On Saturday, Stanford football fell to Oregon State at home by a final score of 28-27. Oregon State quarterback Ben Gulbranson went 20-28 for 250 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions while wide receiver Tre’Shaun Harrison had 7 receptions for 104 yards and 1 touchdown. Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee went 20-32 for 269 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. Oregon State improves to 4-2 overall and 1-2 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 1-4 overall and 0-4 in the Pac-12.
“Difficult game,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Had a tough game last week. A lot of work this week to get our team ready to play. Commend our players, the way they worked, the way they prepared. Our coaching staff, all the engagement we had with our student-athletes this week to get ready for this game.
“What's going to get lost is probably played our best game of the year. Best complete game of the year. A lot of things we've been pushing, harping on, not just the coaches but the student-athletes, players. Got a lot of production from a lot of guys.
“Guys played so hard on defense, played so well. Ethan Bonner, three pass breakups down the field. Had an opportunity to finish the game in all three phases. We just didn't do it.
“If we got one more first down offensively, we can run the clock down, end the game. Get a good kickoff and cover. At least get them pinned in. Instead, they got too much of a return.
“We had an opportunity defensively to put the game away, and we just didn't. It's going to be a rough 24 hours for all of us. We can't afford to spend more than 24 hours on it.
“Short week, long plane fight, tough place to play. We got to get ready. Got to take care of the guys in practice this week, make sure we have our legs. I'm not going to just be all sunshine about us playing our best game because the most important thing is we got to finish.
“We got a chance to put the game away, but we have to put it away. Going to give the guys some time off, get away from it, get a little bit of a break, come back, get ready to go.”
Oregon State won the coin toss and got elected to return at the start of the game. They got the ball on their own 25 yard line following a touchback. The Beavers got things going in their opening drive as they marched down the field for a 1st and 10 on the Stanford 20 yard line thanks to an 11 yard reception by Deshaun Fenwick, an 18 yard reception by Tre’Shaun Harrison, and an 11 yard rush up the middle by Damien Martinez. The Beavers wouldn’t get any closer than that as they ended up having to settle for a 40 yard field goal attempt by Atticus Sappington that would be no good (wide right). Stanford’s defense secured the stop.
Stanford’s offense would then get things going on their end in their opening drive as Michael Wilson had an 18 yard gain followed by a 31 yard completion from Tanner McKee to Benjamin Yurosek, getting the ball to the Oregon State 29 yard line. After a 10 yard reception by Brycen Tremayne, Stanford got the ball to the Oregon State 20 yard line. Stanford would end up closing the drive with Casey Filkins finding the end zone on a 3rd and 1, making it a 7-0 lead for Stanford with 3:37 to go in the 1st quarter.
Oregon State would start their next drive on their own 1 yard line after a fair catch on the kickoff from Joshua Karty. At the end of the 1st quarter, Oregon State had the ball around midfield with a huge 3rd and 2 coming up. Oregon State would get the first down as Jack Colletto rushed up the middle.
On 2nd and 9 from the Stanford 19 yard line, Jack Velling got an 18 yard reception to get to the 1 yard line and from there, Oregon State was able to find the end zone on 1st and goal from the 1 yard line as Colletto rushed in. It was now a 7-7 game with 10:52 to go in the 2nd quarter.
On the next Stanford drive, the Cardinal would get into field goal range thanks to a pass interference call as McKee was trying to connect with Wilson. The Stanford drive would end in a field goal by Joshua Karty, making it a 10-7 lead for the Cardinal with 8:44 to go in the half.
The next three drives would lead to punts for both teams as Oregon State punted to Stanford, Stanford punted to Oregon State, and Stanford punted back to Oregon State. Stanford would get the ball on their own 39 yard line with 2:36 to go. On 3rd and 10, Filkins would rush for 12 yards, to the Oregon State 49 yard line. On 2nd and 7, McKee would connect with Wilson for a 22 yard reception before ending the drive with a 21 yard touchdown pass to Tremayne, making it a 17-7 lead for the Cardinal, a lead they would carry into halftime.
