Recap: Stanford vanquishes Vanderbilt
On Saturday, Stanford football defeated Vanderbilt 41-23 on the road in Nashville, Tennessee. Stanford quarterback Tanner McKee led the way for the Cardinal going 19-29 for 218 yards, 2 touchdowns, and 0 interceptions. Running back Austin Jones was the top rusher for the Cardinal with 80 yards on 7 attempts with a long of 61 yards while wide receiver Brycen Tremayne was the top receiver with 54 yards and 1 touchdown on 5 receptions. As for Vanderbilt, running back Rocko Griffin rushed for 107 yards on 19 attempts. Stanford improves to 2-1 overall while Vanderbilt falls to 1-2.
“Just like to say, it was great to come out with a win,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “I thought we started fast offensively. They had a big drive defensively. We were relatively even; I made the call to go for it on 4th down inside the five yard line and I would love to have that call back. Some things we called later were really good and honestly I just called the wrong one. Yeah, I should have called something else.
"Turned it over to the defense and it was a heck of a drive by Vanderbilt. Going all the way down the field. We had plenty of opportunities to stop’em and we just didn’t. And after that, I thought we played really solid defense. We kept them out of the end zone until the very end...The big thing though is for us to stay together and stay tight. Defense really helped us out in that second half. Offensively, couple things went against us. We hurt ourselves a couple times. Had a couple times to get first downs and get those things called back. Those were really painful, but great learning opportunities and it didn’t cost us the game, but we have to be able to close the door in the fourth quarter when we have a lead and we did not do that tonight to our satisfaction.”
Stanford got the ball first and made quick work of the Vanderbilt secondary in their opening drive as a 61 yard run by Austin Jones got them down to the Vanderbilt 2 yard line. A holding penalty on guard Jake Hornibrook pushed the Cardinal back five yards. On the following play, Tanner McKee scored on a seven yard touchdown, making it a 7-0 Stanford lead following the extra point with 12:37 to go in the 1st quarter.
Vanderbilt’s offense likewise scored with ease on their opening drive. Quarterback Ken Seals and running back Re’Mahn Davis led the charge as Seals did a nice job of finding open receivers and making plays with his legs while Davis did a nice job of finding holes in the Stanford defense to run through. Things got a little dramatic with a 4th and goal situation on the 1 yard line, but Vanderbilt was able to tie the game up 7-7 with 7:35 to go in the quarter thanks to Davis running the ball into the end zone.
On Stanford’s following possession, they once again had little trouble scoring on Vanderbilt’s defense. McKee completed a pair of 15 yard passes to tight end Ben Yurosek and wide receiver Elijah Higgins, which helped Stanford get the ball on the Vanderbilt 21 yard line. From there, Stanford was able to score on a 21 yard touchdown run from Nathaniel Peat to lead 14-7 with 2:52 to go in the quarter.
On Vanderbilt’s next possession, the Commodores were unable to score, but they moved the chains decently well once again. The biggest play of the drive was a 14 yard completion from Seals to wide receiver Chris Pierce. Right before the 1st quarter came to a close, Vanderbilt had 3rd and 9 and looked like they got the first down as the quarter ended. However, the play was ruled incomplete and Vanderbilt was forced to attempt a field goal from the Stanford 34 yard line in the first play of the 2nd quarter, which they would miss. Stanford got a bit of a break, but the defense was still looking shaky.
On the offensive drive, things got off to a great start as McKee and Yurosek connected for a 32 yard completion. A 7 yard completion to fullback Houston Heimuli and a 10 yard completion to Brycen Tremayne helped Stanford get the ball to the 13 yard line. From there, Stanford got the ball on the 2 yard line thanks to a pass interference call against Vanderbilt. Stanford now had 1st and goal on the 2 yard line.
Rather than going up 21-7, Stanford proceeded to have a rather sloppy goal line possession. A pair of wildcat possessions featuring graduate student quarterback Isaiah Sanders went nowhere and on 4th and 2, Austin Jones was unable to score the touchdown. As a result, Stanford gave Vanderbilt the ball back with 98 yards to go and a 7 point lead.
The next Vanderbilt possession went great for the Commodores and horrible for the Cardinal. A 34 yard run from Rocko Griffin got the Commodores a huge chunk of yardage to their own 48 yard line while a 26 yard run from Re’Mahn Davis got the Commodores to the Stanford 16 yard line. A 14 yard reception from Will Sheppard got Vanderbilt to the Stanford 2 yard line. After a one yard loss, Seals connected with Devin Boddie for a 3 yard touchdown, tying the game up 14-14 with 4:19 to go until halftime.
At this point, it really appeared to be anybody’s game. Both offenses were looking great while the defenses looked pretty weak. It was a question of when would one of the defenses step up.
