To fully understand what happened in Boulder, Colorado, on Friday night, you must have experienced the first half, a half of football that felt all too familiar for Stanford fans.
Things didn't go well for the Cardinal. The offense was struggling. Coach Troy Taylor's quarterback carousel continued, with Justin Lamson getting the start but doing nothing to inspire much hope -- or gain much yardage. All three of Lamson's passes on the opening possession fell incomplete, leading to a punt, and though he did complete a pass on the next drive (those would be his total passing stats for the night), the Cardinal punted again after seven plays. If the offense couldn't get going against Colorado's porous defense, it seemed, it might never get going.
The Buffaloes, meanwhile, were enjoying themselves on offense. Coach Prime's son, Shedeur Sanders, may have seen his Heisman hopes dwindle, but he's still a spectacular player. On his opening drive he had an electric 38-yard scramble to get the Buffs deep into Stanford territory, and three plays later he threw a touchdown pass to Xavier Weaver for a 7-0 lead. His next time out he again led Colorado down the field, completing four passes along the way, the last a 24-yard touchdown to two-way star Travis Hunter to make it 14-0. Hunter's return from injury was the lead story early in the game, as he seemed to be the missing piece on both sides of the ball for the Buffs. (Much more on Hunter later.)
The Cardinal tried to answer that second touchdown with a long drive of their own, but when it stalled at the Colorado 19 and then Josh "Automatic" Karty missed the 37-yard field goal, things began to look bleak. When Sanders noticed Weaver a full ten yards behind the Stanford defense a few minutes later and dropped a pass into his hands for a 39-yard touchdown and a 20-0 lead, things looked even worse. When the Buffs went for two for no apparent reason and made it 22-0, things began to get embarrassing.
But then, inexplicably, it got worse. A two-play sequence deep in the second quarter summed up the game -- and the two programs seemingly headed in opposite directions -- perfectly. On 1st and 10 at the Stanford 14, Xavier Weaver took the ball on a reverse, and the wideout swept out around the left end of the line. With three linemen, a running back, and a hot dog vendor blocking out in front of him, it was obvious that Weaver would score before he even crossed the line of scrimmage. I knew he was going to score, so I sank deeper into despair; Weaver knew he was going to score, so he never bothered pushing for maximum effort. He followed his blockers and jogged casually into the end zone, looking less like a football player and more like the grand marshal in a parade.
But if you want a single picture to sum up the first half, it came on the next play, Colorado's kickoff. Stanford's Bryce Farrell attempted to field a bounding kick, saw it slip out of his fingers once and then twice, and then tried to corral it with a desperate dive that only succeeded in knocking the ball out of bounds. As Farrell lay prone on the turf, you didn't need to be a poet to see the symbolism.
Stanford wasn't just losing, they were being embarrassed. A national television audience was watching, and 99% of them had gotten exactly what they had tuned in to see. The executives at ESPN were no doubt cackling with delight as they ran one Colorado package after another, diligently tracking the Rise of Coach Prime. We were treated to a series of on-campus interviews of students over the past year as the excitement ramped up; we saw the university president stalking the sidelines and opening his jacket like a huckster selling watches in Times Square, only to reveal the Coach Prime logo inexplicably embroidered where the knockoff Rolexes should be. There was video from the Michigan State student store where Coach Prime sweatshirts were prominently displayed alongside green and white Spartans gear. We got a list of all the celebrities who had attended games in Boulder this season, along with the expected shots of the luminaries in attendance for this game. Even the officials were feeling sorry for lowly Stanford; at one point they scolded the Colorado public address system for playing music while the Cardinal was at the line of scrimmage. It was all quite embarrassing.
This was the Colorado Show, and not only was Stanford no more than a prop, the Cardinal was playing its part to perfection. Things couldn't have been worse.
And then.
It all looks like an avalanche when we look back at it in the morning light, but that isn't what it felt like. Colorado took the opening kickoff of the second half, and there was really no reason to believe that they wouldn't march down the field and score their fifth touchdown of the night, but instead something strange happened. Facing 4th and 2 at the Stanford 45, Coach Prime decided to keep his offense out on the field, presumably because he had been paying attention during the first half. Sanders dropped back to pass, but the Colorado line was completely overwhelmed by a Stanford blitz, and Lance Keneley pulled down the quarterback for a twelve-yard loss at the Colorado 43.
Again, it seemed like nothing more than a positive sign, but it was the beginning of what would become the greatest comeback in the history of Stanford football.
Ashton Daniels had taken over at quarterback for the Cardinal towards the end of the game's second series, but he hadn't been terribly effective until this drive. On a critical 3rd and 4 from the Colorado 27 he completed a pass to a wide receiver named Elic Ayomanor (much more on him later) for 18 yards, and three plays after that he handed to the ball to Bryce Farrell, who ran two yards for Stanford's first score of the game, making it 29-6.
When Coach Troy Taylor chose to go for two, it struck me as a little cute. (The attempt failed.) On the one hand, the math was right. It would be better to be down by 21 -- three conventional touchdowns -- than 22, but on the other, did it really matter? I admired the gumption, but I questioned the likelihood that anything was brewing. Like Coach Prime, I had been paying attention during the first half.
