LOS ANGELES (GMC) -- The pandemic has been hard. I don't want to trivialize the deep emotional losses suffered by millions around the world who mourn the deaths of loved ones, nor the immeasurable economic impact that will likely be felt for years to come, but there is a spectrum of loss that even the most fortunate among us have felt.
High school seniors missed their proms, young couples postponed weddings, new grandparents waited months to hold their grandchildren. All of us have experienced losses like that, inconveniences that mean the world in the correct context, small things we feel guilty about missing in comparison to all the big things.
One of the things on my spectrum of loss has been Stanford football. Sure, the games were on television last year, but as I watched Stanford's improbable comeback win over UCLA in the Rose Bowl last December just 24 miles from my house, all I could think about was this: I should've been there.
Even so, after enduring the debacle against Kansas State the Saturday before, I was hesitant about this week's game. Did I really want to drive out to the Coliseum for a 7:30 game? Did I want to sit in a sea of delirious Trojan fans for four hours and get home after midnight? And most importantly -- could I stand to watch the Cardinal get crushed by USC?
But as game day got closer, I began to feel the pull. David Shaw named Tanner McKee as the starting quarterback, and my optimism spiked. The oddsmakers might have installed the Trojans as 17-point favorites, but that only meant one thing to me -- I knew that if I stayed home and ended up watching a Stanford upset from the ignominy of my couch, I would be furious with myself. So I bought two tickets, dug my Stanford shoes out from under the bed (I have Stanford shoes!), and my son and I headed out.
We know we're supposed to say that Cal is Stanford's primary rival and that Big Game is the focus of the schedule, but that hasn't really been the case over the past ten years. Beating Cal delivers the Axe and a few teaspoons of relief, but I'd posit that Stanford's twin nemeses during this era have been Oregon in the North and USC in the South. As a forty-year resident of Southern California, I'm particularly tormented by the Trojans and their legions of fans. Nothing is better than beating them, and no loss stings more. It may be blasphemy, but it is my truth.
As we walked through the center of campus on our way to the Coliseum, it surprised me that I couldn't muster any animosity towards the reveling students that surrounded me. Sure, there were times when I felt we were on a treadmill, as each group of tailgaters began to look disturbingly identical to the last, but their spirit and color-coordinated enthusiasm couldn't be ignored.
We got to our seats in time to watch the end of the pregame warmups, and the pageantry began. First there was a moment of silence in honor of the recently passed Trojan legend Sam Cunningham, a tasteful pregame ceremony to mark 9/11, and then, as the Coliseum lights were turned off, an adrenaline-filled introduction of the team, complete with pyrotechnics. They know what they're doing.
Unfortunately for the Trojans and their fans, the pregame festivities would be the highlight of the night. The first sign that things might not go as expected came on the opening kickoff when USC's Parker Stevenson -- the placekicker -- was flagged for targeting and kicked out of the game.
The Cardinal couldn't take advantage of that opening gift, but the defense produced a surprising three-and-out on USC's first possession, and McKee and the offense came back out and started their second series at their own 13. The drive would last twelve seconds. Running back Nathaniel Peat took the ball and burst through a hole in the line then quickly shifted into high gear. A couple of USC defenders seemed to have an angle to track him down, but Peat wouldn't have it. He cruised into the end zone untouched with an 87-yard touchdown that gave the Cardinal a 7-0 lead and, probably, a much needed boost of confidence.
USC's next possession was another three-and-out for the Stanford defense, and while the Cardinal wasn't able to convert that into points, there was a moment buried in this inconsequential drive that was perhaps more important that Peat's touchdown from the previous series. McKee dropped back to pass on 2nd and 4, surveyed the field a bit, and then casually flicked a perfect pass to wide receiver Elijah Higgins for a 38-yard gain. It was a reminder of McKee's elite talent and a tantalizing glimpse of what the Stanford offense could become.
