How No. 10 UW locked down No. 7 Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey

If ever there is a feather in a Pac-12 team’s cap, it’s shutting down Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey. That’s exactly what the No. 10 Washington Huskies did on Friday night, limiting the 2015 Heisman runner-up to 79 total yards of offense and no touchdowns in their huge 44-6 win over the seventh-ranked Cardinal.

A year after McCaffrey had two touchdowns (one receiving, one rushing) and 300 total yards in a win over Washington, the Huskies’ dominant defense was prepared to face perhaps the country’s most elusive player and turned him into an afterthought on a national stage.

So, how did the Huskies do it?

UW coach Chris Petersen credited the Huskies’ aggressive but disciplined defensive front for getting the ball rolling in their big victory.

“I think the big thing is … it starts in the defensive line. Eating up blocks and getting off blocks,” he said after the game. “I thought we tackled well overall. … It was nice to just contain him. I know he was close (to making a big gain) a couple times and we tripped him up, but whatever it takes.”

There were some moments in the third quarter when McCaffrey looked to be finding his footing, and it was just a storm the Huskies had to weather through. Lucky for them, they had built a 30-0 cushion by the time Stanford finally scored on a 19-yard pass from Ryan Burns to J.J. Arcega-Whiteside.

“I thought in that third quarter we started to slide back (and) I think he started to show who he is. He’s a hard guy to tackle,” Petersen said of McCaffrey. “Of course from our side we’re like, ‘We’re not tackling. we’re not tackling.’ We missed him about three or four different times. He was converting those third downs, but he’s that good.”

McCaffrey never provided Washington any true moments of panic on offense, though, as his long reception and long rush for the game were both just 14 yards. It was a different story on special teams, though. He was able to return five kicks for 144 yards, including a 57-yarder after UW’s had scored to push its advantage to 30 points that at least provided some field-position help for when the Cardinal finally scored later in the frame.

The Huskies weren’t necessarily planning on giving McCaffrey that many opportunities to return, so they were glad to have not been burned too badly.

“We’re always trying for touchbacks but … you try for a touchback, he’s going to kick it to about the 10. That’s what always happens,” Petersen said. “So we were going to kick to him a little bit but we weren’t going to kick to him the whole time because you kick to a great returner enough and he’s going to hurt you, and he did hurt us on that one. That was scary.”

Scary, sure. But credit to the UW defense, because after nearly three quarters at that point of holding down one of the best players in the country, it was barely a threat.

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