A few years ago, in one of my favorite Big Game recaps, I half-jokingly predicted that Stanford's winning streak over Cal would extend to seventeen games. The only reason to suspect otherwise back in 2016 was the knowledge that things even out over time, but from a football point of view, it made sense. Stanford vs. Cal was beginning to look like Texas vs. Rice, and lots of Stanford fans were becoming bored with the rivalry.
And so Saturday's game proved a couple of things. One, Cal actually can beat Stanford, and two, the rivalry is certainly not boring.
It wasn't just the first touchdown of Stewart's career, it was his first reception since the 2017 season. When he came off the field, the significance of the moment was lost on no one. Teammates mobbed him as if his score had been the game winner, not the game opener, and Coach David Shaw pulled him into an embrace that spoke of his respect for Stewart's journey. A few days later, Shaw would speak about the moment: "I commend Donald for trusting us. He made a decision that he was going to work. We put him back into the rotation... For the last month, month and a half, Donald's just been ready. He's been doing what we've asked. And it was great, in a big moment, in Big Game, for him to be open -- and that's a tough catch. Great to see that for him. Once again, proud of him, but then also you saw a lot of the guys celebrating because they've seen him go through this year, in particular, where he wasn't playing, now he's playing. And you love to see effort, and a team mentality, an unselfish mentality, pay off."
Fifth-year senior Casey Toohill stifled Cal's opening drive with a five-yard sack on 3rd and 7, and the Cardinal offense came out onto the field again. Once again, Mills looked good, completing his first four passes and moving the ball into Bear territory before the drive stalled at the 40. Coming against the stingy Cal defense, these two early drives, while producing only one score, seemed to bode well for the rest of the game.
Probably the biggest variable in Cal's season has been quarterback Chase Garbers. The Bears started out 4-0 under Garbers, but then they struggled when he was out with an injury. His availability for this game wasn't made official until early Saturday morning, and it turned out that he wasn't just healthy, he was dynamic. On the second play of this possession, Garbers dropped back to pass, and the pocket collapsed around him. Defensive tackle Dalyn Wade-Perry was able to reach an arm across Garbers's shoulders, and it looked like the quarterback might be pulled down for a sack, but instead he shrugged off the attempt and scampered ahead for 19 yards. At the time it looked like just a lost opportunity; in retrospect it was foreshadowing.
So instead of facing 3rd and long from inside their own 10, the Bears had a 1st down at the 30. Eleven plays later tailback Christopher Brown was skipping into the end zone for a seven-yard touchdown, and the game was tied.
Mills and the offense continued to move the ball well on the ensuing possession, and this drive was highlighted by a deep ball to sophomore wide receiver Simi Fehoko. The Cardinal faced 3rd and 11 on the first play of the second quarter, and Mills dropped back and looked to his right to find Fehoko, who has become one of his favorite targets. Fehoko was lined up wide right, and he ran a basic go route. All he needed to do was wait for the defensive back to swivel towards the quarterback, then Fehoko used his 4.3 speed to sprint behind him. He had a yard separation after only two or three strides, and Mills's pass dropped perfectly into his hands for a 43-yard gain to the Cal 28.
As disappointing as things have been this season, especially on the offensive side of the ball, the connection that's developed between Mills and Fehoko has been a bright spot, and I'm already looking forward to what the two of them can accomplish next season after spending this off-season working together.
After this big play, however, two penalties doomed the drive. First there was a delay of game immediately following Fehoko's reception, then two plays later a false start pushed the ball back another five yards. Instead of pressing their advantage by getting into the end zone, the Cardinal offense settled for a field goal from Ryan Sanborn and a 10-7 lead. Even so, Stanford's first three drives had produced 18 plays for 140 yards and ten points. If sustained across sixty minutes, that level of production would win an awful lot of games.
The Bears answered that field goal with a field goal of their own to tie the game, and the score would remain 10-10 into the break after Stanford's Jovan Swann blocked a 38-yard field goal attempt in the closing seconds of the half.
It didn't feel like it at the time, and it certainly doesn't feel like it when you watch the game highlights, but the 122nd Big Game was decided in the third quarter. The Cardinal defense opened the second half with three consecutive stifling three-and-outs, allowing just 14 yards and giving the Stanford offense several opportunities to open up a lead.
