By Jeremy Harness

STANFORD – It was assumed that Stanford would pick apart Washington State’s defense Friday night, but the big question going into Friday’s game was how Stanford would slow down the Cougars’ prolific, high-powered passing attack.

A week after Washington State quarterback Connor Halliday torched Cal for an FBS-record 734 yards to go along with six touchdowns in a still-hard-to-believe losing effort, the Cardinal certainly had their work cut out for them.

The defense answered the call, and David Parry had a lot to do with that. The fifth-year senior nose tackle hurried Halliday five times and sacked him once. In all, Stanford sacked Halliday four times and had a total of eight hurries while intercepting him once, which resulted in a guy who was as uncomfortable in the pocket as he had been all year.

“We wanted to keep him contained,” Parry said. “We knew he’s not a big runner, so we just wanted to be sure to close the net on him.”

The end result was a season-low 292 passing yards for the nation’s leading passer and a 34-17 win for the Cardinal at Stanford Stadium and, six days after a disheartening loss at Notre Dame, left coach David Shaw asking, “Can we play like this the rest of the year?”

“Tonight’s the first night that we looked like us and felt like us,” Shaw said. “It was great to see us play with emotion and energy and fire in all three phases.”

Meanwhile, Stanford was steady on offense, and even though there was a red-zone opportunity that came up empty, the Cardinal moved the ball when they needed to. Quarterback Kevin Hogan completed 23 of his 35 passes for 284 yards.

He also tossed three scores, with all three going to his tight ends, a staple of the Stanford passing game. Greg Taboada caught two of the touchdowns, while Eric Cotton grabbed the other.

On defense, Stanford set the tone early on. While jumping out to a 10-0 first quarter lead and pretty much getting whatever they want on offense, particularly on the ground, the Cardinal defense forced a punt on their first possession.

On Washington State’s next possession, the Cardinal again seemed on their way to getting their defense off the field quickly but had a bit of a hiccup. However, the Cougars converted a pair of fourth downs before Halliday connected deep with receiver Vince Mayle.

Two plays later, Halliday hit Mayle again, this time in the back of the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown to cut Stanford’s lead to 10-7.

The Cardinal then got things back on track defensively in the second quarter, and then their best player made one of his signature big returns. After another Washington State three-and-out, Ty Montgomery returned the ensuing punt 46 yards to the Cougars’ 16-yard line.

Three plays later, Kevin Hogan found tight end Greg Taboada for a 3-yard score to give Stanford a 17-7 lead.

Stanford had a golden opportunity to blow the game open late in the quarter, as they drove inside the Washington State 5-yard line. However, as fullback Patrick Skov attempted to stretch the ball to the goal line, Cougars safety Taylor Taliulu poked the ball loose while linebacker Paris Taylor recovered to turn Stanford away.

However, even though the Cardinal defense slowed Washington State’s attack considerably, the Cougars still kept hanging around and made it an interesting game well into the fourth quarter.

This was illustrated early in that final period on a fourth-and-goal at Stanford’s 3-yard line. The Cardinal appeared to have Halliday cornered and out of options, as he was forced to the right sideline to buy time.

However, as he was headed out of bounds, he threw across his body and somehow found perhaps his favorite target, receiver River Cracraft in the back of the end zone to trim the Stanford lead to seven.

After Stanford added a field goal, the defense clamped down again, and Washington State gained only one more first down the rest of the way as Stanford sealed the victory.

“We’re going to try to be perfect, but we know we’re not going to be perfect,” Shaw said.