When you look at the score from Stanford's comfortable 41-23 win over Vanderbilt, their sixth win in an unprecedented stretch of seven straight road games, it's easy to forget that it wasn't always comfortable. In fact, there were moments when it was downright uncomfortable.
There were no signs of this on the Cardinal's first possession, however, as running back Austin Jones got things rolling with a long 61-yard run down the right side to the Vanderbilt 2. Two plays later quarterback Tanner McKee pulled the ball out of Jones's arms and kept the ball on a read option, then jogged seven yards untouched into the end zone for a touchdown. It was only four plays, but the Stanford offense appeared to picking up right where it had left off against USC.
(A quick note about that touchdown. If you've still got the game on your DVR, go back and watch the exchange between McKee and Jones. The read option is tricky not just because of the decision process -- the quarterback has not only has to check what's in front of him, he also has to read what the defensive end is doing -- but the mechanics of the play are also challenging. McKee has to put the ball into Jones's gut, Jones has to assume he's getting the ball and wrap it up, but McKee has to be able to pull it back at the last second if his read is to keep it. Deception is obviously an important part of this, but also trust between the two players. I watched this particular play several times -- full speed, slow motion, frame-by-frame -- and it's like a magic trick. It would be impressive for any combination of players, but considering McKee has only been taking first team reps with Jones for two weeks, the ease with which he pulls the rabbit out of the hat is remarkable.)
That positive start by the offense, however, wasn't mirrored by the defense. The Vanderbilt offense hasn't scared anyone for at least a season or two, but the opening few drives against the Cardinal were somewhat frightening. Two troubling tendencies emerged in the games against Kansas State and USC, and they each showed up again against the Commodores.
First, there's the run defense. It isn't that the front seven has been overmatched, but that they've seemed to be confused at times, with defenders failing to stay in their gaps and leaving gaping holes in the middle of the line for grateful running backs. They've been especially vulnerable in passing situations, allowing long runs on plays where their opponents looked to be at a disadvantage.
The Commodores took advantage of this weakness on their first possession, rushing for 57 yards on their way to a touchdown, the last yard of which came on a bruising run by Re'Mahn Davis on 4th and goal from the 1.
The most important play of that drive highlighted the second troubling tendency of the defense. On 1st and 10 from the Stanford 37, Vandy quarterback Ken Seals completed a short pass to Devin Boddie, who had the ball stripped by Kendall Williamson when he turned up field to try for extra yardage. The ball was recovered by linebacker Ricky Miezan, and the Cardinal looked to back in business, but there was a flag on the play. Cornerback Zahran Manley had lined up offside, negating the turnover.
A Stanford defender has earned a flag like this in each game this season, a foolish penalty which is only about lack of awareness, but no penalty had been as costly as Manley's, which cost his team a possession and eventually seven points. The good news is that both of these problems -- the lack of consistent gap integrity by the front seven and the lack of awareness shown by defenders' lining up in the neutral zone -- can be easily addressed. It's certainly something to watch for going forward.
The Cardinal's second possession proved to be just as fruitful as the first. Continuing to show a nice balance between the run and the pass, McKee and company marched down the field without much resistance, earning two 1st downs with passes and another with a run. That run was particularly eye-opening. On 4th and 1 from the Vanderbilt 44, the formerly conservative David Shaw kept his offense out on the field and watched McKee sneak ahead for an easy two-yard gain.
This wasn't just Shaw bucking a tendency, it was a welcome nuance to the playbook. The quarterback sneak is the surest and least risky way to convert in short yardage like this, but Shaw and offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard have been reticent to call the quarterback's number over the years. Whether it indicates greater belief in the interior of the offensive line or just the fruit of a multi-year long con, the results are welcome.
Four plays after the McKee sneak, running back Nathaniel Peat took a handoff and broke through the left side of the line for a 21-yard touchdown run and a 14-7 Stanford lead.
The Cardinal defense figured some things out on the ensuing possession, stopping a long Vandy drive at the Stanford 34 and forcing a missed field goal, and when the offense followed that with another long drive built around a nice 32-yard pass to tight end Benjamin Yurosek, it appeared the boys in white were ready to take control of the game. They seemed poised to take a two-score lead when a pass interference penalty gave them a 1st and goal at the 2, but a curious sequence of play calls sabotaged what had been a nice drive.
The 1st down play was cuter than it needed to be, as McKee looked to pass. But blitzing linebacker Ricky Wright first disrupted the route of McKee's intended receiver, Houston Hemuli, then leapt into the air to knock down McKee's pass. Shaw then sent wildcat specialist Isaiah Sanders out in place of McKee. Sanders was stuffed at the line on 2nd down, then stayed out on the field to oversee a concerning 3rd down. The ball was snapped before Sanders was ready and while Austin Jones was in motion, and there was no gain on the play. Perhaps trying to erase those three plays, Shaw surprised everyone by choosing McKee over kicker Joshua Karty on 4th down, but a tight formation advertised the run that was coming and Jones was stoned again. Four plays from the 2 had gained zero yards -- and zero points.
How bad was that sequence? During his postgame presser Shaw would point to those four plays, acknowledge his role, and wish to have them all back.
