It's impossible to know how last year's loss affected this 123rd and most unusual edition of Big Game. Probably not at all for the players on the field. Stanford players were likely a bit more motivated to win back the Axe, Cal players were likely a bit more confident having seen the Stanford Axe for the first time in their lives, but for those making the tackles and the blocks, this was still a football game.
For the rest of us? Last year most certainly mattered. The last time I looked forward to a Big Game the way I did this one was in 2010, not coincidentally also after a Stanford loss the previous year, and that 48-14 blowout was all the sweeter because the Axe was repossessed.
That's the way Big Game is -- it's just football between the sidelines, but for everyone on the other side of the chalk, it's so much more. The mistakes are massive, the breaks are poetic, and the ultimate victory? If it comes, it will likely mean more than any win all season.
But not just for the fans. Even coaches, as focused as they are on the minutiae of the game, feel the weight of rivalry games like this. For evidence, look no further than Stanford's David Shaw. Normally predictable and stoic, Shaw was neither on Saturday, beginning with the opening coin flip. At every level of football, almost every coach in America hopes to win the toss and defer to the second half. The conventional wisdom holds that you want to come out of the locker room after halftime and put your offense on the field, hopefully to score a touchdown and seize momentum that will carry through the second half. There's almost no argument against this -- unless you talk to Shaw, who always takes the ball to start the game.
Until Friday. Twitter treated it like breaking news, and the questions began immediately. From reporter and podcaster Troy Clardy: "Stanford wins toss, elects to defer (first time they've done that since........?)"
When asked after the game if he had ever made that decision before, Shaw confirmed what we expected. "First time since I've been the head coach." He went on to sing the virtues of Stanford's kick return team, and told us that they liked the idea of starting out the second half with that unit, but that sounded an awful lot like a manufactured explanation for an emotional decision. It certainly seemed like Shaw was just trying something different to wake up a team and staff that hadn't celebrated a win in more than a year. It's a small thing from a football standpoint, but it certainly got everyone's attention.
Almost immediately, it looked like a bad decision. Stanford's defense isn't what it once was, so when tailback Marcel Dancy took a handoff and sprinted for 23 yards on Cal's first play from scrimmage, it wasn't surprising. When we think back to the best Stanford defenses of the past, we naturally remember the game changers -- Shayne Skov, Trent Murphy, Harrison Phillips, Solomon Thomas -- but the true strength of those units was the consistency. There were few missed tackles, and there was never a missed assignment. When opposing offenses scored against the Cardinal, the points were earned, never given. This opening play was a reminder that while you might not want to watch the 2020 Stanford defense, you can never look away -- every snap brings the potential of a breakdown and a huge play. This was only the first play of just the third game of the season, but it continued a troubling pattern.
Seven plays later wide receiver Kekoa Crawford gathered a pass from quarterback Chase Garbers in the corner of the end zone, and the Cardinal trailed, 7-0. The touchdown itself wasn't nearly as concerning as the drive that produced the points. There had been a one-yard loss on 2nd and 2, but every other Cal play had gained at least six yards. They had skipped through the Stanford defense without a care, and it was hard not to worry about how the rest of the afternoon might play out.
When Davis Mills and the Stanford offense came out onto the field looking to respond, they brought optimism with them. With two weeks of preparation under his belt, Mills seemed poised for success. Even though the strength of Cal's defense lies in its secondary, the matchup with Stanford's deep stable of wide receivers seemed like an area the Cardinal would look to exploit. On this first drive, that was certainly the intent. Mills completed two passes each to Simi Fehoko and Michael Wilson, but the drive stalled at the Cal 39. If Shaw had deferred at the coin flip to shake things up, he wasn't willing to shake things up too much. He chose to punt.
As maddening as these punts from the downhill side of the field can be for some fans, this one worked out. After the Cardinal pinned the Bears at their own 7, defensive end Thomas Booker -- who would have an even bigger play later on -- sacked Garbers on 1st down to push them back even deeper, and Cal eventually punted the ball back and Stanford took over at the 43.
