It was nice, for a change, to have a relaxing win. It was nice to watch Bryce Love look healthy for the first time in weeks. It was nice to see the offense look as unstoppable as we had hoped it would be this season. In short, it was nice to see Stanford football again.
After an identity crisis that lasted for almost two-thirds of the season, the Stanford offense finally seems to have accepted what many have known -- it isn't a bad thing to pass in order to set up the run. Ever since turning the game plan upside down against Washington State two weeks ago, David Shaw has been more comfortable letting quarterback K.J. Costello take full advantage of the weapons at his disposal, and so it was on Saturday night against Oregon State, the weakest team in the Pac-12.
Stanford's opening drive lasted just five plays and less than two minutes, but it was enough to produce a touchdown, a refreshing 28-yard run from Love that wouldn't have made last year's highlight film but was still beautiful for the reassurance it gave to the fans that have supported Love during his career. It would've been a disappointment had Love not found the end zone on this Senior Night, and his 90 yards rushing on the evening raised hopes that the close of his season might be strong enough to erase the disappointment of the last two months.
A few minutes later Oregon State would answer that score with a long touchdown of their own to tie the score, but after that it was all Stanford all the time as Costello and the offense began doing historic things. With J.J. Arcega-Whiteside standing on the sideline in street clothes, the expectation was that tight end Kaden Smith would be Costello's main target, but when the Beavers tilted their defense in Smith's direction that left fellow tight end Colby Parkinson with single coverage throughout the first half. This would prove to be a bad decision.
At 6'7", Parkinson is every defender's nightmare, and he scored at will over the course of the game's first thirty minutes. The first score came on a 28-yard strike from Costello, the second covered just nine yards, but the third score will play on Parkinson's highlight reel when he's walking across the stage during the NFL Draft in a few years. Parkinson split out wide left at the 25-yard line and ran a simple out and up route. After slanting towards the sideline to draw his defender in to him, Parkinson turned up field just as Costello released his pass. Parkinson wasn't open when Costello threw the ball, but by the time it got there the defender had fallen to the ground and all that was left was for Parkinson to gallop fifty yards into the end zone. It wasn't fair.
A few minutes later the two of them hooked up again for a five-yard boxout touchdown, and the rout was on. Over the course of sixteen minutes and sixteen seconds of clock time, the game looked like this:
- Parkinson touchdown.
- Oregon State three-and-out.
- Parkinson touchdown.
- Oregon State three-and-out.
- Parkinson touchdown.
- Oregon State three-and-out.
- Parkinson touchdown.
As I said, it wasn't even fair. A 7-7 contest was suddenly 34-7, and the game was over before halftime. The Beavers would settle down a bit and score the last ten points of the half, but when Stanford scored on its first two possessions after the break, first a 41-yard run from Cameron Scarlett and then a 1-yard plunge from Dorian Maddox, any doubts were erased.
The 48-17 win ended the second two-game losing streak of the season thanks to two stellar performances. Costello had one of the best games of his career, finishing 23 of 33 for 342 yards and those four touchdowns to Parkinson, who had six catches for 166 yards. There is some historical significance to what both players accomplished. This was Costello's sixth 300-yard passing game this season, something only John Elway (six in 1982) and Steve Stenstrom (eight in 1993) have done, and Parkinson became the first FBS tight end this century to total 140 yards and four touchdowns in a single game, and he reached those numbers in a single half.
There's a temptation to dismiss all this because it came against an overmatched Oregon State squad, but right now there's no sense putting an asterisk by any Stanford win. The team needed a night like this, no matter the opponent.
The hope here is that all the confidence and momentum gathered while trouncing the Beavers last weekend will stick around at least through this weekend when the Cardinal hopes to trounce the suddenly resurgent Cal Bears. Resurgent or not, the Bears are still the Bears, Stanford is still Stanford, and the Axe is still ours. So let it be written, so let is be done.
