Cardinal Takes Cue From Cougars, 40-3 : Pacific 10: Stanford puts on offensive show and drops curtain on Washington State’s Rose Bowl hopes.

PALO ALTO —  Washington State was supposed to put on the offensive show, not the other way around.

Instead, it was No. 15 Stanford that scored 40 unanswered points Saturday in its most productive performance of the season. In dropping a 40-3 decision, the Cougars were held to their lowest point total in 13 games and were eliminated from the Rose Bowl race.

The loss by Washington State, 7-3 overall and 4-3 in the Pacific 10, combined with Arizona’s loss to USC, locked up Washington’s third straight trip to the Rose Bowl.

Steve Stenstrom passed for two touchdowns and Glyn Milburn ran for two touchdowns and caught a pass for another score for Stanford (8-3, 5-2).

Playing his last game at Stanford Stadium, Milburn finished with 152 all-purpose yards, including 89 rushing in 12 carries. He entered the game ranked third in the nation in all-purpose yardage and passed former Heisman winner Marcus Allen of USC to move into third place on the Pac-10 career list.

Early on, Stanford looked like it was in for a bad day, with Stenstrom getting sacked five times in the first half. But as the ground game took hold, Stenstrom regrouped to throw for 198 yards, completing 14 of 21 passes without an interception.

Washington State led, 3-0, early on and trailed, 10-3, at halftime but began to unravel in the third quarter. The Cougars’ first drive of the half was killed by 25 yards in penalties, their second died when Drew Bledsoe was sacked by Ron George for a 10-yard loss and their third ended with Bledsoe being intercepted by John Lynch.

Stanford’s final points came when Bledsoe was tackled in the end zone for a safety.

Bledsoe, the conference’s top-rated quarterback, passed for only 145 yards as the Cougars suffered their most lopsided loss since a 44-3 drubbing by UCLA last season. Bledsoe completed 16 of 26 passes with one interception.