You know me as the fearless leader of Go Mighty Card, but when I'm not standing on this mountaintop and singing the glory of Stanford Football, I am but a humble seventh grade English teacher, the perfect occupation to protect my anonymity while simultaneously indoctrinating the Stanford fans of tomorrow.
One of the first things we cover in my class are the stages of plot development. Here's a quick lesson, just in case your grasp on middle school language arts is a bit fuzzy. First, there's the exposition, when the characters and setting are introduced and the conflict is sometimes revealed. The Stanford Cardinal and California Golden Bears entered the game at Memorial Stadium in Berkeley on a rainy Saturday afternoon with more in common than it would appear at first glance. Though Stanford had won nine games and Cal only five, they were both desperate for a win. For the Cardinal, that win would keep their season building towards a possible BCS bowl game, while Cal needed a sixth win to become bowl eligible. Both teams were playing under coaches who were rumored to be leaving, one for being too successful, the other for the opposite problem. Finally, as always, both would be playing for the Stanford Axe, a trophy which had resided in Berkeley for much of the past decade.
The Cal Bears, though, were also playing short-handed, having lost starting quarterback Kevin Riley earlier in the season. Brock Mansion was the new quarterback, and he made his presence felt immediately, causing thousands of Cal hearts to skip a beat when he fumbled the first snap of the game. He recovered that one, but wasn't as lucky two plays later when his second fumble was recovered at the California 26-yard line by defensive end Matthew Masifilo. Aside from a Cal pass interference penalty (their first of nine costly penalties on the day) moved the ball to the eleven, but the offense sputtered from there, resulting in a Nate Whitaker field goal.
When Cal got the ball back, they started a drive that didn't bode well for the rest of the game as they gained significant chunks of yardage on six consecutive plays, a creative assortment of passes, runs, reverses, and wildcat formations. Just as it looked like a score was inevitable, cornerback Richard Sherman did what he usually does in big moments -- he came up with a big play, intercepting a Mansion pass at the five-yard line.
Looking back at the game now, it's easy to forget that it wasn't always a blowout, but early on there was legitimate cause for concern. If the Golden Bears had taken care of the ball, they would certainly have scored some points to keep the game close. Their play calling would have continued to be unpredictable, and they wouldn't have had to give too much responsibility to their inexperienced quarterback.
But they weren't able to take care of the ball, and minutes after Sherman's interception, the Cal defense made a mistake that wouldn't jump out in the box score but would loom just as large as those two early turnovers. On a third and four play from his own eleven yard line, quarterback Andrew Luck misfired on a pass to Doug Baldwin, and it looked like the Cal defense had held and gained critical field position for the offense. Another Cal gift, this one an offsides penalty, nullified the stop and gave the Cardinal new life.
I teach my students that the climax of a story is the moment when everything changes. The characters discover something within themselves that leads to a change in the direction of the story, and as readers we finally gain a true understanding of the narrative. This game's narrative turned in the Cardinal's direction two plays after that offsides penalty. Luck dropped back to pass on a third and five from his own 21-yard line. He ran through the progression of his receivers, but finally had to take off upfield, picking up the first down easily as he galloped through the heart of the Cal defense. Just past midfield Cal safety Sean Cattouse put Luck in his sights and attempted to tackle him, lowering his shoulder and driving into Luck's upper body. It didn't work; Cattouse bounced off Luck and fell to the ground. Luck staggered back for a split second, looked down at Cattouse with equal parts contempt and pity, and then rambled for another twenty yards. But don't take my word for it...
All told it was a fifty-eight yard run for Luck, his third fifty-yard dash this season. I took a look at the top ten rushers in the NCAA for comparison's sake, and only Oregon's LaMichael James, with four, has more fifty-yard runs. The only two quarterbacks on that list, Michigan's Denard Robinson and Auburn's Cam Newton, have two apiece.