Stanford’s next offensive possession failed to deliver a touchdown, but it wasn’t a total loss as Josh Karty was able to make his first field goal of the year from 46 yards out after a five yard penalty took away what would have been a 41 yard kick. The extra five yards didn’t matter to Karty as it looked like he could have kicked the ball from outer space and still made it. As a result, Stanford led 17-14 with 1:53 to go in the half.
The next Vanderbilt drive is when the tide shifted in Stanford’s way for good. On 3rd and 8 from their own 27 yard line, Ken Seals’ pass intended for Chris Pierce was picked off by Stanford true freshman cornerback Jimmy Wyrick. This gave Stanford the ball on the Vanderbilt 31 yard line. From there, it took two quick plays for Stanford to find the end zone: McKee to wide receiver John Humphreys for 26 yards to the 5 yard line; McKee to Brycen Tremayne for the touchdown. As a result, Stanford now led 24-14 with 40 seconds to go in the half.
“The group’s been great,” Shaw said of the Stanford secondary. “Really since spring. And we’ve got great leadership in that room. The guys really did a great job of bringing the young guys along. Over the summer, the coaches, we don’t work with them. I think you’re allowed to do something; I don’t like it. I think it builds leadership and character on your team when you put the young guys underneath the older guys and the older guys are in charge and this group has been so special. Noah Williams and Kyu Kelly. That whole group. Kendall Williamson. Taking those freshmen in and just teaching them. Not thinking any of them are going to play, but it doesn’t matter. They teach them and then a couple guys go down and Jimmy has to go out there and he knows what to do.
“Coach Akina did a great job of training them and getting them ready. But there’s a lot of leadership in that room, there’s a lot of tight togetherness and bonding with those guys that I think is really special. And even at the end, we put another couple young guys in there, they did their jobs, they did it well, they knew what to do. That was exciting to see.”
Rather than taking a knee or at least burning out the clock, Vanderbilt found a way to punt the ball to Stanford, giving the Cardinal time to add more points to the scoreboard before halftime.
The Cardinal did just that as a 48 yard punt return from Casey Filkins plus a five yard Vanderbilt penalty gave Josh Karty a 35 yard chip shot, which he knocked down. As a result, Stanford now led 27-14 at halftime. After a rocky start to the first half, Stanford headed into the tunnel with a lot of momentum.
“We take pride in takeaways,” Stanford linebacker Jordan Fox said. “They change the outcome of the game. They’re a big momentum shift in changing in the game. So, getting a takeaway, getting an interception, putting our offense on great field position to score right away is huge. Just big momentum shift right from that play. So, big time play by Jimmy Wyrick.”
Vanderbilt got the ball to start the 3rd quarter but wasn’t able to do much with the opportunity. They got the ball on the 25 yard line following a touchback and had a series consisting of a three-yard loss, a four yard gain to make up for the three yard loss, and then a one yard completion, which led to a punt.
Stanford would get the ball on their own 45 yard line following a 13 yard return from Filkins. A 24 yard completion from McKee to Tremayne got Stanford the ball on the Vanderbilt 31 yard line. From there, fullback Jay Symonds came alive for the Cardinal. McKee connected with Symonds on a 26 yard completion to the 5 yard line and on the next play, McKee found him again for a five-yard touchdown completion. Following the extra point, Stanford now led 34-14 with 11:18 to go in the 3rd quarter.
“I feel like always just take what the defense gives us,” McKee said of their offensive game plan. “I feel like we had answers because we weren’t one hundred percent what they were going to do, whether they were going to play man, play quarters, try to cloud things. And so we had good concepts whether two high worked left, one high work right or hot answers or things like that. So I just thought we called great plays and we had answers to everything the defense throwing at us and we just took what the defense gave us.”
On the next Vanderbilt drive, the Commodores were able to get some points. Rocko Griffin had a nice 36 yard run while tight end Gavin Schoenwald had a 19 yard reception to get to the Stanford 16 yard line. However, that would be the closest Vanderbilt would get to the goal line as a five yard penalty pushed them back before they had to settle for a field goal from Joseph Bulovas. As a result, it was a 34-17 Stanford lead with 8:26 to go in the 3rd quarter.
At this point, it looked like Stanford might drop 50+ points on Vanderbilt and make this an epic beatdown. But instead, things started to stall a bit for Stanford on offense. Fortunately, Vanderbilt ran into the same problem. The next four possessions all resulted in punts from both teams. This carried over into the 4th quarter as Stanford got the ball on the 11 yard line with 13:04 to go. On the next drive, Stanford was unable to break the cycle as Ryan Sanborn once again had to come out and punt, giving Vanderbilt the ball with 10:39 to go on their own 27 yard line. While they were in trouble, the Commodores were not dead. They still had life and needed to make the most of the fact that Stanford wasn’t putting them away.
