Marques Tuiasosopo leads the Huskies on an 80-yard game-winning drive with less than a minute remaining in the game. (AP)

"I thought we won the game,'' said Cardinal quarterback Randy Fasani, whose 2-yard scoring run with 53 seconds remaining capped a seemingly insurmountable 28-24 comeback. "I still can't believe it.''

Huskies quarterback Marques Tuiasosopo is equally cool under pressure, especially on the run. Starting on his own 20 with 47 seconds left, he completed consecutive passes of 27, 31 and 22, the last finding remarkably wide open flanker Justin Robbins in the Stanford end zone. Tuiasosopo scrambled away from pressure, bought time, then delivered a strike.

"It was a furious rally,'' Huskies coach Rick Neuheisel said, his team improving to 7-1. "I'm very proud of Marques. It was a big-time drive.''

And it broke Stanford's heart, all but eliminating the 3-5 defending Pac-10 champ from postseason contention.

"We had our defense called,'' said defensive lineman Willie Howard. "It's just a matter of someone stepping up and making a play.''

The drive took 30 seconds and Washington never needed its final timeout. Despite steady rain, the teams combined for 36 points in the closing 5:57.

It marked the sixth time in seven games this season the Huskies have come from behind, five times in the fourth quarter. However, the latest comeback came with a price, the severity of which is not yet known.

With 2:01 left in the third quarter, Washington senior strong safety Curtis Williams of Fresno, Calif., was knocked unconscious and sustained a neck injury after a helmet-to-helmet collision with Stanford running back Kerry Carter. Play was delayed for nearly 20 minutes and both teams huddled on the field before Williams was placed on a stretcher and taken to nearby Stanford Medical Center.

An MRI on Saturday revealed Williams didn't have a broken neck, but he is undergoing further tests and remains in intensive care Sunday.

Williams' injury sent shockwaves through the team that were still evident after the game, at least one player crying openly.

"All that kind of pales when you're dealing with a young man who does everything you ask,'' Neuheisel said. "It becomes difficult to celebrate. Our team is very, very much thinking of Curtis.''

Neuheisel and his players went directly to hospital afterward to see Williams.

"When you're dealing with the prospect of catastrophic injury, it's very frightening,'' said Neuheisel.

Tuiasosopo said Williams was on everyone's mind during the final drive.

"I just tried to rally the troops and say keep your composure, because Curtis would want us to do that,'' he said. "You'd think after a game like that we'd be happy and upbeat. We're happy, but our thoughts are with our teammate and warrior.''

When Neuheisel arrived in Seattle last year, he knew Washington had been outscored 97-31 in the final period the previous season and made improving that mark a top priority. The Huskies got the message, outscoring foes 100-75 in the fourth. Until Saturday, they practically owned the quarter in 2000, dominating opponents 94-32.

Although Stanford was the first team to outscore them, 22-14, Neuheisel wasn't complaining. How could he?

Last week against Cal, Washington trailed 24-13 and outscored the Bears 23-0 in the final 15 minutes for an easy victory by Huskies standards. Neuheisel was hopeful the strong finish would carry over against the Cardinal, a team his Huskies have practically owned since the early 1980s, winning 17 of the last 19 meetings, most by large margins.

The series has been so lopsided, Stanford's two wins deserve note. In 1982, John Elway engineered a 43-31 upset of top-ranked Washington, and 1994, Stanford won 46-28 in what proved Bill Walsh's last coaching victory.

Neither Elway nor Walsh was available Saturday, although the latter watched from the press box. Walsh must have been appalled by the way Cardinal passed in the first half at soggy Stanford Stadium, Fasani completing 1 of 5 attempts for 4 yards.

Remarkably, Stanford trailed only 10-6, mostly because Washington sleepwalked through the first quarter. The Cardinal led 6-0 on a pair of Mike Biselli field goals, twice stalling inside the red zone.

After a whiff of smelling salts, the Huskies finally awoke in the second quarter behind the running of third-string tailback Willie Hurst. With true freshman Rick Alexis ineffective and backup Paul Arnold nursing a sore back in Seattle, Neuheisel needed a spark and Hurst supplied it. His ridiculously easy 17-yard touchdown run put Washington ahead to stay.

The Stanford defense did a much better job containing Tuiasosopo, who ran wild against it last season. He ran for 207 yards and passed for 302, becoming the first player in NCCA history to run for 200 and pass for 300. Still, the Huskies had to rally for a 35-30 win.

Saturday, the defense returned the favor. Feeling right at home in the wet conditions, which is more than you could say for the 31,300 rain-soaked spectators, the Huskies get Fasani and company out of the end zone until the wacky final six minutes.

"Mental toughness has never been a question with this team,'' said Neuheisel. "We may not always block the people we're supposed to block, we may not always catch the interceptions when we should, but what we do is find something in the bottom of our guts to keep trying. When you do that, good things happen.''