Stanford throttled by Washington State

PULLMAN, Washington - Washington State quarterback Anthony Gordon threw for 520 yards and five touchdowns in a victory over Stanford, and coach Mike Leach was full of praise for the senior on Saturday.

“Right now he is probably playing quarterback better than anyone in the country,” said Leach, who has coached many top quarterbacks. “He made play after play in that game that other quarterbacks can’t do.”

Washington State scored the final 24 points of the game in beating Stanford 49-22, to move within one win of becoming bowl eligible. It was their first victory in almost a month.

“It was our most complete game of the season,” Leach said.

Gordon completed 44 of 60 passes and was intercepted once. He now has 39 touchdown passes on the season, which leads the nation and is a team record.

“He’s real accurate,” Leach said of Gordon. “He throws for a great deal of yards. When pressured he can do something with the ball. He typically doesn’t take many sacks.”

“That’s quite the compliment coming from coach Leach,” Gordon said.

“But I haven’t reached my ceiling yet,” he said. “I can improve.”

Easop Winston Jr. caught 11 passes for 107 yards and a pair of touchdowns for Washington State (5-5, 2-5 Pac-12), which has a four-game winning streak against the Cardinal. Max Borghi rushed for 111 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns and Brandon Arconado caught nine passes for 148 yards for the Cougars.

“He’s gotten better and better,” Leach said.

Davis Mills, starting in place of the injured K.J. Costello, threw for a team-record 494 yards for Stanford (4-6, 3-5). Mills completed 32 of 49 passes for three touchdowns and a pair of interceptions. Connor Weddington caught seven passes for 109 yards and Michael Wilson had five catches for 114 yards.

Stanford played without Costello and All-Pac-12 defensive back Paulson Adebo, who were out with injuries.

“I think the big thing for us, obviously we are short-handed and we became more short-handed during the course of the game,” Stanford coach David Shaw said.

“That being said, we fought back to make it a game. Down 10 points with the guys that we had going against one of the best passing offenses in all of college football,” Shaw said. “We were good enough to hold them and make the game close.”