Recap: Stanford looks sluggish in opening loss to Kansas State

On Saturday, Stanford football lost to Kansas State by a final score of 24-7 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. Kansas State improves to 1-0 overall while Stanford falls to 0-1.

Kansas State quarterback Skylar Thompson went 9-14 for 144 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 1 interception while rushing for 33 yards and 2 touchdowns. Kansas State running back Deuce Vaughn rushed for 124 yards and 1 touchdown on 13 carries while wide receiver Phillip Brooks had 3 receptions for 81 yards.

Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee went 15-18 for 118 yards, 1 touchdown, and 0 interceptions for a 156.7 passer rating. Stanford quarterback Jack West, who started the game, didn’t play as well, going 8-12 for 76 yards, 0 touchdowns, and 2 interceptions for an 86.5 passer rating.

Stanford wide receiver Brycen Tremayne had 5 receptions for 62 yards and 1 touchdown while Stanford cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly had an interception that resulted in a touchback. Stanford punter Ryan Sanborn had 6 punts for 238 yards, 1 touchback, and 2 punts inside the 20 that were on or inside the 10 yard line.

“Pretty straight forward. I have an idea what the film’s going to say,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Played well in spurts. Our opponent played better in more spurts. Our opponent, Kansas State, give them a lot of credit. They were very opportunistic. We gave them a lane. The lane—runs turn into big plays…Played pretty well on the defensive side of it, but that’s what it takes. Giving up way too many big plays, too many explosive plays.

“On the offensive side, we couldn’t establish anything running-wise. We had a couple of nice creases. But once we got down, we tried to mix in the run but we were inefficient. Very inefficient. And then we had to throw the ball…I’ll say this, we had opportunities. Opportunities were there. You know, we had a hit a couple of them. At least three times off the top of my head, we had guys that were open and we didn’t give them a ball. So chalked it up to some inexperienced quarterback play and a couple times we got rushed. We had to get the ball out of our hands.

“But this game was not indicative of how hard we played, how hard we practiced, and how well we practiced. Disappointing to me because I put that on my shoulders that we didn’t go out there and execute better. Our guys are going to be sick when they watch this film because the opportunities are going to be there. They’re going to be there. We did not take advantage.”

Stanford got the ball first, but did not take advantage as they opened up with back-to-back false starts. As a result, Stanford had to punt the ball after their first drive, failing to establish any sort of rhythm. It was not the type of start that Stanford was hoping to have. Especially since Jack West had been given the starting nod.

Kansas State in contrast looked good out of the gates. They moved the ball past the 50 yard line in their first possession with ease and got within striking distance of a touchdown. Fortunately for Stanford, cornerback Kyu Blu Kelly made an acrobatic catch in the end zone that resulted in a touchback. Had he not made such a phenomenal play, Kansas State likely would have been on the scoreboard after their first possession.

Stanford once again failed to get anything going on offense as they once again punted the ball back to Kansas State. Kansas State quickly took advantage as Phillip Brooks got a 56 yard gain that got them inside the red zone. After that, Skylar Thompson was able to find the end zone as he rushed it in himself. As a result, Kansas State led 7-0 with 3:06 to go in the 1st quarter.

It was at this point that Tanner McKee entered the game for Stanford. During the remainder of the quarter, McKee was able to go 2-2 for 24 yards and put Stanford in a 3rd and 3 situation to start the 2nd quarter. That drive however ended up not bearing any fruit for Stanford as they once again had to punt. The punt ended up being a touchback, the only bad punt that Sanborn had all day.

Stanford’s defense got off to a good start on this drive with a first career sack from Tucker Fisk. The possession ended in a Kansas State punt to the 10 yard line where Bryce Farrell fielded the return as a fair catch. Stanford once again had to punt, unable to pick up a first down, but McKee made a good effort to get close to a first down by using his legs.

Stanford’s defense got Kansas State to a 3rd and 13 situation and looked like they might get a stop. Unfortunately, the next play was a 59 yard touchdown run from Deuce Vaughn, giving Kansas State a 14-0 lead with 6:17 to go in the half.

West now came back in for Stanford and was able to get the ball across the 50 yard line, giving Stanford a bit of life. But, it was very short lived momentum as West would get sacked before then throwing an interception coming out of a timeout.

Fortunately for Stanford, Kansas State didn’t put up any more points on the board before halftime making it a 14-0 lead for the Wildcats as the teams headed into the tunnel. Stanford looked sluggish on both sides of the ball, but especially on offense. The running game was virtually non-existent while the passing game was far too inconsistent, occasionally showing signs of life before dying once again. Kinda like a remote control car with faulty batteries.

Stanford opened up the second half with a kickoff out of bounds, giving Kansas State good field position. The Wildcats were not able to capitalize as Stephen Herron got a sack, which led to a Kansas State punt. McKee started the second half for Stanford at quarterback and was able to get the ball across the 50 yard line pretty quickly, finding John Humphreys down the sideline. With 11:54 to go in the 3rd, Stanford called for time, hoping to draw something up that would lead to a score.

