Not long after the Washington Huskies, the preseason favorite to run away with the Pac-12, lost 12–10 at Cal, the game in Palo Alto became a battle for the Pac-12 North.
With a 42-yard field goal with 19 seconds to go, No. 14 Washington State took a firmer hold on the division by defeating No. 24 Stanford, 41–38. With the win, Mike Leach’s team went to 7–1—and 4–1 in conference play. The worst of its conference slate—Utah, Oregon and now Stanford—is behind it, and it’ll be a relatively smooth road to the Apple Cup for the Huskies, who get Cal next week, then a slumping Colorado team, then Arizona.