On Saturday night, Stanford football fell to #6 USC on the road by a final score of 56-10. USC quarterback Caleb Williams balled out with a 250 quarterback rating, going 19-21 for 281 yards, 3 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions while rushing for a 21 yard touchdown. Running back MarShawn Lloyd rushed for 77 yards and 1 touchdown on 9 attempts.
The top offensive player for Stanford was quarterback Justin Lamson, who came in to replace Ashton Daniels after Daniels got injured. Lamson had a 100.9 quarterback rating, going 8-18 for 121 yards while rushing for 36 yards and 1 touchdown on 16 attempts. Defensively, Stanford cornerback Collin Wright had 10 total tackles, all of which were solo while also having a tackle for a loss and a pass breakup. The other Stanford player with a tackle for loss was linebacker Gaethan Bernadel, who had 6 total tackles (5 solo). USC improves to 3-0 overall while Stanford falls to 1-1.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at USC-Saturday, September 9th
“Yeah, incredible football team, they’re very well-coached,” Stanford head coach Troy Taylor said of USC in his opening remarks. “Great talent and an impressive team. Obviously we didn’t play as well as we liked, but we have to give them credit. They played a huge part in that. So, didn’t get off to a good start. But our guys did compete in the second half and I was proud of that and we will learn from this game, we will get better, and I promise you, we’ll be ready to play next week.”
This game was one-way traffic for the Trojans from the start. On the opening drive, Caleb Williams had a 21 yard rushing touchdown to make it a 7-0 lead with 11:59 to go in the 1st quarter before MarShawn Lloyd followed that up with a five-yard touchdown to make it a 14-0 lead with 9:05 to go in the quarter. USC quickly got the ball back after Daniels threw a pass that was picked off by safety Max Williams.
The next possession Stanford had after Lloyd’s touchdown resulted in a punt after which they surprisingly forced USC to punt as well. Stanford would have to punt on their next drive as well as the only highlight was a 10 yard run by Daniels. This gave USC the ball back on their own 7 yard line with 5:02 to go in the quarter. USC would march down the field and cap off the drive with a one yard touchdown by former Stanford running back Austin Jones. It was already a 21-0 lead for the Trojans with 7 seconds left in the quarter.
The 2nd quarter started off with a bang. A bang for the Trojans that is. Stanford would punt on their next drive only for it to result in a 75 yard touchdown return by Zachariah Branch. 28-0 the Trojans were cruising to a victory with 13:43 to go until halftime. Prior to the punt, Daniels got injured as he was strip sacked by Solomon Byrd only for Stanford to recover the ball. That would be the final play of the game for Daniels as Lamson came in to replace him.
“I think he’s going to be ok,” Taylor said of Daniels. “He got banged up a little bit. Just felt like it was a good opportunity to give Justin a chance to play. Justin is a really good player who’s worked really hard, who’s had a great camp. So, he did some good things when he came in.”
With Lamson now in at quarterback, Stanford started with the ball on their own 25 yard line. Lamson would complete a 31 yard pass to John Humphreys, giving the Cardinal a little bounce in their step only for the next play to be another strip sack, this time resulting in USC getting the ball back on their own 45 yard line. USC would complete the next drive with a touchdown as Caleb Williams found Dorian Singer for a 19 yard touchdown. With 10:42 to go until halftime, USC now led 35-0. Stanford would finally get on the scoreboard on their next drive as Joshua Karty drained a 38 yard field goal with 7:02 to go in the half. E.J. Smith had a pair of nice runs (19 yards & 29 yards) to help the Cardinal get in field goal range. It was now 35-3.
USC quickly responded as Caleb Williams connected with Brenden Rice for a 75 yard touchdown on the next drive. With 6:46 to go, USC led 42-3.
As if that wasn’t bad enough for the Cardinal, USC would tack on yet one more touchdown before halftime as a later drive resulted in Williams connecting with Lake McRee for a one yard touchdown with 10 seconds to go in the half. 49-3 lead for USC at halftime.
After an offensive explosion by the Trojans in the first half, things quieted down in the second half as Miller Moss came in to replace Caleb Williams at quarterback for USC. Neither team would score in the 3rd quarter, keeping it a 49-3 game.
In the 4th quarter, Stanford became the first team to find the end zone in the second half. With 8:48 to go, Stanford started their drive on their 21 yard line. Justin Lamson connected with Benjamin Yurosek for a 23 yard completion before immediately finding Yurosek again for a 19 yard completion. Lamson then found Smith for an 11 yard completion.
After an incomplete pass, Lamson found Humphreys for an 11 yard completion before finding Yurosek up the middle for six yards. After getting the ball to the 11 yard line, Lamson rushed for nine yards to Stanford a couple yards away from the end zone. After a one yard gain by Lamson, Lamson would find the end zone from one yard out, making it a 49-10 game after the extra point. USC for whatever reason challenged the touchdown, but the call stood. 3:39 to go in the game.
USC responded with a touchdown on the next drive as Miller Moss found the end zone on a 15 yard touchdown run with 58 seconds to go. In the end, it would be a 56-10 final as USC won wire to wire.
“Going into the game, they’re really good,” Taylor said. “They’re talented. So, you know you gotta play well early and trying to hang around and obviously we didn’t do that. So, the expectation was to come in and play really well and win the football game. And that didn’t happen and they outplayed us and obviously it’s very frustrating, but I still love this team. I love our guys. I love how they compete and we got a long season ahead of us for us to continue to get better and we will improve each week.
“We’re still learning about our team. What I do know though is they’re gonna compete, they’re not gonna stop, and they’re gonna continue to get better and we’ll be the same as the coaching staff. We’ll continue to move forward and its who we are in the season is early on. It hasn’t been defined. It’s just one day. Obviously we’re not at their level right now. But we will shoot to be there and we’ll continue to work at it.”
For Stanford, this is obviously not how they wanted the night to go. USC is a heated rival and with the future of the rivalry in doubt due to conference realignment, this one had some extra weight to it. That said, the two teams couldn’t be in a more different place. USC is gunning for a national championship while Stanford is picked last in the conference and undergoing a rebuild in year one of the Troy Taylor era. As Taylor said, his team did play hard with young guys like Collin Wright showing why the future is bright for this program.
“Yeah, Collin is a really good player,” Taylor said. “He’s young, too. He’s gonna continue to improve. He’s really competitive. I thought his demeanor was good the entire game. He was in it. He was locked in and he was competing. We are excited about a lot of our young guys.”
The main thing for Stanford is to not let this result shatter their confidence or have it result in a hangover game. They have a beatable opponent coming to town next week in Sacramento State and they have to make sure they are ready and sharp for that matchup. If they play well next week and win, that will really help them put this loss behind them.
“They’re competitors,” Taylor said of his team. “These guys work really hard. They’re not gonna go in the tank over one game. It’s disappointing, they should be disappointed. We’ll lick our wounds and we’ll wake up tomorrow and we’ll get ready for the next week. We’re early in the season. We’re a young team. We knew that. But that doesn’t mean we can’t be a really good team. We’ll continue to work and I can promise you those guys won’t go in the tank. They’ll be ready to roll.”
On that note, Stanford’s home opener against Sacramento State will kick off on Saturday, September 16th at 5:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and KNBR 1050 AM.
“Yeah, they’re a good team,” Taylor said of the Hornets. “They got really good coaches I know. It’ll be a challenge, but we’ll be better next week and we’ll be ready to play.”
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