But then Colorado had another empty possession and punted the ball back to the Cardinal, pinning them deep at their own 3. This was the moment when it looked like Taylor and the offensive staff had found something. Instead of playing it safe and calling a run play to get some breathing room, Taylor got aggressive. Daniels calmly dropped back into his own end zone and looked to his right where Elic Ayomanor was lined up to the outside. Ayomanor broke inside to his left as his defender fell to the turf, and he caught Daniels's pass at the seven and broke back outside and made another defender miss as he headed towards the sideline.
One of my favorite questions to ask at media day is this: If Stanford football were putting together a 4x100 relay team, who would be on it? This summer I asked wide receiver John Humphreys and linebacker Tristan Sinclair, and their first answer was unanimous -- Elic Ayomanor. On this play, the sophomore wideout showed why as he hit the jets and outran Shiloh Sanders for a 97-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 29-12. Once again the two-point conversion would fail, but suddenly there was a game.
Perhaps beginning to feel the momentum swinging, the Stanford defense produced its first three-and-out of the night, and a weak Colorado punt gave the ball back to Daniels and the offense with a short field to work with. After an incompletion on 1st down, Daniels dropped back to throw and once again he found his new best friend Elic, this time on a deep back shoulder fade that left Colorado's Travis Hunter spinning. Ayomanor caught the ball at the Colorado 40, then used his speed to sprint diagonally across the field past three Colorado defenders before carrying a fourth into the end zone for his second touchdown in three plays. The Cardinal had needed a total of three snaps and 36 seconds to travel 157 yards and score two touchdowns. The score was 29-19, and suddenly everyone was paying attention.
The knock on Colorado's offense all season has been the inconsistency of their offensive line, and it bit them on their next possession. Desperately needing some points to stem the rising Cardinal tide, the Buffs produced a 1st down at their 35, but saw that yardage erased when blitzing corner back Collin Wright sacked Sanders for a 12-yard loss. They were able to dig out of that hole with two big completions, but a few plays after that facing 4th and 4 at their own 49, the line collapsed again. Even with a running back left in to help with pass protection, Stanford's four-man rush still looked like a jailhouse break as they chased Sanders back almost twenty yards until he unloaded the ball for an intentional grounding penalty that turned the ball back over to the Cardinal at the Colorado 33.
On a play that will be forgotten, the Cardinal faced 3rd and 22 at the Colorado 31. Daniels scrambled for no gain, and it looked like Taylor would have to choose between a long field goal and a long 4th down play, but then there was a flag on the play. Travis Hunter was called for unnecessary roughness, gifting the Cardinal a 1st down and preserving a drive that should've been over. It was just one of a preposterous seventeen penalties called on Colorado, but few would be as damaging as this one. At the 1 yard line three plays later, Justin Lamson subbed in and walked through a wide open hole on the left side of the line for a touchdown, edging the Cardinal even closer at 29-26.
When Sanders responded by completing three passes for 75 yards on a four-play touchdown drive to stretch things back to 36-26 with 12:50 to play in the game, I'll admit to having some doubts. I caught myself thinking that even if they were to lose, this would still be a tremendous building block for a program that looked to be headed in the right direction. The game wasn't even over yet, and I was already looking for silver linings in the cloud that I saw coming.
But I needn't have worried, you see, because of Elic Ayomanor.
Before Friday night, Ayomanor had never had more than four catches in a game, and his season total over five games had been fifteen receptions for 207 yards. His numbers against Colorado were padded a bit by those two long touchdowns earlier in the half, but this was the drive when he made the Buffaloes defense look silly. On the fifteen-play drive, he caught six passes for 63 yards, but the craziest part of that is that five of those catches came on the exact same play, a simple slant across the middle from the left slot. In the middle of the drive he even ran that route on three consecutive plays, gaining fifteen yards, twelve yards, and five yards. As the announcers pointed out, Taylor figured that if Colorado couldn't stop it, he'd just keep calling it.
The drive ended with a three-yard touchdown pass from Daniels to Farrell, bringing the Cardinal back to within three at 36-33. With only 5:06 to play, the Buffs would have liked to get a few 1st downs to burn up the Stanford timeouts and run down the clock, but that wasn't to be. They'd manage to move the chains twice, but when Sanders's 3rd down pass sailed harmlessly over the head of a wide-open Hunter, they had to punt it back to the Cardinal.
Oh, and it wasn't just any punt. Colorado's Mark Vassett executed a perfect punt, knocking it out of bounds at the Stanford 1. Normally a situation like this would fill any Stanford fan with dread, but on this night it seemed perfectly natural that Daniels calmly stepped back and fired a bullet between two defenders and into Ayomanor's arms for a short but important nine-yard-gain. As Daniels led his team downfield by completing passes to five different receivers, it became crystal clear that this is his team. He would finish the evening with such a gaudy stat line (29 of 45 for 396 yards and four touchdowns) that I can't imagine he hasn't finally won the quarterback job. He should be the starter next week against UCLA.
