Team has UCLA next, but decides to not play bowl game
Cardinal rally to beat Oregon State on road for their third straight win
David Shaw calls this the ultimate “What if?” season for Stanford.
W hat if lef t tack le Walker Little and cornerback Paulson Adebo hadn’t opted out to prepare for the NFL? What if the team hadn’t been forced to start training camp in another county? What if quarterback Davis Mills hadn’t missed the first game and most of practice the following week because of a coronavirus test that turned out to be a false positive?
Would the Cardinal, winners of three in a row after starting 0-2, be representing the Pac-12 North in the conference championship game Friday?
“It would have been very, very interesting,” Shaw, the Stanford coach, said Saturday night after a 27-24 victory at Oregon State. “But we can’t live in would’ve, could’ve, should’ve. We’re going to live in the world of being on a three-game win streak and being over .500 and hopefully building some momentum for next week.”
Next week will bring a game at the Rose Bowl against UCLA, the finale — regular-season or otherwise — for Stanford. The school announced Sunday afternoon that it would decline any bowl invitations.
The Cardinal (3-2) have been on the road since Dec. 1. Forced to relocate by Santa Clara County’s ban on contact sports, it first set up camp outside Seattle. Then, after handing Washington its only loss, the Cardinal moved to Corvallis, Oregon, where it spent a week punctuated by Saturday night’s comeback victory.
Where Stanford will practice this week hasn’t been announced, but we know it won’t be at Stanford.
“I’d be lying if I said it was easy,” said linebacker Curtis Robinson, the last of Stanford’s many heroes Saturday night. “The things we’ve had to go through compared to what the teams we’re playing are going through, it’s just immense. We definitely shouldn’t be able to do this but we’re doing it.”
Playing without starting receivers Connor Wedington and Michael Wilson, Stanford trailed the entire first half and went into the fourth quarter down 21-16. A touchdown by Mills on a 6-yard run gave Stanford the lead. A 39-yard field goal by Jet Toner with 1:48 left broke a 24-24 tie, and still Stanford needed more heroics to nail down its 11th consecutive victory over the Beavers.
Junior linebacker Gabe Reid forced a fumble, chasing down OSU quarterback Chance Nolan after a fiveyard run to the Stanford 30, and punching the ball out of his hands. Robinson recovered the fumble at the Stanford 16 with 23 seconds left.
“For this team to come back after being on the road the last few weeks and be on a three-game win streak, facing all kinds of odds,” Shaw said. “We talk so much about character and recruiting the right guys. We push each other, we support each other, and that’s what you saw tonight.” STATS AND FACTS >> Mills completed 21 of 29 passes for 292 yards and accounted for all three touchdowns, two by ground, one by air ... Simi Fehoko helped offset the absence of Wedington and Wilson by making six catchers for 110 yards ... Austin Jones rushed for 126 yards on 22 carries ... Toner, who had missed four field goals in the season opener, now has made seven in a row. His last, the tie-breaking 39yard kick with 1:48 left, had a familiar ring. A year ago at Oregon State, he made a 39-yard kick with one second left to break a 28-28 tie. SLOW START >> Stanford allowed OSU to march 75 yards in 11 plays on the game’s first possession for a 7- 0 lead; Mills missed a wide- open Bradley Archer for what likely would have been a long touchdown; Fehoko dropped a pass on third down; a 52-yard touchdown pass was called back because of a holding penalty; and Ryan Sanborn bobbled a snap on a pointafter kick.
All of this happened in the first 30 minutes.
“The first half was probably as poorly as we’ve played all year,” Shaw said. “Oregon State was the aggressor. We made some plays to stay in it, but missed throws, missed catches, bad PAT attempt, missed alignment on the defensive side. All these little things that haven’t cropped up and they hurt us in the first half.”
Still, the Cardinal trailed only 14-9 at halftime, thanks in large part to Toner and tight end Tucker Fisk. Fisk, a 278-pound senior, took a screen pass from Davis at the OSU 12 and rumbled into the end zone for his first career touchdown on Stanford’s first possession. Toner made a 47-yard field with 1:16 left in the first half.
BIG TAKEAWAY >> After breaking the 24-24 tie, Toner sent the ensuing kickoff out of bounds, giving Oregon State the ball at the 35 with 1:48 to play.
Nolan, the redshirt sophomore making his second career start, had already thrown for three TDs and played a turnover- free game.
Then came the fumble, forced by Reid and recovered by Robinson.
“We were preaching all game that a takeaway will win this game, and that really did,” Robinson said. “I’m proud of this group and how they fought. At the end, we were harping every single play, ‘Be the one to make the play.’ ”
Robi n son wa s a lso pleased with the group’s effort against Jermar Jefferson, Oregon State’s star running back. Through four games, Jefferson was averaging 168.8 yards and had seven rushing TDs. Stanford held Jefferson to 80 yards and no scores on 18 carries before he left in the third quarter with an apparent ankle injury.
“He’s going to be an NFL running back, I know that for a fact,” Robinson said. “But we love that challenge.”