McCaffrey paces Cardinal
Owls give up 40 for seventh time in this season
STANFORD, Calif. — Christian McCaffrey, in possibly his final home game, rushed for 204 yards and scored two touchdowns as Stanford rolled to a 41-17 victory over Rice on Saturday night.
A sparse crowd braved drizzly weather to watch the junior running back and 2015 Heisman Trophy runner-up post his 19th career 100-yard rushing game and his fifth 200yard effort. McCaffrey wound up with 271 allpurpose yards, including a 23-yard touchdown reception and a 19-yard TD run.
Considered a likely NFL first-round draft pick if he leaves school, McCaffrey has not indicated what he intends to do.
Cardinal coach David Shaw said he and McCaffrey will discuss his future when the season is over. In the meantime, he is enjoying the experience of coaching and watching what he called “a special, special football player.”
“Every time he touched the ball there was a collective gasp to see what he’s going to do next,” Shaw said.
Rice coach David Bailiff said his team understood the challenge it was facing in McCaffrey.
“I’ve done this for 33 years, and I have not seen a young man who is capable of doing what he can do with a football in hand,” Bailiff said. “We knew coming in here, you had to tackle Christian and not let him have a big game. We didn’t do that. Not a lot of people have done that.”
Stanford (9-3) won for the 16th consecutive time at home against a non-conference foe in a game that originally was scheduled for Sept. 10. The contest was moved so the Cardinal would not play 12 consecu- tive weeks and end the regular season with an open date.
Jowan Davis scored on a 6-yard run with five minutes left in the third quarter as the Owls (3-9) avoided being held without an offensive touchdown for the first time since Oct. 6, 2012, at Memphis. Davis scored again on a 3-yard run with 1:16 left.
No match for Stanford, Rice totaled 14 yards and no first downs in the first quarter and trailed 20-3 by halftime. The Cardinal’s points represented the seventh time this season the Owls allowed at least 40 points.