Stanford would soon burn another timeout with 10:14 to go in the 3rd as the offensive line got out of synch. After looking like they might finally get in a position to score, Stanford once again shot themselves in the foot. The second timeout did pay off as Stanford was able to get a first down. Running back Austin Jones almost got a first down out of the timeout and then was able to finish the job as Isaiah Sanders came in at quarterback and handed him the ball to get the first down on the Kansas State 34 yard line.

Unfortunately for Stanford, they ended up punting thanks to McKee getting sacked. It was Stanford’s best opportunity to score all game and they didn’t get the job done. With 6:17 to go in the 3rd quarter, it was once again up to Stanford’s defense to come up big and keep them in the game.

To the Stanford defense’s credit, Kansas State wouldn’t score the rest of the quarter. They did a really nice job of putting pressure on the Kansas State offense, getting sacks, etc. They forced another punt and gave Stanford’s offense a chance to move the ball down the field heading into the 4th quarter. However, Stanford instead found themselves in a punting formation as they started the 4th quarter as the West-led offense continued to sputter.

“Saw some outstanding efforts,” Shaw said of the defense. “From the outlook, it looks like a couple guys making plays, but it helps when everybody else is doing their jobs and the guy who’s able to make the play makes the play.

“So I thought we played really good team defense and some good stretches. Those explosive plays really hurt bad. We stymied them after that. Once again, really good on third down. I thought we had a really good third down plan, except for the one that popped, the run that popped on us for a touchdown was on a third down…But once we got down 14-0, we did settle in and play pretty good defensive.”

“Yeah, I think the first one or two drives, specifically I know for the inside linebackers, that was a lot of our guys’ first—I’ve been injured two seasons,” Stanford linebacker Ricky Miezan added. “Levani [Damuni] only played five games. Tristan’s [Sinclair] played in a couple games. So nerves were high. Heart rates were high.

“And then once we kind of settled in and just calmed down, we just started—everything we practiced this week was what they were doing. So it was much easier to just play fast. And I think going forward, that’s kind of what we got to do, is just calm down. You know, we’ve practiced what we’ve done all week, so just execute. That’s the biggest thing is just execute.”

With 10:08 to go in the game, Kansas State now led 17-0 after Taiten Winkel knocked down a 40 yard field goal. Stanford’s defense once again did a nice job of not allowing a touchdown, but the lack of a competent offense prevented Stanford from taking advantage of their defense’s efforts.

On the next Stanford possession, West threw his second interception of the game and this time it almost got taken back to the house. Skylar Thompson instead got the honors of running in the touchdown, padding his stats, and giving Kansas State a 24-0 lead.

With McKee back in for the final Stanford possession, that’s when Stanford’s offense finally started to get rolling. A targeting penalty on Kansas State helped a bit, but even so, McKee made some nice throws and Jones did a nice job of helping Stanford get in the red zone. With a touchdown in sight, McKee did not miss, finding Tremayne in the end zone. It was a really nice pass into a tight window. The best drive Stanford had all game. Stanford would go for the extra point instead of going for the two-point conversion, making it a 24-7 game with 3:16 to go.

“Yeah, I think that drive, our scoring drive, I think the offense was just throwing nicely,” Tremayne said. “And it was a little more up tempo. And I trusted Tanner to throw the ball in the right spot, just high. And I went up and got it for him like we do in practice all the time.”

In the end, that would be all she wrote. Stanford wouldn’t recover the onside kick and Kansas State would go on to bleed out the clock. Kansas State walked out with a solid 24-7 victory that was never really in question. From the opening kickoff, Kansas State looked sharper, more in synch, and they won handily as a result.

For Stanford, this loss is disappointing. The two quarterback experiment didn’t go as planned and being totally honest, it’s hard to walk away from that game thinking it was the right move to start Jack West after the way he played. When you look at the numbers, Tanner McKee had the better game by far and the offense as a whole just seemed to have more life when he was under center. Whether or not that will be enough to earn him the starting job going forward remains to be seen. David Shaw gave no indication of how he’ll proceed going forward other than saying both guys did some good things and bad things:

“You know, some good, some bad from both. Both guys throughout training camp practiced extremely well. Good with the ball, careful with the ball, accurate, decisive. Both guys are a little inexperienced, and some of that showed up today.

“I thought Jack started off really well. Behind the chains way too many times. False start, holding call, went backwards too many times. It’s hard to play quarterback when you get in those negative plays. Couple times the first half, stepped up and made really big-time throws. One big one in the deep crossing route to Brycen Tremayne. A couple other opportunities in the middle. Made some nice throws to Ben [Yurosek]. But the turnover at the end of the half, turnover late, those things are tough.

“But Tanner did a solid job getting the ball out of his hands. Held it long maybe one or two times. A big thing with him, he probably missed about three—three big plays. I think one he didn’t see and two others, we just missed the throw by eight to 16 inches.

“So we’ll watch the film, but felt both guys played solid, but not near the way that they practiced and not near the way we need them to play for us to win.”

Up next for Stanford is a road game at #15 USC on Saturday, September 11. That game will kick off at 7:30 PM PST on FOX.

Note: David Shaw did address the status of linebacker Jacob Mangum-Farrar after the game, who was a late scratch:

“Yeah, we thought Jacob was going to be able to make it. Made the call kind of late yesterday that probably not a good idea. Should be ready to play next week. He was really close this week.”