Recap: Stanford gets blown out by Cal in 124th Big Game
On Saturday, Stanford football suffered their worst loss in the Big Game since 2004 (41-6) and their worst loss in the Big Game on The Farm since 1975 (48-15), losing to Cal by a final score of 41-11. Cal senior quarterback Chase Garbers led the way for the Golden Bears going 17-26 for 246 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 1 interception. Cal senior running back Christopher Brooks rushed for a team high 131 yards plus a one yard receiving touchdown while senior running back Marcel Dancy rushed for 92 yards and 2 touchdowns. Cal senior wide receiver Trevon Clark had 135 receiving yards including an 84 yard touchdown, the longest pass in Big Game history.
Stanford sophomore quarterback Tanner McKee went 26-44 for 239 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions while junior running back Austin Jones had 1 rushing touchdown, though he only rushed for 28 yards. Cal improves to 4-6 overall and 3-4 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 3-8 overall and 2-7 in the Pac-12.
“Congratulations to Cal,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “They were a better team today. No question about it. We had our opportunities. Looking back, probably too aggressive.
“First few drives, we got down there inside the five yard line. Went for it on fourth down knowing they were a good football team, knowing they were going to come back. Had a chance to go up 14-0 and didn't get either one of those. Tough shot, you know. Took our shot. Didn't do well enough. Too aggressive on my part.
“Game continued on. And they got momentum. Made some nice plays. We missed some tackles, you know. Lost leverage a couple times. Quarterback got outside a couple times. Runners got outside a couple times.
“And then typical, you know, one guys misses a tackle, then we're off to the races. So not good enough by any stretch of the imagination. Had a couple opportunities and didn't take advantage. That's kind of been one of the issues for the entire year. Put ourselves in position and don't finish. And I put that on myself to put these guys in a position to be successful.
“Really disappointing. Coming off of probably the best week of practice we probably had all year. Bunch of guys back. Some of those guys coming back maybe a little rusty. But they played hard. They played hard.
“So all credit goes to Cal. Great job.”
Stanford got the ball to start the game, but on their first possession, McKee threw a pick to freshman cornerback Lu-Magia Hearns III with 14:14 to go in the first quarter. That was not the start that Stanford was hoping to have. Stanford would get the ball right back though as Cal running back Damien Moore fumbled the ball on the next possession thanks to Stanford defensive tackle Dalyn Wade-Perry forcing it out and cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly making the recovery.
With the ball again, Stanford was hoping to make Cal pay for their turnover as they got the ball on the Cal 32. Stanford would get the ball down to the 2 yard line on a 4th and 2 and run a quarterback sneak that failed, giving Cal the ball back on the 1 yard line.
On their next possession, as Cal was backed up on a 3rd and 16 from the Stanford 19, Chase Garbers was picked off in the end zone by Stanford junior safety Jonathan McGill, who was playing in his first game of the season. McGill returned the ball to the 20 yard line, getting Stanford’s offense the ball with 5:25 to go in the quarter.
“Yeah. It's always great any time, you know, I can be back on the field playing with my brothers, just competing,” McGill said of his return. “You know, that was the one thing I probably missed the most, obviously, just competition. A real competitive guy, so being back out there, lining it up, strapping it up with some of the seniors, the juniors, some of the sophomores, my first time being on the field with Jimmy. That was a real fun thing for myself. Loved being back out there being comfortable again. Obviously hoped the result obviously would have been different, but it was great being back out there.”
Thanks to a 15 yard completion to junior wide receiver Elijah Higgins and a 27 yard completion to sophomore tight end Benjamin Yurosek, Stanford had the ball on the Cal 8 yard line with four downs to work with. After two runs from Austin Jones that combined for five yards, McKee would get sacked, setting up a fourth and goal on the Cal 5 yard line as the game was now in the early second quarter. On that play, McKee tried to find Yurosek in the end zone on a fade and wasn’t able to connect with him, once again giving Cal the ball.
“Yeah. When you get down there -- there's been no secret what we've done around here for going on 15 years, we're going to take some shots with our big guys outside and we try to run the ball,” Shaw said of Stanford’s red zone offense. “A couple things we tried to do getting on the edge. They had a couple of nice plays by them, didn't let us get on the edge. And we missed, you know -- not saying Tanner missed, but we missed each other a couple times. And down there, it's all timing. It's all trust and consistency. And we missed each other.
“So fourth down, both times, try to call plays that we felt good about. You know, one ended up being a bad call. The other one probably, if it was executed better, had a chance.”
Shortly into their next possession, Chase Garbers would find Trevon Clark for an 84 yard touchdown, which as was said at the outset of this piece, was the longest pass in the history of the Big Game. Cal was now up 7-0 with 12:01 to go in the 2nd quarter.
