The more things change, the more they remain the same. It was that moment when your fourteen-year-old younger brother gets tired of flexing his young muscles in front of the bedroom mirror and decides it's time to challenge you, time to end the wedgies and the charlie horses, time to take the last slice of pizza in the box for once and hold the remote control, time to walk through the house with pride instead of apprehension. He's had enough. He walks out into the front yard, and right in front of God, your girlfriend, and the rest of the neighborhood, he challenges you to a fight. He challenges the natural order of things. But of course, we know how it turns out.
And so it was on Saturday afternoon in Berkeley. Younger brother Cal had scrapped its way to a 5-5 record on the season and had designs on doing the unthinkable. They sought the Axe; they were denied.
The much-maligned Stanford offense took the field to open the game and showed no signs of the ills that had been plaguing it for much of the season. The first effort from scrimmage was an eighteen-yard strike from Kevin Hogan to tight end Austin Hooper, but the most important aspect of the play was a penalty called on safety Michael Lowe, Cal's best defensive player. Hooper had gone to the ground as he caught the pass, and Lowe followed him down, striking Hooper in the head with his helmet. After a short discussion and review of the tape, Lowe was ejected less than a minute into the game.
It was a devasting loss for the Cal defense, but the Cardinal showed no mercy. On the very next snap -- the second snap of the game -- Remound Wright took a handoff on a play designed to go through the right side of the line. With all the running lanes closed in that direction, Wright stutter-stepped back to this left and was rewarded with acres of green pasture and a thirty-yard gain. Two plays into the game and the Cardinal stood at the Cal 12. Four plays later (including a critical (and obvious) third down pass interference penalty), Wright was skipping into the end zone to give his team an early 7-0 lead.
Cal's precocious sophomore quarterback, Jared Goff, looking a lot like your little brother, brought his offense out onto the field and promptly hit wide receiver Bryce Treggs on a short slant that turned into a 22-yard gain. (Treggs's father Brian, presumably watching from his home in Palo Alto, must've been proud.) But the defense held from there and forced a punt, giving the ball back to Hogan at the Stanford 32.
Another player left the field during this possession, and this time it was wide receiver Ty Montgomery. Montgomery took a short pass from Hogan on the second play of the series and darted up the field for fourteen yards and a Stanford first down, but he landed heavily on his shoulder as he was tackled and would not return. (X-rays were negative, but the injury will keep him out against UCLA this Friday. The hope is that he will be able to return for the Cardinal's bowl game.)
From there the offense continued to move the ball down field, this time settling for a 24-yard chip shot from Jordan Williamson to extend the lead to 10-0.
The Golden Bears attempted to answer, as Goff led them deep into Stanford territory before linebacker Blake Martinez, just beginning what would be the best game of his Stanford career, stripped the ball from running back Daniel Lasco at the Cardinal 2. The ball hit the turf and bounced into the arms of A.J. Tarpley for a rare takeaway for the Stanford defense.
The Bears had been turned away, but only temporarily. Three plays later Ben Rhyne was out on the field to punt the ball back to Cal, and the Bears took over on the Stanford side of midfield, at the 47. An acrobatic catch down the right sideline by wide receiver Kenny Lawler ate up 28 yards, and two plays later Goff found Stephen Anderson open over the middle for a ten-yard touchdown to cut the Cardinal lead to 10-7.
It had been quick and easy for the Bears on that drive, but it certainly didn't feel like there was any cause for concern. Kevin Hogan made sure of that as he answered Goff's efficient drive with some efficiency of his own, completing all four of his passes for 55 yards, including a beautifully designed and executed screen pass to Kelsey Young that netted 18 yards and set up first and goal at the Cal 5. Remound Wright eventually scored from there for his second touchdown of the game, and the lead was back to ten at 17-7.
After those two efficient drives, Goff and Hogan ended the next three series with interceptions. First it was Goff who saw a seven-play possession fizzle when James Vaughters hit him as he threw, causing his pass to flutter off target and into the hands of Martinez at the Stanford 26.
After a nifty reverse to Michael Rector gained 23 yards, the Cardinal was in business near midfield. Hoping to take advantage of this good fortune and step on the Golden Bears' throats in the closing moments before halftime, Hogan dropped back and looked to Rector again. Rector was split out wide to the right with single coverage, and Hogan saw him breaking free just as the safety dropped underneath to cover another receiver. The quarterback's responsibility on a play like this is to read more than just the coverage. He also needs to read the field and put the ball in a place that will lead the receiver to open space. There was nothing but open space towards the left side of the field, but instead Hogan threw the ball directly up the middle into a spot where only the defensive back could catch it. Darius White obliged, making the interception at the five yard line.
Thirty seconds later there was yet another interception. This time it was Peter Kalambayi who made the play at the line of scrimmage, batting Goff's pass up into the air so that -- you guessed it -- Martinez could make his second interception in less than two minutes of game time. The Cardinal took over at the 12, and it took only three plays for them to score, this time on a Hogan quarterback draw, to stretch the lead out to 24-7.
The third quarter was one long Golden Bear nightmare, even before things got crazy. (We'll get to the insanity in a moment.) The Bears' first drive went nowhere, and when the Cardinal took over at the Stanford 26 and promptly marched 74 yards for a touchdown (the third of the day for Wright), the score was 31-7 and it looked like things couldn't get much worse for Cal. But it could, and it would.
