Defense allows more than 500 yards to Trojans
In the fourth quarter, Stanford was a yard away on third down, a half-yard away on fourth down. The Cardinal couldn’t get it. Then, after cutting the lead to three with a little more than two minutes left, the defense needed to make a stop.
The Cardinal couldn’t get that either.
So Sam Darnold and the No. 11 USC Trojans hung on for a 31-28 victory Friday in the Pac-12 Championship Game at Levi’s Stadium.
“Bottom line is, we had opportunities, but we didn’t make enough plays,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said. “We made enough plays to make it close but not enough to win.”
It was Stanford’s first loss in four title game appearances.
The No. 14 Cardinal (9-4) probably will play in the Alamo Bowl or the Holiday Bowl, although there’s a chance they could slip to the Foster Farms Bowl and once again play in Santa Clara. The Trojans (11-2) probably are headed to the Fiesta Bowl.
Darnold, for the second time this year, gave the Cardinal fits. After throwing for 316 yards and four touchdowns in a 42-24 rout in September, he had 325 yards and two touchdowns Friday.
He had plenty of help from Ronald Jones with 140 yards and two touchdowns on 30 carries and Michael Pittman with 146 yards and a touchdown on seven receptions.
A fine goal-line stand by USC thwarted the Cardinal midway through the fourth quarter, preserving the Trojans’ 24-21 lead. With the ball on the 1, Cameron Scarlett was stopped by Christian Rector on third down and Uchenna Nwosu on fourth down.
Shaw said there was “no hesitation” about going for it on fourth down rather than kicking a field goal for a 24-24 tie. “If we don’t get it, we’ve got them backed up.” Going for that last yard is “what we do.”
Not only did USC prevent Stanford from taking the lead, it marched right down the field — all 99 yards of it — and took a 31-21 lead when Jones scored from 8 yards out with 4:22 left.
The Cardinal weren’t through.
Two spectacular catches, one by JJ Arcega-Whiteside (for 45 yards) and the other by Kaden Smith (for a 28-yard touchdown), cut the lead to 31-28 with 2:09 left. But the Trojans got the final first down they needed on Darnold’s 15-yard pass to Josh Falo.
Stanford’s K.J. Costello passed for 192 yards and two touchdowns, both to Smith. The Cardinal’s Bryce Love, operating on a sprained ankle for the fifth straight game, had 125 yards in 22 carries — including a 52-yard run to set up a touchdown.
“We didn’t play that game in the rhythmic fashion that we traditionally do,” Costello said. “But because we were fighting we were able to claw our way into an opportunity to take over the game.”
He said he “won’t be sleeping for weeks about” the missed opportunity with the ball on the 1-yard line.
Stanford’s offense won’t be the only one with nightmares. The Cardinal defense allowed the Trojans to gain 501 yards.
“We didn’t execute at a high enough level to get the win, and that’s our goal,” defensive tackle Harrison Phillips said. “We wanted to hold them to 17 points, and we didn’t get that goal either. That wasn’t the Stanford defense we needed to play in order to win. We gave up a lot of big plays that we can’t have.”
Love, who scored on a 9yard run, plainly didn’t want to talk about his sore ankle. “It’s part of the game,” he said.
The Heisman Trophy voting deadline is Monday at 5 p.m., and there’s a possibility that Stanford could have its fifth second-place finish in eight years.
“I’ll put our guy’s performance, our guy’s character, our guy’s records that he’s broken this year ... I’ll put him in front of anybody,” Shaw said.
USC took a 10-7 lead in the second quarter on Chase McGrath’s 24-yard field goal. Stanford contributed three penalties on the USC drive, which Shaw called “uncharacteristic.” “Some of those are obvious calls, and some are judgment calls,” he said.
Overall, it was too much Darnold, the game’s MVP.
“He’s extremely accurate,” Shaw said. “What he does so well, are two things in particular. One, he operates in a very small space in the pocket, and two, he’s the absolute best in the nation and one of the best since Andrew Luck in the time between when he sees (an open receiver) and the ball gets out of his hands.”
“Bottom line is, we had opportunities, but we didn’t make enough plays. We made enough plays to make it close but not enough to win.” David Shaw, Stanford head coach