The Washington Huskies-Stanford Cardinal game on Saturday night in Seattle was stopped briefly because of a flying drone.
It happened late in the fourth quarter of Washington’s 40-22 win. Play was stopped with Washington holding a 40-15 lead with 6:06 remaining as Stanford coach David Shaw alerted an official of the drone making its way over the stadium.
Fox play-by-play announcer Alex Faust said the drone wasn’t the network’s, even though they were authorized to use them during the USFL season.
Petro Papadakis, Faust’s analyst partner, had a funny take during the brief delay.
“I kind of feeling like I’m looking at a UFO, even though I’m not,” he said. “Thank goodness that school starts on Monday and these young people will have something else to occupy their time other than disrupting the fourth quarter of this fine Pac-12 after-dark Pac-12 football game.”
Though not too common, drone delays have occurred during sporting events. An English Premier League match in January was delayed because of a drone flying over the field.
As for the game, Wayne Taulapapa rushed for a career-high 120 yards and one touchdown, Washington’s defense sacked Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee eight times and forced two fumbles leadin the No. 18 Huskies to a dominant win over the Stanford.
Washington (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12), playing as a ranked team for the first time this season, used a stingy defense and a handful of big plays on offense to win its conference opener under new coach Kalen DeBoer.
Huskies quarterback Michael Penix Jr. threw for 309 yards and second-half touchdowns of 30 yards to Rome Odunze and 21 yards to Giles Jackson on a screen pass. Odunze had eight catches for 161 yards, his first career game over 100 yards receiving.
Stanford (1-2, 0-2) lost its eighth straight conference game dating to last season, the longest skid under coach David Shaw, who has been the school’s head coach since 2011.
— with AP