The Trojans eventually forced a Stanford punt and then scored on a long 15-play, 95-yard drive to tie the score at seven, but Stanford's next drive would be the turning point of the game. No one watching would've been surprised if USC had taken control after that touchdown and sent the Cardinal back to Palo Alto with an 0-2 record, but instead McKee and his crew answered immediately. The two key plays of the drive were a 25-yard pass to Brycen Tremayne and later a critical pass interference penalty that converted a 3rd and 4 to 1st and goal. It was the first hint that USC's defensive strategy -- man to man defense on the receivers to allow for stronger run defense -- wasn't going to work. With McKee at the controls, Stanford's deep stable of wide receivers, all of them big and strong, bullied the smaller Trojan defensive backs all night long, sometimes outleaping them for balls, other times trucking through them for yards after the catch. (It should also be noted that Stanford's best receiver, team captain Michael Wilson, was on the sidelines in street clothes.)
But when Austin Jones lost two yards on 3rd and goal from the 5, the field goal unit trotted out onto the field and it felt like a small victory for the Trojan defense. Kicker Josh Karty split the uprights and the Cardinal had a 10-7 lead -- but then there was a flag on the field for defensive offsides and Shaw had a decision to make. He could be happy with the three points, or he could accept the penalty and move the ball closer to the goal line. There didn't seem to be much of a choice.
There is an old football axiom -- you never take points off the board. Later in the week Shaw admitted to being a conservative, old-school coach, something all of us already knew, so it couldn't have been more stunning when he accepted the penalty and sent the offense back out onto the field. Stanford Twitter exploded in disbelief, and the Coliseum crowd rumbled with concern.
With the ball moved half the distance to the goal line -- and still 4th down -- McKee took the snap at the 3, rolled out calmly to his right, and floated a pass towards Higgins, who was rolling with him across the front of the end zone. The pass wasn't McKee's best, but Higgins was able to reach down and pluck the ball off his shoe tops for the most improbable Stanford touchdown I've ever seen. Stanford led 14-7, and it was clear they weren't going to go away.
The Trojans put together another 15-play drive in response, this one netting a field goal to cut the Stanford lead to 14-10 with 1:49 to play in the half, and even though Shaw had used a timeout to stop the clock before the field goal, history seemed to point towards more conservative play. Surely Shaw would've been happy getting off the plane in Los Angeles if he had know he might have a four-point lead heading into halftime, so there was no reason to believe we'd see anything more interesting than a couple harmless runs into the middle of the line.
But Nathaniel Peat's thirty-yard kickoff return might have changed Shaw's calculations a bit. On 2nd and 8 McKee called a play that should by all rights be called C-Mac Rose Bowl Redux. Austin Jones circled out of the backfield and around the left side of the line before jabbing his way past a linebacker to get open over the middle. McKee hit him perfectly in stride, and Jones turned up field the same way Christian McCaffrey had in Pasadena six years ago, except Jones was pulled down at the USC 15 after a 49-yard gain. Two plays later McKee fired a laser to Tremayne on the back edge of the end zone and the Cardinal led by eleven, 21-10.
The Trojans were booed off the field as they headed to the locker room, and while I think it's ridiculous for fans to boo college students, it sounded beautiful. As we walked along the concourse, the few Stanford fans we encountered were all cautiously optimistic. I ran into Stanford legend Toi Cook, and we talked about how often the USC game seems to reveal the true nature of that year's Cardinal team. We agreed that while there were still thirty minutes to play, those thirty minutes might end up being special. They would.
When the teams came back out of the tunnel following halftime, someone thought it would be a good idea to interview USC coach Clay Helton and put him on the scoreboard video display. He was asked the expected questions about how his team could improve in the second half, and he responded with answers so bland that you or I could've scripted them, but the reaction in the stands was for more important than anything Helton said. There was more booing, and loud, angry voices hurled insults aimed not just at Helton's football acumen but even at his sense of fashion. "Look at you, Helton! You're wearing a white shirt!"
To call Helton embattled would be an understatement. I don't remember the last time a coach spent so much time, so many years, in the hot seat, and Stanford's effort on this night was certainly turning up the heat. Chants of "Fi-yer-Hel-ton!" would bounce around the Coliseum during lulls in the second half, and three days later athletic director Mike Bohn would oblige, firing a head coach with a 1-1 record.
