kept the ball and got great downfield blocking. Ahmed later added a 58-yard touchdown run as part of Washington’s 21-point third quarter.

Washington quarterback Jake Browning threw for 204 yards, and his two TD passes tied Keith Price for the school record at 75.

Brandon Burmeister started at quarterback for Oregon as the Ducks (5-5, 2-5) kept Justin Herbert out for one more game due to a collarbone injury. Herbert has not played since being injured in late September. Royce Freeman rushed for 122 yards, but the Ducks had almost no passing attack. After gaining 116 yards on their first two possessions, Oregon gained just 73 total yards on the next eight possessions.

The three points by Oregon were the fewest since the Ducks were shut out by UCLA late in the 2007 season.