“All right, so, yeah, that's a play we practice all week,” Clark said of the 84 yard touchdown. “They were trying to play us man coverage. We knew we could take advantage of the middle of the field, so we repped it through our practice. Me and Chase continued to connect on it.
“As soon as I heard him call it I knew I was going to score, I didn't care where I was on the field. I caught it. Lit up like a Christmas tree.”
Stanford’s next possession resulted in a punt, giving Cal the ball back on their own 20 yard line. Thanks to a 13 yard reception by Kekoa Crawford and a 17 yard completion to Trevon Clark, Cal had the ball on the Stanford 31 yard line. On a 3rd and 5 on the 31 yard line, Garbers connected with wide receiver Monroe Young for a 30 yard completion down to the 1 yard line. Once on the 1 yard line, Christopher Brooks was able to find the end zone on a yard reception, giving Cal a 14-0 lead with 5:38 to go in the half.
To Stanford’s credit, they were able to get on the board before halftime, making it a 14-3 game as both teams headed into the locker room. Still, all was going Cal’s way and Stanford was in a lot of trouble. Stanford had another crack at the end zone right before they trotted out the field goal unit as Tanner McKee and Michael Wilson were unable to connect in the end zone.
“Yeah. I just think we really had to execute,” McKee said of why they weren’t able to find the end zone in the red zone. “Each time, it was kind of a little different thing. Whether it was leverage or getting push or me kind of putting a little more air under the ball to let our guy go attack it. It was just little things that we have to kind of execute that we practice all the time in practice. And in the game, we can't really change anything about that. So with more reps and everything like that, we'll be able to do that, no doubt.”
The 3rd quarter went Cal’s way as they would outscore Stanford 13-0. Cal would make a field goal, force a punt, and make another field goal to make it a 20-3 game before a 76 yard touchdown rush by Marcel Dancy made it a 27-3 lead for the Golden Bears with 1:21 to go in the 3rd quarter. Stanford would keep the ball going into the 4th quarter and on that same drive, they would find the end zone as Austin Jones scored on a one yard touchdown on 2nd and 1. A 14 yard reception by Benjamin Yurosek, a pass interference call against Cal, and a 12 yard reception by Michael Wilson helped set that up. McKee would find John Humphreys in the end zone to convert the two point conversion, making it a 27-11 game.
Stanford would then attempt an onside kick that didn’t work as Cal would get the ball back on the Stanford 39 yard line with 12:45 to go. Cal would find the end zone a shade over two minutes later as Dancy found the end zone to make a 34-11 game with 10:30 to go. A 27 yard rush by Nikko Remigio helped set that up.
Cal wasn’t done as they would force Stanford to punt on their next possession before finding the end zone once more off a 5 yard touchdown by Chris Street with 5:00 to go to make it a 41-11 game. That touchdown was set up by a 14 yard reception by Jake Tonges and a 19 yard rush by Chris Street.
In the end, 41-11 was all she wrote as Cal walked out with a dominating Big Game victory as Cal fans stormed the field in jubilation. Wins over Stanford in the Big Game have been rare for Cal over the years, hence their excitement. They came out motivated and fired up and took advantage of Stanford’s soft run defense while also making big defensive plays in the red zone. Cal deserved this one without a doubt.
For Stanford, this loss really stings. It caps off what has been a really disappointing year for them. What makes this loss sting a little more is the fact that there was some hope they could win this game given the return of Tanner McKee, Kyu Blu Kelly, Jonathan McGill (who had a great first game back), Elijah Higgins, and E.J. Smith. To get beat by Cal this soundly and especially when you consider Cal hasn’t even been good this year, is just really insulting to what they perceive their program to stand for. Winning The Stanford Axe and keeping it in Palo Alto is something they always expect to do and so to lose to this Cal team in particular, is really rough.
“Yeah. Obviously, a little disappointed,” McKee said of the outcome given the strong week of practice. “This week we just had great energy, great juice, thought we were executing well. But obviously it wasn't good enough. So this week it's got to be that much better so it can carry over into the game. We can't just practice great and expect it to happen in the game. We have to make it happen. We say momentum doesn't create itself, you create momentum. So that momentum has to be brought into the game through practice.”
At this point, all that Stanford can do is look ahead to next week’s matchup against #6 Notre Dame and see if they can at least use that as an opportunity for growth for next year. That game will kick off on Saturday, November 27th at 5:00 PM PT on FOX and KNBR radio.
“It's huge,” McKee said of playing well against Notre Dame. “We have to practice angry. We've obviously had a lot of games that didn't go the way that we wanted to. And so we kind of have to practice with a chip on our shoulder and come out and not just expect for things to change but to come out and play angry and get a little meaner up front and make our plays on the outside and for me to make my reads and make plays at the quarterback position. We have to play with more of a chip on our shoulder. I think that will benefit us for sure.”