Stanford’s opening drive of the 2nd half would be a quick three and out, giving Oregon State the ball on their own 25 yard line following a punt from Ryan Sanborn. Ben Gulbranson would connect with Anthony Gould for a 16 yard reception to open the drive before tacking on another 15 yards after a pass interference call on Stanford defensive back Ethan Bonner. Fenwick would then rush up the middle for 13 yards to the Stanford 28 yard line, making it 1st and 10.
On 4th and 20 from the Stanford 27 yard line, Oregon State would attempt a 45 yard field goal and miss but get a second chance as Salim Turner-Muhammad was offsides for Stanford. On the second try from 40 yards out, Sappington would make a 40 yard field goal, making it a 17-10 game with 7:03 to go in the 3rd.
After a pair of punts from both teams, Stanford would get the ball on their own 35 yard line with 4:33 to go. On 3rd and 10, still from the 35 yard line, McKee would connect with Wilson for 28 yards to advance to the Oregon State 37 yard line. From 37 yards out, McKee would connect with Tremayne for a touchdown, making it a 24-10 lead for Stanford with 3:41 to go in the 3rd quarter.
“Yeah, Brycen is a special, special talent,” Shaw said. “Those downfield balls, the sideline catches, he's been doing it for three years, just amazing. We just got to give him an opportunity. He and Tanner worked to make sure we are on the same page there. It really showed up tonight.
“He has such uncanny body control and ability to make those catches with guys all over him. We're going to need a lot more of that going forward. But proud to see him coming back from his injury, being back to where he was before.”
“I mean, it feels good, but it's just kind of overwhelmed by the loss,” Tremayne added. “I don't know, there's so many things that we can improve on still as a team, myself included. But it's good to be back out there in the end zone again, yeah.”
At the end of the 3rd quarter, it would remain a 24-10 Stanford lead, but Oregon State had the ball on the Stanford 21 yard line on 3rd and 8. The Beavers got into Stanford territory thanks to a 29 yard gain by Martinez. On 4th and 8 from the 21 yard line, Ben Gulbranson would connect with Silas Bolden for a pretty 21 yard touchdown to the corner. Oregon State would go for the 2-point conversion and not convert, making it a 24-16 game with 14:50 to go.
After both teams trading punts, Oregon State would get the ball on their own 34 yard line with 6:59 to go. Gulbranson would connect with Bolden again, this time for a 20 yard reception, making it a 1st and 10 on the Stanford 46 yard line. After a 3 yard run by Fenwick, Martinez would have a 43 yard rushing touchdown to make it a 24-22 game with 5:45 to go. Oregon State would go for the 2-point conversion again and not convert.
Stanford would get the ball on their own 23 yard line with 5:36 to go and proceed to methodically, perhaps too methodically, march the ball down the field and kick a field goal, leaving Oregon State with 58 seconds on the clock and down by five points (27-22). The real controversial play on the Stanford field goal drive came with Ashton Daniels coming in at quarterback on 3rd and 4 from the Oregon State 24 yard line. A first down would have won the game for Stanford since Oregon State had no time outs. Daniels ended up getting sacked, which led to the 46 yard Stanford field goal by Karty on 4th and 8.
“Yeah, most of it went our way that last drive up until the final couple plays,” Shaw said. “Second-and-short, thought we had an opportunity to get the first down. Didn't quite get it.
“Third down, went to a play that we felt really good about. Didn't get the first down. Wanted to run the clock down a little bit, make sure we were settled on the field goals. That's why we took a timeout as the clock was running down, make sure our guys were ready for the pressure they were going to see. Put the ball through the pipes.
“It was a good drive up until the last couple plays, you know? A lot of what we've been emphasizing, finishing the game, finishing runs. Still threw the ball with some success. Tried to go down the field. Got a pass interference penalty. New set of downs. Trying to go back between efficient passes and runs, make sure we keep the clock going, get positive yards and try to put the game away up until that last play.”