More important than that quirky stat, though, was the message the play sent to the Bears and everyone in the stadium. Even though it was only ten minutes into the first quarter, and even though the score was only 3-0, this was the moment when Andrew Luck announced that he was the best player on the field and his Cardinal would not be bested on this day. They were the better team with the better athletes, and they would be taking home the Axe at the end of the game. A few minutes later Stepfan Taylor capped the ninety-five-yard drive as he scored easily from three yards out, and the score was 10-0.
The next Cal drive sputtered as well. When Luck led the Cardinal on an eighty-five-yard drive punctuated by Taylor's second score of the day, this one even easier than the first, the score was 17-0 and the game was over. Yes, more than forty minutes remained on the game clock, but the Cal offense would be much more predicable from this point forward, and far too much responsibility was placed on Brock Mansion. Nothing that happened after this came as any surprise.
In the falling action portion of the story loose ends are tied up, subplots are resolved, and the drama generally begins to wane. The rest of the game certainly wasn't boring -- I'd have to say that I enjoyed this game more than most -- but there certainly wasn't any tension unless you were overly worried about how many points the Cardinal would score. Luck threw two second-quarter touchdowns, one to Zack Ertz and the other to Doug Baldwin, and the Mighty Card left the field at the end of the half leading 31-0. A few words about this. First let's talk about Baldwin. He's been a favorite of this site all season long, and I couldn't be happier to see him playing so well. While Ryan Whalen also played well, it was Baldwin who was clearly Luck's favorite target, picking up the slack for the injured Owusu. Luck trusted him enough to launch a 47-yard pass down the middle of the field into double coverage on the third touchdown drive, and then asked him to outleap a Cal defender for the fourth Cardinal touchdown in the closing seconds of the half. And what of Luck? He finished the half with some pretty good numbers himself: 10 of 12 for 165 yards and two touchdowns.
Harbaugh mentioned both players as he headed towards the locker room at the half. "Really impressed with our receivers. Doug Baldwin is making some amazing plays. Andrew Luck has had a good first half, so we'll come back out, we've got a lot of football to played here, but I'm happy with the way our guys played smart, disciplined football." Yeah, I was happy, too.
The second half was notable for only two things. One, Anthony Wilkerson seemed to take over the lead back position from Stepfan Taylor, something many of been calling for for weeks. Wilkerson carried 18 times for 68 yards, topping Taylor's 15 carries and 59 yards. (Taylor, of course, scored three touchdowns to Wilkerson's one, and both backs were outrushed by Luck's 72 yards.) The second interesting thing, and the only suspense left in the game, was the final margin of victory. Eighty years ago Stanford defeated Cal 41-0, and that forty-one-point spread still stands as the greatest margin of victory in a Big Game; I really wanted the Cardinal to top that mark on Saturday, but two late Cal touchdowns made the final score Stanford 48, Cal 14.
The resolution doesn't have to be a happy ending, just the moment when the major conflict is resolved. Even though the eventual outcome had been clear since about one o'clock, the game wouldn't really be over until the Axe came from that side of the field to this one. There are plenty of awkward shots during lopsided Big Games as the losing side slowly realizes that they'll be relinquishing the Axe once the clock burns down. There was a particularly poignant shot during the closing moments of this game as the cameras found the Cal Axe committee with the Axe chained to their waists. One member balanced the plaque on his hip and gently caressed the trophy with his finger tips. His hair cascaded over his face, but it's not a stretch to imagine that there were tears in his eyes.
The final seconds ticked off as they always do, with both Axe Committees standing face to face encircled by security and cameramen. Once the clock struck zero, the Axe was unlocked from a bodyguard wearing blue and gold and locked to another wearing red. It was raced into the fray of students and players celebrating at midfield and eventually found its way into the hands of Andrew Luck, who held it aloft along with his teammates.
The Axe was home.
[Photo Credits: Ezra Shaw/Getty Images & Mario José Sanchez/Associated Press]
