SEATTLE (AP) — In hindsight, Washington needed the scare that it received two weeks ago in the desert.

Otherwise, Friday night's beat down of Stanford may not have taken place.

"We actually needed that Arizona game to make sure we knew how to handle what happened, how to handle that pressure, how to handle getting punched in the mouth," Washington defensive lineman Elijah Qualls said.

Washington's 44-6 rout of Stanford Friday night vaulted the Huskies five spots to No. 5 in this week's AP Top 25. It's the highest ranking for Washington since the end of the 2000 season when the Huskies finished No. 3 in the final poll following a Rose Bowl victory over Purdue.

The last time Washington was ranked this high in October was 1992, when the Huskies spent five weeks at No. 1 before losing to Arizona.

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