Just as troubling as those lost points was what happened when Vanderbilt took over at their own 2. Once again, the Cardinal defense's two flaws reared their ugly heads at inopportune times. Stephen Herron shot into the backfield to wrap up Re'Mahn Davis for a one-yard loss on the first play of the drive. At 2nd and 11 from their own 1, the Commodores surely would've been thinking only about getting into position for a safe punt, but Herron had been offsides, erasing the play and giving Vanderbilt valuable breathing room that jumpstarted their drive. It was unfortunate.
Ah, but things would get worse. Four plays later Herron came up with another big play, but this one wasn't erased. Again he found a clean path into the Vanderbilt backfield, and this time he wrapped up Seals at the 14 for a nine-yard sack. Once again the Commodores were in trouble at 2nd and 19, but once again the defense looked confused on what they clearly expected to be a passing down. But Rocko Griffin took a handoff and squirted through the right side of the line and up the sideline for a disheartening 34-yard gain. A few minutes later they were capping off a 98-yard drive with a three-yard touchdown pass that tied the score at 14.
It was frustrating. After such a decisive win over USC the week before, the expectation leading up to this game was that momentum would continue to build. While plenty of things had gone well for the Cardinal in the first half, it was clearly disappointing to be heading towards halftime tied with a team that hadn't won a game the season before.
And then everything changed in the blink of an eye -- or in a few blinks. Peat set up the Cardinal offense with a nice 39-yard kick return to the Stanford 46, and with 4:10 left in the half, it seemed probable that the team in white could end the half with points. It was mildly disappointing when the drive stalled at the Vanderbilt 28 and the Cardinal had to settle for a 46-yard field goal from Joshua Karty, but it was still 17-14.
The second blink came just a few minutes later. The Commodores took over at their own 25 with just 1:53 to play, but instead of just trying to get into the locker room to regroup, they were aggressive. After a near turnover on 2nd and 8, Ken Seals went right back to the air on the next play, and this time his pass found Jimmy Wyrick, who was sitting casually in a shallow zone. It didn't seem like Seals had even seen him, and young Wyrick -- a true freshman who's thrived after being pushed into unexpected duty -- was the beneficiary of his mistake.
Set up at the Vandy 31, the Stanford offense cashed Wyrick's check almost immediately. McKee hit John Humphreys for 26 yards down the left seam on the first play, then lofted a touch pass to Brycen Tremayne in the front corner of the end zone on the second, a play that reminded all of us that yes, Stanford still has some bullies in the wide receiver room. And now the Cardinal had a 24-14 lead.
The Commodores must've felt at least a little bit shellshocked, but for some reason they came out passing from their own 25 with just forty seconds left in the half. The incompletion stopped the clock and invited David Shaw to use a timeout after the running play on 2nd down, and soon enough they were punting the ball back to Stanford. That would've been the end of the story, but the lightning quick Casey Filkins returned the punt 48 yards to the Vanderbilt 17. Only five seconds remained in the half, so Shaw wisely took the three points he'd been given, and Karty's field goal sent the Cardinal into the locker room -- finally -- with a 27-14 lead.
They'd scored 13 points in less than two minutes, and suddenly the tenor of the game had completely changed. The Cardinal defense opened the second half with a three and out, then the offense backed that up with a four-play touchdown drive, and it was 34-14.
In many ways, this game felt like flipping through pages of an old photo album, as current players brought to mind great memories of Stanford legends from the past. The final plays of this touchdown drive featured fullback Jay Symonds conjuring images of Owen Marecic. First he took a short pass in the flat from McKee and rumbled down the sidelines until he encountered cornerback Allan George. Marecic, I mean Symonds, lowered his shoulder and ran through George as if he had one L in his name instead of two. (Some might remember Alan George, former communications director for Stanford Athletics, who now fills the same post at Vanderbilt.) Shaw rewarded Symonds by calling his number on the very next snap, and Symonds rewarded fans by beautifully executing a favorite play from the Andrew Luck era, Spider 3Y Banana. He curled out of the backfield, was naturally wide open, and gathered in the pass from McKee for a beautifully simple touchdown.
Speaking of Andrew Luck, I don't think it's too early to start thinking about McKee in those terms. I understand what I'm doing. I understand that I'm asking people to compare a quarterback with two career starts to another with two career Heisman Trophy snubs, but that's not really what I'm doing. Andrew Luck is unquestionably the greatest quarterback in school history, and while I'm not ready to commission a statue for McKee to stand alongside Luck's (and there really needs to be an Andrew Luck statue outside Stanford Stadium), McKee is the only Stanford quarterback in recent memory who has combined the tools, the accuracy, and the poise at this stage in his career to match Luck's. Once again it's only been two starts, but it's been enough to make me very, very excited about what's to come.
The Cardinal's next four possessions ended with punts, and they gave up a touchdown on the final play of the game, but it's hard to be too concerned about any of that in looking back over the 41-23 victory. The next three games against UCLA, Oregon, and Arizona State will tell us all we need to know about this year's Stanford Cardinal, but right now everything is bright.