After a couple of runs from Austin Jones, Mills went back to his wideouts, first to Wilson for 12 yards and then to Connor Wedington for a 24-yard connection that was special on both ends. With the pocket collapsing a bit, Mills was forced to step up just as Wedington came out of a double move and released upfield. We've seen the strength of Mills's arm before, but here he showed some finesse as he gently lofted the ball over the trailing defender and just a touch ahead of his receiver. No problem, though. Wedington casually reached out and snatched the ball out of the air with one hand like picking a lemon from a tree. It was a beautiful play.
A few plays later -- one of them the first Stanford reception for notable freshman E.J. Smith -- the drive hit a wall at the Bears' 9. Jet Toner pushed his Week 1 struggles further into the rearview with the truest field goal you'll ever see, and the lead was cut to 7-3.
The Bears responded with a field goal of their own to push their advantage back to seven, but then the teams traded punts for a while as both defenses played surprisingly well. The third of those punts came from the Cardinal on 4th and 9 from their own 39. Ryan Sanborn's kick wasn't a good one, but Cal's dangerous return man, Nikko Remigio, let the ball squirt through his arms. The loose ball was recovered by Stanford's Houston Heimuli at the 19, and three plays later Mills hit Wilson for an 11-yard, game-tying touchdown with 3:09 to play in the half.
There were no more points in the first half, but there was a moment that provided significant foreshadowing. After getting the ball at their own 30 with just 46 seconds until the gun, Cal was able to move rapidly down the field on gains of 17, 11, and 12 followed by a 15-yard pass interference penalty, and they lined up for a short 32-yard field goal attempt. The Bears' special teams unit has struggled all season, but this game would be their magnum opus.
Stanford's special team play, meanwhile, has been a strength. Coach Pete Alamar seemed to show his hand a bit on this play, choosing to stack seven defenders on the right side of Cal's line, apparently hoping that the four down linemen would overwhelm the Cal front and allow the three defenders behind them some extra room to leap for the block. It worked exactly as drawn up. Simi Fehoko and Curtis Robinson stood side by side, and they were able to time their leaps perfectly, with one of them getting the block. Robinson got the credit in the box score but later admitted it had been Fehoko. No matter. Cal was turned away, and the stoic David Shaw celebrated as if his team had just clinched a Rose Bowl berth. (And here's the foreshadowing: It wouldn't be the last time we'd see that defensive alignment from the Cardinal.)
Part Two of Shaw's coin flip plan would be for the Stanford offense to take the second half kick off, drive effortlessly down the field, and live happily ever after. It didn't work out exactly that way, but the Cardinal still started the second stanza well, even if it didn't look that way at the outset. The opening drive ended with a disappointing three and out, and things looked a bit worse when Cal appeared to pick up a 1st down on the ensuing possession. But just after Marcel Dancy surged past the 1st down marker, he was met by sophomore cornerback Salim Turner-Muhammad who arrived with a violent punch that dislodged the ball. Defensive end Thomas Booker ended up with it for Stanford's second turnover of the day, and the Cardinal was in business.
After a deep strike from Mills to Wilson netted 33 yards and gave the Cardinal a 1st and goal at the 8, Austin Jones took care of the rest with six yards on one carry and two powerful yards into the end zone on his second. This three-play drive took only sixty ticks of the clock, but it gave Stanford its first lead of the game at 17-10, and even though there were still more than twenty-five minutes left to play, it was impossible not to think of the ending. To think about the Axe.