The Cardinal offense managed a 1st down on its first possession of the half, but a Mills interception gave the ball back to the Bears at their 31. The second series ended with another interception, but this one was a bit more disappointing. After moving the ball into Cal territory with a nice 19-yard pass-and-run to Colby Parkinson, Mills looked deep on 1st and 10 from the Cal 40. Michael Wilson was lined up in the left slot, and Fehoko was outside of him. Wilson ran a deep slant over the middle and was unguarded, but Mills never looked in his direction, instead locking onto Fehoko. That would've been okay, because Fehoko was also open, but Mills waited just a split second too long before releasing his pass, giving the safety time to get over and make a great interception at the 1. Mills had a nice game, and his development over the course of the season has been impressive, so it's difficult to level criticism at him for this one play, but there were two touchdowns missed here.
A poor Cal punt three plays later gifted the offense with its best field position of the day, starting at the Cal 30, and this time Mills was able to take advantage. It only took six plays, including a nice eight-yard pass to Fehoko to convert a key 3rd and 5, and eventually Cameron Scarlett was leaping into the end zone for the touchdown and a 17-10 Stanford lead.
The Cardinal defense, led by strong play from senior Curtis Robinson and fifth-year senior Casey Toohill, came up with yet another stop, forcing Cal to punt from the Stanford 46, and the offense had a chance to build on the seven-point lead. The Cardinal took over at their own 14 with 13:28 left in the game, but they were only able to manage a single 1st down before punting the ball back to the Bears.
While the Stanford defense had forced four consecutive punts to start the second half, the Stanford offense had failed to take advantage, scoring just seven points. As a result, the Bears were still in the game when Garbers and company started their fifth drive of the half at their own 16 with 9:59 left to play.
Stanford cornerback Paulson Adebo was out for the second consecutive game, placing more stress on the young defensive backs behind him, specifically freshman Kyu Kelly, who would figure prominently on Cal's final two drives. On 2nd and 4 from the Cal 22, Kelly found himself defending wide receiver Trevon Clark. Clark didn't do much on the route, but he was able to slip behind Kelly down the right sideline, and even though he was tightly covered, Garbers forced a pass in Clark's direction. The ball fell incomplete, but Kelly was flagged for pass interference.
There wasn't much contact on the play, and Clark appeared to have run out of bounds on his own. It was the type of play that probably wouldn't have been remembered if the flag hadn't been thrown and has been largely forgotten as it is, but the flag was significant. The Cal offense had been struggling throughout the second half, and that 15-yard penalty was the biggest positive play for the Bears since a 39-yard pass to Nikko Remigio with 2:48 left in the second quarter. Instead of facing 3rd and 4 from his own 22, Garbers was able to relax, and the Cal offense was completely different from this point forward.
The next play was a 40-yard pass to Remigio, and three plays later Garber found Remigio again, this time for an 18-yard touchdown that tied the game at 17. For the first time in a decade, Big Game was in doubt.
Mills and the offense took the field at the 35 with the score tied and 7:44 to play, the type of situation that we've seen countless times in the past. Toby Gerhart or Stefan Taylor or Tyler Gaffney would pound the ball over and over, earning 1st downs and burning clock until the ball either crossed the goal line or split the uprights in the closing seconds. It had been a signature of Stanford football, so much so that the announcers suggested that this could be the final drive of the game, even though nothing we've seen in the past two to three years suggested such a thing was likely or even possible.
But then the offense started churning yards and burning clock. The most important moment came on the third play of the drive. After a two-yard sack, Mills faced 3rd and 8 from the 37, but he calmly stood tall in the face of pressure and fired a perfect strike over the middle to Parkinson for 18 yards and a critical 1st down.
Following the script we've seen before, Mills handed the ball off on the next three plays, to Austin Jones for 8 yards, Jones again for 1, and finally Scarlett for 3 to convert the 3rd and 1 and keep the seconds ticking. Suddenly the Cardinal was in field goal range at the Cal 33 with less than four and half minutes to play. Everything appeared to be tilting in Stanford's direction, just as it had for the previous nine matchups with Cal.