Even though Josh Karty was credited with a missed field goal from the first half, I don't think it was Karty's fault. The hold looked to have been botched, so as the offense crept closer to field goal range on this final drive, I still had complete confidence that any attempt inside fifty yards would be a gimme for Karty. When the drive stalled at the Colorado 28 with five seconds to play, I wasn't worried a bit. Karty's attempt split the uprights to tie the game at 36 as time expired, and we were headed to overtime.
This was completely uncharted territory. It had been more than a year since I had actually enjoyed a Stanford game from start to finish, and it felt good. It felt good to be pacing in front of the television with my heart rate up; it felt good to be clapping and shouting as Stanford players raced towards the end zone. It even felt good to be scolded by the rest of the family each time my outbursts startled one of them. It wasn't the Rose Bowl, but it was something. Something good.
Colorado made the unusual choice to take the ball first in overtime. Conventional wisdom says you should want the ball second so that you know what you need to do to win or prolong the game like the home team in extra innings, so when Colorado scored quickly, the Cardinal knew they needed a touchdown to stay alive.
Perhaps feeling the weight of the moment, right tackle Connor McLaughlin flinched ahead of the snap to push the Cardinal back to the 30. My honest first thought? "That's alright. That just leaves more room for Ayomanor to operate and more yards for him to gain."
He wasn't just having a nice night, and he wasn't even having a career night. He was making history. As he stood at the line of scrimmage before the Cardinal's first snap in overtime, Ayomanor had already caught 12 passes for an unbelievable 264 yards, only six yards shy of one of the Stanford records I never thought I'd see broken. It had been 24 years since Troy Walters had set that record against UCLA, and although Simi Fehoko had challenged it in an overtime game (also against UCLA), the Walters record always seemed safe.
And then Daniels took the snap and looked immediately to the left where Ayomanor was covered by Travis Hunter, the player we had repeatedly been told was the best player on the field. Daniels back pedaled to buy his receiver some time, and then he launched his pass towards the pylon in the front of the end zone. As a former quarterback, Coach Taylor's philosophy is to trust a receiver to make a play, and Daniels echoed that idea in his postgame presser. He explained that he saw Ayomanor with single coverage, so he figured he'd give him a chance to beat his man, even in this critical moment. The ball came in short, and Hunter, running at Ayomanor with his back to Daniels, had tight coverage, but that didn't matter to Ayomanor. In a play that reminded every Stanford fan of Frances Owusu against UCLA, Ayomanor simply reached around Hunter and caught the ball before pinning it against the defender's helmet. Intertwined like drunken dancers stumbling into a mosh pit, the two players crossed the goal line just as Ayomanor lifted the ball up and over Hunter's head as the referee and I raised our arms to the heavens.
Given the stakes of the moment, it just might have been the greatest catch in the history of Stanford football, certainly one of the top five. What cannot be debated is Ayomanor's place in the Stanford record book. That final catch of the night pushed his yardage total to 294 yards, the highest single-game total in school history, and the second-highest in Pac-12 history. And by the way, all of that -- every yard -- came in the second half.
But there was still a game to be decided. The Colorado offense came back out onto the field and eventually found themselves knocking on the door after an end zone pass interference penalty placed the ball on the 2 yard line. But then something strange happened. Stanford's defensive line has struggled all season long, but in this moment, improbably, it turned into a brick wall. Running back Anthony Hankerson was stoned for a one-yard gain on 1st down, then pushed a yard back on 2nd down, bringing up 3rd and goal from the 2. Apparently convinced that they couldn't run on the Cardinal, the Buffs went with a pass play on 3rd down. Sanders dropped back, and just as they had on that critical play in the 4th quarter, the defensive front was able to generate fierce pressure while only rushing four, leaving seven defenders back in coverage. As Sanders back pedaled, he made the mistake of launching a desperate pass into the end zone... and defensive back Alaka'i Gilman picked it out of the air for the interception that pushed the Cardinal to the brink of victory.
And since Colorado had chosen to take the ball first, the Cardinal knew that a field goal would win the game. Only a field goal. After three safe Daniels runs into the middle of the field gained twelve yards, Josh Karty came in and casually knocked in a 31-yard field goal to give Stanford its biggest win in years.
As I type this only seven hours after that kick split the pipes, it's hard to quantify the significance of this win. Twenty-four hours ago close observers of the team were wondering if this might end up being the worst season in the history of Stanford football, and there were some national pundits whose wider view led them to believe that Stanford could no longer compete.
But over the course of thirty frantic minutes and two possessions of overtime, that narrative completely changed. Stanford's second half drives looked like this: touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, touchdown, game-tying field goal, touchdown, game-winning field goal. Go back and read that again. Eight consecutive must-score possessions, eight consecutive scores. It was amazing to watch.
Suddenly the announcers were crowing about how dangerous Stanford's receivers are and how things are beginning to build in the right direction. This win doesn't mean the Cardinal will challenge for a conference championship this season, but it proves that this staff knows what it's doing. More importantly, it reminds us that these players, the ones who chose to stay and rebuild, are more than just a scrappy bunch of misfits. These kids can play. On Friday night in Boulder, they played.