Two weeks ago we were invited to a family function that coincided with the kickoff of Saturday evening's game between Stanford and USC. It was something that couldn't be missed, so I set the DVR, put my phone on airplane mode, and hoped for the best. We were going to a UCLA house, so I figured there was a decent chance the game wouldn't be on, so there was a decent chance I wouldn't make a fool of myself by huddling in front of a screen while everyone else made eye contact and spoke to each other like normal human beings. I could hope.
When we walked into the house I quickly noted that the television was tuned to Spotify, an excellent sign. But my Spidey sense started tingling only minutes later. An older gentleman immediately pulled me aside and asked a dangerous question. "Do you follow college football?" he asked, and then he proceeded to tell me all about the Alabama-Texas game from earlier in the day. I knew I had a problem.
Twenty minutes later I heard his louder than necessary voice from across the room. "Uh-oh," he said, as he looked at his phone and then directly at me. Someone, it seemed, had told him about my Stanford allegiance.
"I don't want to know," I replied.
"Uh-oh," he said again.
This time I waved my both my hands in front of me so that I could be more clear as I repeated, "I don't want to know!"
"Fourteen nothing!"
On the one hand, I feel like society has developed to the point where everyone knows that anyone can have any information they want with the tap of a button. We don't discuss the character who died in Sunday's episode or the bachelorette who was sent home unless we're clear that the conversation is on even ground. We assume that people don't want to hear spoilers. The information is everywhere except on our lips, and we've agreed to keep it that way. We aren't animals, after all. We're civilized.
But I also know that I am a hopeless case. One of those people whose autumn Saturday plans revolve around kickoff times. This gentleman, clearly, is not of my ilk. For him, as it would be for most well-adjusted people, the passing on of the score was no different than mentioning the next day's weather forecast to someone planning a picnic. Sometimes I envy those people and their casual connection to the game. But those are only fleeting moments. I am who I am.
And so I wasn't surprised at all when I got home a couple hours later, cued up the recorded game, and learned that USC had taken advantage of an early Cardinal turnover to grab a quick 7-0 lead. It was surprising, however, when I got my first look at the new Stanford offense.
Yes, the Cardinal had already played their first game of the season, a 41-10 romp over Colgate, but there had been nothing interesting about that game. Nothing new. It was a 31-point win, but many fans felt unsatisfied, if not by the margin of victory then by a performance that felt like another scoop of vanilla. It was unimaginative and uninspired, and it did nothing to quiet those who have been calling for David Shaw's job for a few years now.
But little did we know that Shaw has been playing the long con to perfection. While critics spent the summer writing hot seat articles about the Stanford coach and filling their columns with references to Shaw's stubborn refusal to innovate, Shaw was apparently studying an ACC offense (Wake Forest's, not Clemson's) and secretly inserting it into the Stanford playbook.
All we had heard about the offense during the summer was that it had been simplified. Shaw kept talking about doing "more with less" and "getting back to basics," and his detractors delighted. More evidence that he was stubborn and refused to change.
But there was quarterback Tanner McKee running a slow-mesh RPO scheme to perfection in the first half against USC, and the narrative had changed. "I had the chance to meet [Wake Forest] Coach Caldwell over the off-season," explained Shaw. "He gave some advice and said, 'Watch the film.'"
The result is what we saw last night, a scheme that's perfect for an offense that features an experienced line, a versatile running back, and a strong-armed quarterback. The run-pass-option game has proliferated throughout college football over the past several years, but what Stanford was doing on Saturday night is a unique variation on that. The "slow-mesh" that we'll be hearing about simply means that the exchange between quarterback and running back slows down significantly. McKee holds the ball in the back's arms, and the two of them are linked, or meshed, as McKee reads the defense and determines whether to leave the ball with his back or pull it away and keep it for himself.
Now, we've seen that before with the RPO looks Stanford has used in the past, but there are two key differences here. First, the mesh is much slower, at least a second or two, and McKee and his running back are engaged in what resembles a dance as they shuffle along behind the line of scrimmage waiting for the defense to commit one way or the other. Second, the original scheme is closer to a run-run option, with the quarterback often becoming a runner himself, but last night we saw the true potential of the slow mesh as several times McKee lured linebackers in to play the run, then pulled the ball back and threw a quick pass into the space they'd just vacated.
It was pleasantly disconcerting to see the Stanford offense doing something new, and this wrinkle opened up many other options in the standard passing and running games for offensive coordinator Tavita Pritchard. The first thing that stood out is that the Cardinal offense didn't miss either Austin Jones or Nathaniel Peat, and while Shaw's lavish praise for E.J. Smith over the past several months might have sounded like hyperbole, that doesn't seem to be the case.
The Cardinal put together its first prolonged drive in response to USC's opening touchdown, and it featured heavy doses of Smith. He totaled 49 yards rushing on this drive alone, including three yards to convert a 4th and 1 from the Trojan 19. Most of that yardage came on chunk plays after the offensive line had opened gaping holes in the USC front, something we almost never saw last season. Facing an experienced quarterback with NFL potential and multiple healthy receivers, the USC defense was never able to load the box as teams did with impunity last season. It was beautiful to see.
And then things got strange. On 3rd and goal from the 4, McKee rifled a pass to the back right corner of the end zone. Brycen Tremayne leapt high into the air, appeared to land with one foot in bounds, and the official on the scene thrust his arms into the air to signal the touchdown. I was initially confused as I watched the recording. The screen said the score was now 7-7, but I knew that at some point the score would be 14-0. Soon enough the officials were huddling together and the play went under review.