The Bears, obviously, were thinking about the Axe also. The Stanford defense had been playing well, taking advantaged of the short-handed California offensive line and harassing Chase Garbers enough to make his life difficult, but on 2nd and 1 from the Cal 34, another mental error led to a big gain for the Bears. Damien Moore took a quick pitch to the left, and before he even got to the line of scrimmage it was clear it was going to be a huge gain. Three Stanford defenders had over-pursued the play, leaving them pinned against the sideline and opening a cavernous hole for Moore. Only the sprint speed of safety Kendall Williamson prevented a touchdown, but the Cardinal couldn't recover from Moore's 54-yard gain. Four players later -- and on 4th and 1 -- Garbers flipped an easy three-yard pass to Remigio, and the game was tied once again at 17.
Stanford's next drive was short, thanks to a problem that's been percolating all season. On 3rd and 4, the Cardinal came out in a four receiver set, and all four receivers ran the same exact route -- go four yards down field, then turn around and hope. It was at least the fourth time we'd seen this on 3rd down, and the Cal defenders were clearly paying attention also. It seems like another example of the playbook not keeping up with the personnel. Stanford quarterbacks have always had a 6'7" tight end or two in the huddle, and giants like that have been able to run down field, box out a defender, and gather in a pass for an easy 1st down. With normal sized receivers and tight ends, however, these patterns simply don't make sense, and it was frustrating to see the same play run over and over with the same result -- an incompletion followed by a punt. For all that we hear about the complexity of the Stanford offense, it continues to look simpler than any other scheme out there.
Thankfully for the Cardinal and White, the defense came up with one more three and out, and Mills and the offense were back out on the field with six minutes to play in the third quarter. After an eight-yard completion to Fehoko set up 2nd and 2, Mills went to play action, faking a handoff before launching a deep ball down the right sideline. Fehoko had raced past his defender and looked ready to gather in a 63-yard touchdown pass... until safety Daniel Scott raced into the picture and came up with the interception.
It was incredibly deflating, but once again a huge Cal mistake changed the complexion of the game. Elijah Hicks was called for pass interference. It was away from the ball and certainly didn't affect the play, but it was clearly a penalty. Given new life, Mills continued to direct a most improbable drive. He hit Wedington for seventeen yards in the slot and then six more over the middle, and with the Cal defense suddenly on their heels, Nathaniel Peat was able to gobble up eleven yards around the right end. The drive ended with Austin Jones pounding his way through three little Bears on his way to an eight-yard touchdown that seemed to mean an awful lot more than just a 24-17 lead.
As Jones celebrated in the end zone, I was screaming and flexing right along with him in my living room. It's hard to explain how dramatically different this drive had been compared to everything we had seen from the Stanford offense before that. Suddenly the receivers were getting down field and running actual routes, and the offensive line was dominating Cal's tiring defensive front. On Jones's touchdown run, we even saw six linemen in the game. This was Stanford football, and it was beautiful.
The defense followed that score with another three and out, and the offense picked up right where it had left off. With an opportunity to take a two-score fourth quarter lead, the Stanford offense diversified even further, with a well-designed screen play to Wedington and some nice running by Jones. When Peat rumbled through the left side of the line on 3rd and 1 and ended up with 19 yards, it seemed like it was time to turn out the lights and lock the doors. But this time it was a Stanford error that kept the Bears alive. Freshman offensive lineman Myles Hinton, who had actually played incredibly well throughout the afternoon when rotated in, had been called for holding. Instead of 1st and goal at the 5, the Cardinal now faced 3rd and 11 at the 34.
It might've made sense to run the ball to get inside field goal range for Toner, but instead Mills dropped back to pass and again showed some of the skills that will serve him well in the NFL. He isn't a running quarterback by any stretch, but he isn't a statue either. On this particular play Mills quickly scrambled out of the pocket to his left before reversing field and spinning back towards the right sideline. While still on the run he fired a dart that hit Michael Wilson right in his hands. It would've been a 1st down, it would've kept the clock rolling, it would've put the Cardinal firmly in field goal range, and it would've put the Bears back on their heels. But it fell incomplete. Wilson leads the Cardinal in receiving yardage, but he's also had some critical drops.