Cal's second possession of the half ended with a Jordan Richardson interception (the third Stanford takeaway of the day), but it was their third possession that defied explanation. Cal head coach Sonny Dykes, that crafty genius, started rotating quarterbacks in the second half, using the more mobile Luke Rubenzer as a change of pace. (With his pointless headband and modest beard framing his babyface, Rubenzer looks like a cross between "Born to Run" Bruce Springsteen and Bilbo Baggins.) This drive started in Stanford territory at the 31, and a 14-yard run by Lasco followed by a five-yard Stanford penalty gave the Bears a 1st and 5 at the Stanford 12.
If it weren't for the general poor play by the Bears and the lopsided nature of the game, I'm sure the following sequence would be burned into the hearts and minds of Cal fans everywhere for years to come, just as the 1982 travesty of justice lives in infamy in Nerd Nation. Rubenzer took the snap on first down and quickly headed up through the middle of the line on a quarterback draw. After making a couple defenders miss, he dove as he neared the end zone and appeared to score. An official raised his arms to signal the touchdown, Rubenzer leaped into a teammate's arms to celebrate the score, the scoreboard clicked to 31-13, and the home crowd went wild.
And then the replay official reversed the call, negating the touchdown.
Even the most ardent Cal fan would agree that Rubenzer's knee had clearly touched the turf before the ball crossed the plane of the goal line, but it probably wouldn't matter, right? The Bears had 1st and goal at the one-foot line. Bilbo was stuffed on his first attempt, but on second down he fought his way through the tangled bodies at the line of scrimmage and appeared to score. An official raised his arms to signal touchdown, Rubenzer leaped into a teammate's arms to celebrate the score, the scoreboard clicked to 31-13, and the home crowd went wild.
And then the replay official reversed the call, negating the touchdown.
Predictably, this touched off a torrent of boos from the crowd and various displays of anger and disbelief from the Cal players, but this time it was much worse. A personal foul flag had been thrown on Cal offensive lineman Steven Moore for shoving a Stanford defender in the aftermath of the apparent touchdown. The referee initially announced there would be a fifteen-yard penalty on Cal's kickoff, but after the touchdown reversal, he now added salt to the Cal wounds by explaining that the penalty would be marked off from the one, giving Cal a 3rd and goal from the sixteen!
With a quarterback run no longer the best option, Dykes sent Goff back in at quarterback, and Goff saw his best receiver, Kenny Lawler, streaking down the right sideline towards the end zone. Alex Carter had tight coverage on the play, but Goff's pass was perfect. Lawler leaped to make the catch, came down with both feet in bounds at the two, then extended towards the end zone, reaching out with the ball to touch the front pylon for the apparent score. An official raised his arms to signal touchdown, Lawler's teammates mobbed him in celebration, the scoreboard clicked to 31-13, and the home crowd went wild.
And then the replay official reversed the call, negating the touchdown.
To say that things were getting surreal would be underestimating the situation. The replay official ruled that Lawler had never really possessed the ball before losing control of it when he hit the ground, but I think most viewers -- even those with the thickest Cardinal-colored glasses -- would disagree. The announcers were adamant that the call was wrong, and rules expert Mike Pereira agreed, even adding that he couldn't understand how they had reversed the previous touchdown.
The Bears eventually settled for a field goal. In their minds they had scored three touchdowns and come away with only three points. Later in the week the Pac-12 would announce that the replay officials had erred on both the second and third reversals, an admission that surely made Golden Bears everywhere feel much better.
Dykes tried to capitalize on all this... angst? anger? energy? momentum? -- by calling a suprise on-side kick, and it worked. Cal recovered on their own 49, but the officials were still making them sweat. As Stephen Anderson emerged from the pile holding the ball aloft in triumph, the officials were still digging through the wreckage, and one mistakenly signaled Stanford ball. Once that was straightened out, they decided they needed to review the play. Of course. They got it right this time, and the Bears began marching into Stanford territory.
Their drive stalled at the Stanford 22 when Goff was forced to scramble on 4th and 10 and came up short. With a 21-point lead and 12:24 to play, the Cardinal offense looked to start grinding out the clock, and it looked just like what we used to see from them. On 3rd and 5 from his own 37, instead of passing, Hogan tossed the ball out to Christian McCaffrey on a sweep. As soon as he accepted the pitch it was clear he'd have the first down, and he ended up rumbling for twelve yards. If Cal's back wasn't already broken, the next play did the trick. From his own 49, Hogan kept the ball on a read option and burst through the middle of the field, making a few defenders miss on his way to a 24-yard gain. But there were two personal foul penalities on the play (one on the Cal defender who pushed Hogan late out of bounds, another on a Cal lineman for illegal hands to the face), and the ball was marched all the way to the Golden Bear 6. Three plays later, on the fourteenth play of a drive that had been nothing but running plays, Wright ploughed his way into the end zone for his fourth touchdown of the day.
The Cardinal had a four-touchdown lead. More than half of the fourth quarter remained to be played, but the game was over. Cal scored an inconsequential touchdown against the second- and third-stringers, and true freshman Terrence Alexander intercepted a Bilbo Rubenzer pass in the final minute, coming up six yards short of a pick-six that would've made for a nice cherry on top for the Cardinal, and that was it. Stanford 38, Cal 17.
When these two teams meet next year to once again decide the fate of the Stanford Axe, there won't be a single Cal player on the roster who has celebrated with the Axe, and not a single Stanford player who has lost it. The natural order of things.
Who got that Axe? We got that Axe!