What happened next defied everything I thought I knew about sideline catches. Tremayne's catch was eventually ruled incomplete because although his left toe had hit the ground in bounds, his left heel had then followed and hit the chalk. Even though we've all seen countless plays when a receiver drags his toes along the grass before falling out of bounds with a completed pass, the heel never touching the ground, apparently if the heel does touch the ground, it has to come down in bounds. Tremayne's had not.
After a Trojan penalty before the field goal attempt moved the ball up and encouraged Shaw to put the offense back out on the field on 4th and goal from the 2, things got crazy again. McKee pulled out of a mesh play when he saw that he had one of his large receivers isolated one-on-one with defensive back Mekhi Blackmon. During the game week press conference a few days earlier a reporter had asked specifically about situations like this.
"When you see one-on-one, do you essentially see that as your receiver being open?"
McKee smiled and replied immediately, "Yes, that's the look we want."
They had that look here, so it was no surprise when McKee fired a ball in that direction. But Blackmon had good position, and McKee's pass didn't quite get to his receiver's back shoulder. Blackmon got a hand on the ball to tip it into the air, then leapt again to make the interception before racing out of his own end zone to the USC 17.
That turn of events was disheartening enough, but it only took Trojan quarterback Caleb Williams three minutes and change to march down the field for another touchdown. What had briefly been a 7-7 game was now 14-0.
But the Cardinal would answer, mounting a 93-yard drive that was highlighted by a nifty reverse to tight end Ben Yurosek for fifty yards. McKee eventually finished the drive with a three-yard touchdown pass to Smith to cut the lead in half, but only for a minute. The Trojans struck back immediately on the first play of their next possession when Williams found Jordan Addison behind the defense for a 75-yard touchdown.
Undaunted by the deficit, the new and improved Stanford offense hit the ground running again, or actually they hit the air passing. McKee converted a 3rd and 15 with a 23-yard strike to Elijah Higgins, then later hit Yurosek for 15 yards and Tremayne for 18 to earn a 1st and goal at the USC 5. It had been an excellent drive, but two plays later everything came to a halt when Smith fumbled at the 2 for the Cardinal's second turnover inside the USC 5. Naturally, the Trojans responded by traversing 98 yards in seven plays to push the lead to 28-7.
Impressively, the Cardinal responded with yet another nice drive, but this one actually produced points as Smith capped it by prancing five yards into the end zone for his second touchdown of the day. It was 28-14, but a few minutes later the Trojans had scored yet again, stretching their lead back to three touchdowns at 35-14.
It was the strangest thing. The USC offense was doing absolutely anything it wanted, but somehow I felt good about what I was watching. None of it could be undone, but Stanford turnovers (and a mysteriously overturned touchdown) had left at least six and as many as 14 points out on the field. Yes, the defense was struggling, but it wasn't a stretch to think that the halftime score could easily have been 35-28. But it wasn't.
Things went much better for the Cardinal defense in the second half, if only because they were able to slow down the Trojans a bit. There was a field goal to open the third quarter, and another gift-wrapped field goal that followed another Smith fumble. It was 41-14, but it felt nothing like the 52-7 thrashing last year against Utah, for example. This was an actual game.
Two fourth quarter touchdowns for Stanford made the score 41-28 with five minutes to play, and while a comeback was still unlikely, at least the game was interesting again. Earlier in the week I had speculated that the Cardinal would only have a chance at the upset if they could win the turnover battle by two or three, but the reverse had happened. It's impossible to ignore the four turnovers, but it's also impossible not to wonder how the game might've unfolded if Stanford had played a clean game on offense.
Not surprisingly, the fanbase was divided in the hours after the game. Many could see nothing but USC receivers streaking past Stanford defenders as the lead ballooned in the first half, and they took this as proof that the program was sinking deeper into the abyss. Shaw should be fired immediately, they said. Or soon if things didn't turn around quickly.
What they ignored was that things had turned around. The Stanford offense hadn't just been innovative, it had been effective. They tallied 33 first downs while piling up 441 yards in total offense. Looking for offensive balance? That total split nicely into 220 yards passing and 221 yards rushing.
E.J. Smith's two fumbles were certainly costly, but aside from those miscues he was brilliant. He totaled 114 yards from scrimmage on 19 carries and three receptions, and he became the first Stanford player since Christian McCaffrey to notch a rushing touchdown and a receiving touchdown in the same quarter. It isn't time yet to worry about the fumbles. Instead let's focus on how good Mr. Smith might become.
In addition to Smith, Casey Filkins was also effective, with 77 yards and a touchdown on 16 carries, plus three receptions for 28 yards. Both Filkins and Smith are potent additions to a passing game that will already cause problems for defensive coordinators up and down the conference. McKee didn't have his best game, but he still completed 20 passes to eight different receivers. I'm not sure how anyone could've watched this offense on Saturday and concluded that things hadn't gotten better. They surely have.
While the defense clearly struggled in the first half, it's important to remember two points. One, they likely won't face another test as difficult as USC's Portal Raid offense all season long, and two, things looked significantly better in the second half. The front seven was able to pressure Caleb Williams and the Trojan offense no longer looked like a track meet. And if you're looking for more cause for hope, consider young David Bailey. The true freshman was the jewel of last spring's signing class, and he showed everyone why on Saturday night. He doesn't yet have the size you might expect from a true defensive end, but his athleticism was enough for him to disrupt several plays (and earn his first career sack). With that level of productivity, it won't be a surprise to see his name on some freshman All-America lists when the season is done.
There were so many games last season that left me feeling gutted and more pessimistic than I'd ever felt about Stanford football, but this game -- a thirteen-point loss -- washed all of that away. For the first time in about ten months, I'm excited about Stanford football. I can't wait to see what happens next.
