Cardinal giving fans reasons to dream big
What’s the next dazzling moment for Stanford? Christian McCaffrey throwing a touchdown pass to himself ? Francis Owusu catching a long pass behind his own back?
The No. 15 (with a bullet) Cardinal are playing must-see football, the latest example being their overpowering 56-35 win over No. 18 UCLA on Thursday night at Stanford Stadium.
To kids trying to duplicate Owusu’s amazing touchdown catch on the playground: Good luck with that.
Yes, it’s only midseason, but Stanford fans can be excused for dreaming of a Rose Bowl against Michigan and their former hero, Jim Harbaugh. Or, what the heck, perhaps the same matchup in the national title game.
That’s how intoxicating the sweet ambrosia of victory can be when you’re 5-1, leading the Pac-12 North with a 4-0 record and not only scoring big, but adding style points. When your output has grown every week since that shaky start against Northwestern, from 31 points to 41 to 42 to 55 to 56.
“We put up 56 points against a good defense, and that’s something to celebrate,” said the electrifying McCaffrey. “At the same time, I still think we haven’t played our best football yet. We left a lot out there that we can fix.”
That’s a scary thought for defensive coordinators of upcoming opponents, the next being Washington on Oct. 24. While opening a 56-20 lead in three quarters, Stanford twice was forced to punt and also threw an interception.
McCaffrey broke Toby Gerhart’s 2009 single-game school record of 223 rushing yards with a 243-yard performance on 25 carries. He bolted 70 yards to a touchdown, ran for three others and just missed scoring on a 96yard kickoff return. He tied a school record shared by six others with his four rushing touchdowns. He slices through defenses so smoothly that he should be dubbed “Mack the Knife.”
No wonder head coach David Shaw gave him the game ball in the locker room, where his teammates hoisted him on their shoulders.
Promising that he and his teammates won’t overlook anybody after the disappointment at Northwestern, McCaffrey said, “We’re going to come to work each day. And that’s why I love these guys so much, just because I really, definitely feel something special with them. They’re my brothers and I get a little emotional talking about it, because it’s definitely something that we love and it’s a brotherhood that you don’t see at a whole lot of schools.”
UCLA head coach Jim Mora said McCaffrey “may be a little better in person than on film. He’s a heck of a player — very explosive, very fast, very physical, very powerful, elusive, runs hard. I think he’s an impressive young man. Really impressive.”
In its eighth straight win over UCLA, Stanford scored the most points in the series since a 57-0 win in 1929.
Two years ago, the Bruins gave up a leaping one-hand catch for a touchdown by Kodi Whitfield. This time they were victimized by a TD catch that was even more difficult.
On a flea-flicker pass from Kevin Hogan, Owusu said later, he barely saw the ball as safety Jaleel Wadood bore down on him. The 6-foot-3 Owusu wrapped his arms around Wadood, who was flagged for pass interference, and caught the ball behind Wadood’s back. They fell to the ground with Owusu pinning the ball against the defender with his left arm for a 41-yard score.
“I still can’t describe the catch,” Shaw said. “I don’t understand what happened, to be honest. I was looking at my call sheet for the next call because I thought it was incomplete.”
McCaffrey, who took the snap on the play and handed to Bryce Love to start the whole thing off, said he couldn’t believe what he had seen and ran to the bench because “I had to kind of process it.”
“That was probably the greatest play I’ve ever been a part of,” said Hogan. He threw three TD passes despite being hampered by a sprained ankle from the USC game on Sept. 19.
Nothing about the offense surprises linebacker Blake Martinez. “We went up against it all fall camp,” he said. “We knew they were special. They’re showing it now. It’s amazing.”