Ryan Sanborn's subsequent punt pinned the Bears at their own 4, and the suddenly stout Stanford defense allowed just one 1st down before forcing another punt and giving the ball back to the offense with a short field yet again. Starting at his own 45, Mills had another opportunity to put the game away. Once again, the offense looked good, moving all the way to the Cal 32 where they faced a 3rd and 3. Considering the second half success of the offensive line, I was really hoping to see a run call. They'd either keep the train going with another 1st down, or they'd shave a yard or two off Toner's field goal attempt.
But Mills dropped back to pass. It wasn't a bad decision, it was just a bad play call. After the creative play calling we'd seen throughout most of the second half, in this moment -- the biggest moment yet -- the call was for four receivers to run three yards and turn around. All afternoon that play had led to incompletions, but here the result was even worse -- an eight-yard sack that pushed the Cardinal out of field goal range. It was unfortunate.
And so after the punt the Bears took over at their own 10 with 4:28 to play. They had gained just 23 yards in their previous three possessions, but with the game and the Axe hanging in the balance, Garbers began marching downfield, reminding Cal fans and Stanford fans alike of what he had done in the closing minutes to win last year's Big Game. There was a 27-yard run from Moore to start the drive, but for much of the possession Garbers was content to take seven yards here and eight yards there. As the field began to shrink and the seconds began to wind down, I lost faith. The touchdown, it seemed, was inevitable, and I started worrying about a two-point conversion that would essentially end the game.
I’ll say it out loud:
— Go Mighty Card (@GoMightyCard) November 28, 2020
My biggest fear right now is a two-point conversion.
But after Christopher Brown walked into the end zone to cut the score to 24-23 with fifty-eight seconds to play, Cal head coach Justin Wilcox did Stanford a favor and chose to go for the tie. There were a lot of reasons to do this, but it immediately lifted my spirits, and when the Stanford defense came out with the same alignment that had produced the earlier blocked field goal, they had my attention. I was thinking about a block, and after the game Shaw revealed that the players on the bench were thinking the same, saying, "Let's get this block! We're gonna block this!"
Once again there were four down linemen across from three Cal blockers, with Curtis Robinson and Simi Fehoko standing behind them hoping to leap up to get a hand on the ball. But the front four did their jobs even better than they had in the first half, and this time it was Thomas Booker who powered his way into the backfield and got so deep that he blocked the kick not with his hand, but with his elbow. One of the most dominant blocks you'll ever see.
Booker's block unleashed mayhem in all corners of Cardinal nation and broke hearts from Tightwad Hill to Telegraph Avenue and beyond, but the only celebrants in the referees' jurisdiction were those on the Stanford sideline, and flags flew in their direction. Two penalties were levied against Stanford for the same crime -- there is no official penalty for "losing your damn mind because you just pulled the Axe out of the fire," but that's what happened.
Those thirty yards of penalties were not insignificant, and anyone who was in Memorial Stadium for Big Game in 1990 was certainly having flashbacks. The Bears would be kicking off from the Stanford 35, so if they were to recover, they'd already be in field goal range. (I mean, Stanford would just block the field goal, but still. The game wasn't officially over.)
But the onside kick bounded harmlessly out of bounds, and then Austin Jones and the Stanford offensive line did what they came to Stanford to do. With all eyes upon them and with the Axe hovering above their heads like the sword of Damocles, Jones took the ball three times and three times the Tunnel Workers paved the way in front of him. The results were four yards, three yards, and finally six yards. The Bears' timeouts floated into the ether, the seconds spun off the clock, and just for a moment everything else in the world fell away. If you didn't look too closely at the empty stands or allow yourself to wonder about the deafening silence, if all you did was focus on the Axe and the proud young men who hoisted it skyward then gathered round for photos that will hang on their walls for the next fifty years -- in that moment all was right in the world. The Axe was coming home.