After USC opened the second half with a long drive ending in a field goal and the Cardinal followed with a punt, suddenly the Trojans had the ball back and they were within one score again at 21-13 -- and that's when the game changed for good. On the Trojans' third play of the drive, quarterback Kedon Slovis dropped back from his own 27 and fired a short pass to his favorite target, Drake London. Slovis had found a rhythm in the first half, sustaining long drives with short passes, but he was off the mark here, throwing his pass a touch behind the crossing London. The ball bounced off London's hands, fluttered up into the air for a quick second, then fell into the waiting hands of Cardinal corner Kyu Blu Kelly. Thirty-one yards later Kelly was diving to the pylon to complete a pick six that likely reminded every Stanford fan of another game-changing pick six by another great Stanford cornerback on that very same patch of grass.
Richard Sherman will forever be the standard by which all Stanford cornerbacks are measured, but that's largely because of his success at the next level. It's been Sherman's Hall of Fame NFL career that's made him a Stanford legend, but Kyu Blu Kelly is putting together a collegiate résumé that places him comfortably alongside Sherman. Last week's end zone interception will be on his Draft Day highlight reel (cross your fingers that that's in 2023, not 2022), but what he did on Saturday in the Coliseum was even more impressive.
USC always seems to have three or four future NFL receivers on their roster, but this year's group is overshadowed by London, who is among the best wideouts in the nation. He opened the season with 12 catches for 137 yards against San José State, but with Kelly primarily assigned to him, he had only four receptions against the Cardinal. Even though he gave up four inches to London, Kelly was able to stick with him in single coverage and battle him physically without drawing any penalties. He's a lockdown corner, plain and simple, and his performance on Saturday night earned him Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week honors. It's going to be fun to watch him through the rest of the season.
Stanford now led 28-13, and the Coliseum had become a mausoleum, silent except for the gnashing of teeth. Breaking the silence, a Trojan fan in front of me turned around and said, "We need to get rid of Helton. I hope you guys win." It was like that, and it was going to get worse.
The Trojans followed with an ill-timed three and out, and then their defense imploded on the Cardinal's ensuing possession, picking up pass interference penalties on consecutive plays to give Stanford a 1st and goal at the 4. McKee finished the drive with a one-yard sneak to push the score to 35-13, and even though the third quarter wasn't yet over, the game certainly seemed to be.
It's tradition at the Coliseum to light the Olympic torch at the beginning of the fourth quarter. Normally this is a pretty cool moment, but on this night that quaint little flame was barely noticeable in comparison to the absolute dumpster fire on the USC sidelines. The Cardinal opened the quarter with a ten-play, 67-yard drive that ended with another touchdown, this one a two-yard dive from quarterback Isaiah Sanders, the short-yardage assassin, and the score had ballooned to 42-13.
Sanders's touchdown capped an impressive stretch of play for the Cardinal, and hindsight suggests that this was likely what cost Helton his job. Beginning with Kelly's pick six, the Cardinal scored 21 unanswered points, with the two touchdown drives consuming 123 yards in 15 plays and burning 7:01 on the clock. Meanwhile, USC's three possessions had looked like this: 3 plays, 5 yards, pick six; three plays, zero yards; three plays, zero yards. On that last possession Slovis used just twenty-five seconds on the clock to throw three straight incompletions before walking back to the sideline to a chorus of boos.
The Trojans put together two touchdown drives in the closing minutes to make the final score a more respectable 42-28, but that couldn't obscure what had happened. At no point in the second half was the game in doubt, and the transformation of the Stanford team in all phases of the game was more than remarkable.
Just seven days earlier most observers were convinced not only that the program was on the decline, but also that the season might spiral into such a disaster that Shaw would come under pressure to make serious changes. On September 4th they had looked unprepared and uninspired, but on September 11th they appeared to be in midseason form. This single victory over a team in obvious disarray does not immediately catapult the Cardinal into conference championship contention -- the Oregon Ducks are still the clear frontrunners -- but now there is hope.
As several fans pointed out before, during, and after Saturday's game, the last time the Cardinal suffered a disappointing opening week road loss to a team called the Wildcats, they rebounded nicely and finished the season holding the Rose Bowl trophy in a storm of confetti. I know because I've still got a handful of that confetti hidden away in a drawer. Now that I think about it, I wouldn't mind adding to that stash.
