SEATTLE — The symbolism was too rich to miss, the impact too loud to ignore: There was Washington’s star quarterback, Jake Browning, getting flipped out of bounds and crashing down with a hard thud late in the fourth quarter, his failed run at a first down ending in near disaster.
He hobbled back to the UW bench, the Huskies’ hopes of a comeback appearing to fall just short of the mark, too.
And up until the game’s final 58 seconds Saturday night, it appeared the Huskies’ once-promising season was about to be flipped entirely upside down too.
Then the improbable happened: The No. 16 Huskies defeated Utah, 33-30, in a what-just-happened finish late Saturday at Husky Stadium that had beleaguered senior kicker Tristan Vizcaino playing the role of unlikely hero.
Vizcaino, benched, booed and bullied at various times this season, drilled the game-winning 38-yard field goal through the uprights in the west end zone as time expired to carry the Huskies (9-2, 6-2 Pac-12) into this Saturday’s Apple Cup with some serious lift.
“It’s a huge deal,” said an emotional Vizcaino, who had missed seven of his 15 field-goal attempts before the game-winning try, including a 30-yarder earlier Saturday night.
“I’ve let my teammates down a couple games in the past, and being able to bounce back and maybe make it up to them tonight, it meant a lot to me. … One of the best feelings you could have as a kicker, if not the best.”
Utah (5-6, 2-6) had taken a 30-23 lead with 10:52 left on Tyler Huntley’s 5-yard touchdown run — a score set up earlier in the drive by a daring fake punt by Utah’s Mitch Wishnowsky, who gained 19 yards on fourth-and-17.
Utah’s defense seemed to seal the victory for the Utes when Browning, scrambling to the right sideline on fourth-and-eight, dived toward the first-down marker and was flipped violently out of bounds. He was stopped 2 yards short of the first down with 4:40 left, then limped to the sideline with what he described as a dead leg.
But the Huskies’ defense — uncharacteristically torched for a number of big plays by Huntley earlier — got the stop it needed, forcing Utah to punt the ball back to the Huskies with 2:03 left. Browning orchestrated a nine-play, 61-yard drive in 65 seconds, making a must-have throw to Andre Baccellia for 14 yards on fourth-and-10 and then hitting tight end Will Dissly up the seam for a 28-yard gain to the Utah 2.
On the next play, Myles Gaskin scored from 2 yards out on a direct snap, and Vizcaino’s point-after try tied the score at 30 with 58 seconds left.
UW’s defense got another quick three-and-out, and after a punt UW got the ball back again at its 28-yard line with 29 seconds left. After a first-down run, Utah called a timeout — giving Browning time to air it out to Dante Pettis for 18 yards and then scrambling to find Baccellia for 31 yards to the Utah 21 with 8 seconds left. After an incomplete pass for Pettis in the end zone, Vizcaino strolled onto the field.
“You just have to keep attacking,” said Browning, who finished 26-of-35 for a season-high 354 yards with two touchdowns. “We practice that a lot just going through clutch drives in practice. We just have to keep battling. No one was saying much, we just knew we had to respond.
“It was awesome to see Tristan hit the game-winner. I think he was getting booed at one point by the fans, but he made it when it mattered.”
The Huskies’ slim chances of repeating as Pac-12 champions were wiped out during the second quarter of their game Saturday night when Stanford held on for a 17-14 victory over California down in the Bay Area.
That means the Pac-12 North will be decided in the Apple Cup this Saturday night at Husky Stadium: If the No. 15 Cougars beat UW, Washington State will represent the North against USC in the conference championship game. If the Huskies win, Stanford will claim the North.
Huntley, Utah’s sophomore quarterback, threw two touchdown passes and ran for another.
The Huskies had tied the score at 23 late in the third when Browning connected with Gaskin for a 76-yard touchdown on the left sideline. Browning’s pass to Gaskin on a wheel route appeared to glance off the fingertips of Utah safety Julian Blackmon. Gaskin grabbed the pass and ran in for the easy score with 42 seconds left in the third quarter.
Gaskin had scored the game’s first touchdown on a 9-yard run in the first quarter, giving him a school-record 38 rushing touchdown in his career.
In the second quarter, Browning broke the school record with his 76th career touchdown pass, a 6-yard pass to Lavon Coleman, to give the Huskies a 13-10 lead.
The Huskies led 16-13 at halftime.