With one final drive left, Oregon State made the most of it. On 1st and 10 from the Oregon State 44 yard line, Ben Gulbranson connected with Tre’Shaun Harrison for a 56 yard touchdown a la Stefon Diggs against the Saints when he was with the Vikings. Harrison got by both Ethan Bonner and Patrick Fields for the touchdown. Bonner misread the pass and was out of position while Fields did the same, unable to get more than maybe a hand on him. Oregon State would not score the two point conversion as they took a knee, making it a 28-27 lead with 13 seconds to go.
“Yeah, ball went up, we had two guys in the area, and they (Oregon State) came down with it,” Shaw said of that final touchdown. “The ball goes up, we got to be in position, at the corner position. Got to be in a safety position where they're going to take the ball or get the guy down. Didn't do either one of those.
“We worked a lot on things like that, and we just didn't make it happen. Did it pretty much the entire game up until that final play. Got to make those plays.”
Stanford’s drive would end with McKee throwing an interception. 28-27 Oregon State pulled out a miracle on The Farm.
For Oregon State, this is a nice win. They were without their starting quarterback and found a way to outscore Stanford 18-3 in the 4th quarter. They never gave up and got the job done.
For Stanford, this loss is gut wrenching. They were up 24-10 entering the 4th quarter and booted the game away. They had so many opportunities to close the game and didn’t. They gave the Beavers just enough daylight to pull off a miracle finish.
“Yeah, we were playing two man. We were in our dime package. Didn't really get a glimpse, honestly, of what happened on the other side,” Stanford safety Jonathan McGill said. “Just threw a fade. We had some guys in position. They made a better play than we did in that specific situation.
“We were holding up in the back end for the majority of the game. Obviously play calling was definitely not the issue or anything like that. In the secondary, we take full responsibility definitely for what happened on that play.
“Coach Akina says all the time, if we make a mistake, it's a touchdown. That's the life of a DB, but we'll definitely shake it off and get back to work.”
When asked about whether or not they were too conservative at the end, Shaw disagreed. He felt the play calling and game plan was fine. It was just a matter of executing all the way through.
“No. We marched the ball all the way down the field,” Shaw said. “We took most of the clock. Third down, we ran a play that we really feel strongly about, that we had an opportunity to make.
“So I thought we did what we were supposed to do towards the end of the game except that last play. If we got a little closer and got to a fourth and one and a half, yeah, I'd probably go for it. But we didn't have that opportunity.
“I don't think we were conservative all night. I thought we mixed it up. I thought we did a great job. I think Coach Pritchard really pushed on some of those play-action passes, some of the things we worked on over the week, great communication between run and campus and personnel usage.
“Tanner made, like, four unbelievable throws, two going to his left, that probably only three guys in college football can make. Like I said, we fought all the way till the end. We were aggressive on both sides of the ball like we wanted to be. We just didn't finish the game.”
At this point, all that Stanford can do is do their best to shake this off and get ready for Notre Dame next week, which will be on the road. Kickoff will be at 4:30 PM PT on NBC on Saturday, October 15th.
“Yeah, that's been the story of our season thus far,” Shaw said when asked of how to build on the positives without dwelling on the negatives. “Up until this point, for the last three weeks, the positives have been sporadic. Tonight the positives were everywhere. That's going to be the trick for a bunch of guys that are 18 to 22 years old, being able to handle the difficulty of a loss when you had the game won but come right back and still look at those positives and believe in those positives, find a way, some way, shape or form to finish a game with a victory.
“That's what's going to be. It's going to be so hard for these guys. Fought so hard the whole game. Guys were gassed. We had to roll guys through to keep guys fresh. Our guys battled the whole night, they really did. So much happened tonight that I'm so proud of coming back off a difficult loss. Shows the character of this football team, character of the guys we had in our locker room. Just got to find a way to finish the last couple minutes.”
“Yeah, it's tough. It was a really close game, and it came down to the last seconds,” Tremayne said. “We just got to get back in the film room.
“I mean, no one played a perfect game. Everybody can improve somewhere. If we can just improve every week, then it's going to come together at some point. I'm excited for when it does.”
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