On 1st down, Scarlett plunged ahead for six yards, bringing up 2nd and 4. If Shaw had wanted to be conservative, he could've chosen to run the ball twice more, hoping to gain four yards on two plays and move the chains once more while forcing Cal to start burning timeouts. Instead, he looked to grab the game by the throat. Mills sent four targets out into the pattern, and Cal responded by blitzing a linebacker up the middle. Mills still had plenty of time, and he looked towards Parkinson, who was running a deep post route. The tight end was defended by the nation's best linebacker, Cal's Evan Weaver, but Parkinson was a step behind him, and a good throw would've given the Cardinal a touchdown, but it wasn't a good throw. Mills's pass came in a bit short and a bit behind Parkinson, and the ball fell incomplete.
The Cardinal ran the ball with Scarlett on 3rd and 4, but he came up three yards short of the mark. Sanborn came in and split the uprights with a 44-yard field goal to give Stanford a 20-17 lead, and the second-guessing began immediately.
Head coaches can't win in these situations, at least in terms of how they're perceived by fans. The most common criticism leveled at Shaw is that he isn't aggressive enough. He punts when fans would like to him to keep the offense on the field, he settles for field goals rather than pushing for touchdowns. In this situation, Shaw did the opposite of what he usually does, but still there was unrest in the Stanford fanbase. The run game was working, some said, so he should've stuck with it. Even though he had taken a shot for the touchdown, there were many who claimed he had settled for the field goal.
The problem, of course, is that we get upset when our teams lose, especially when they lose important games like this one, and we feel better if we have someone to blame. Because we have the sense to realize that we can't catch better than the receivers or throw better than the quarterbacks or tackle better than the linebackers, we instead convince ourselves that we can think better than the coaches. It's always been like this, and I'm sure nothing will ever change.
And so Chase Garbers and the Cal offense came out on the field to begin the most important drive of their lives at their own 25. The scoreboard told them that they were down by three points with 2:23 to play, and their young memories told them that California always lost to Stanford. The oldest players on the Cal roster were in middle school the last time the Golden Bears had hoisted the Axe, so I think we can be certain that there was some urgency when they came to the line of scrimmage knowing that in a few minutes time they'd either be heroes or just another line in a long history of Cal futility.
But with their third quarter struggles behind them, the Cal offense was clicking. Garbers threw to Remigio for 14 yards on the first play and ten yards on the next, and suddenly the Bears were at midfield and just a play or two out of field goal range. Time was no longer an issue.
When Jovan Swann pulled down Garbers for a short loss on the next down, the Cardinal defense could take a breath for a minute, but everything changed on the next play, and once again it came down to the matchup between Cal's Trevon Clark and Stanford's Kyu Kelly.
Clark ran a go-route down the right sideline, and Kelly ran with him, essentially stride for stride. Even so, Garbers took his shot. Kelly played the ball perfectly. He turned to the ball when he realized it was coming and made a leap for it. His leap was timed well, but the ball was an inch or two out of reach. Clark was able to make the catch, and it would've been an impressive play even if it had happened on a practice field without a defender. Given the situation -- perfect coverage, down by three with 1:32 to play and his team riding a nine-game losing streak in Big Game -- it was spectacular. The play went for 37 yards and moved the ball to the Stanford 16; two plays later Garbers skipped into the end zone on a play that will live forever in Berkeley lore, but the pass to Clark was far more important.
The Cardinal took over with 1:19 to play, enough time to give the team and fans some hope, however slim it might have been, but that hope evaporated quickly. On 2nd and 4, Osiris St. Brown caught a pass beyond the marker, but he gave up the 1st down by retreating and ended up a yard short of the sticks. On the next play Mills could've walked for the 1st down, but instead he fired incomplete, bringing up 4th and 1. Mills handed the ball off to Scarlett, and although it looked like Scarlett was able to get the ball to the 35, he was ruled short, and the ball and the Axe were turned over to the Bears.
It will always be painful to lose a rivalry game, especially when this rivalry has been so one-sided for so long. After winning Big Game nine years in a row, some of the joy had been taken out of this matchup. In previous years, Stanford victories have brought more relief than celebration, but this loss has changed all of that. If you don't swallow a bitter defeat once in a while -- and this was truly bitter -- you can't fully appreciate the thrill of future victories. That's the silver lining, I suppose, but no one ever wants the silver lining. Everyone wants the Axe. Next year, I'm certain, we'll have it.