Rather than capitalizing on the opportunity, Vanderbilt once again punted the ball back to Stanford, which was fair caught by Casey Filkins on the Stanford 32 yard line with 9:03 to go. Stanford’s following drive was once again a disappointment, this time resulting in McKee getting sacked. This led to another punt from Sanborn, who was starting to have a busy night after having a chill first half.
But once again, Vanderbilt failed to take advantage as their punter Harrison Smith had to conclude the drive with a 47 yard boot to the Stanford 14 yard line. Like Sanborn, Smith was having a busy night of his own.
“All the time we talk about burying teams and I think our guys got a little complacent,” McKee admitted. “Just knowing that we did score pretty easily in the first half. Obviously we gotta finish drives. We can’t get stopped on the one yard line leaving points on the board. And so I just have to do my part also. Keeping guys motivated and with fire and ready to go coming out of the second half so we can start in the second half just as fast as we did with the start of the game.”
With 6:52 to go in the game and possession of the ball, Stanford led 34-17 with nothing changing on the scoreboard since early in the 3rd quarter. Stanford could have easily conjured up another punt, but this time they came to life. An 11 yard run by Filkins and a 12 yard completion to Higgins gave Stanford the ball on the Vanderbilt 45 yard line. A 20 yard run by Filkins then gave Stanford the ball on the Vanderbilt 22 yard line. After playing rather sleepily for much of the 3rd and 4th quarters, Stanford’s offense was alive once more.
Following a short run by McKee, E.J. Smith got in on the action with an 18-yard run to the Vanderbilt 1 yard line, which included an impressive hurdle and some shifty action that was reminiscent of his father Emmitt. Smith was then able to finish the job with a one yard touchdown, but it came with a bit of a cost as he headed to the medical tent to get treated following the score. Stanford now led 41-17 with just 1:44 to go.
In the end, Vanderbilt was able to pad their stats a bit as Mike Wright came in at quarterback and found wide receiver Cam Johnson for a last second touchdown to make it a 41-23 final score. It made the end result look not as bad as 41-17, but that was it.
Overall, this was a good win for Stanford. It was on the road against an SEC team and while it was against one of the weaker SEC teams, it was still an SEC team that they faced. Vanderbilt has some decent weapons, which is why the game was close early. To Stanford’s credit, they made big plays when they needed to and put Vanderbilt away in the end.
Tanner McKee was once again fantastic and the running backs as a whole were excellent, combining for 204 yards and three touchdowns. Stanford was able to rest Austin Jones because they have competent running backs behind him. Having that kind of depth is really nice for Stanford and David Shaw is making the most of it.
“We’ve been talking about it for a while and once again, I’ll praise Austin Jones,” Shaw said. “He’s the leader in that group. He’s does so many things well and he understands too we got a really good group. So, he’s our starter, he’s going to be in there, we’re going to keep sprinkling these guys in and at the same time, we’re taking hits off of him as we get late in these last couple games, we got the lead and we’re going to take Austin out. There’s going to be some games where it’s really nip and tuck at the end and we’re going to put him in there and he’s going to be up there in carries.
“For him to come out the last couple games with less than 15 carries a game, I’m sure he would love to have it more, but at the same time, we’re saving him for when we need him and thankfully those other guys are coming in and making plays and it was great to see him get loose out there, it really was. He’s been needing that. But once again, that’s our guy, that’s our leader, those guys follow him. But it’s a special group and you saw all four make plays today and hopefully you’ll see that the entire season.”
The Stanford defense was sketchy at times, but they too did what they needed to win. Wyrick’s interception was the play that really changed the game for them and Stanford also found ways to get pressure on Ken Seals including a sack by linebacker Stephen Herron.
Touching quickly on the kicking game, Josh Karty performed well going 2-2 on his field goal kicks while Ryan Sanborn averaged 44.8 yards per punt with one dribbling inside the 5 yard line, worthy of a chef’s kiss. Knowing how much David Shaw loves to pin teams with quality punting, you know he was very pleased with that one.
Up next for Stanford is their first home game of the season on Saturday, September 25th against UCLA. That game will kick off at 3:00 PM PST on Pac-12 Networks. After seven straight games away from The Farm, Stanford is excited to play in front of their home fans again.
“I’m looking forward to it. It’s been a long time,” Shaw said of playing a home game. “I was just kind of being facetious at the end of the game, you know we gotta give the guys a map to the game day locker room. They haven’t been there in so long. But we’re excited. We’re excited to be able to go home. It’s been a long road trip. Finishing the season last year, starting the season this year.
“We’re excited to go back and play at home against a really good UCLA football team that’s given us fits really for the last few years. We have to prepare ourselves for a Chip Kelly attack. He’s done a great job against us and we have to be ready defensively. Offensively, we’ve been up and down against those guys. A couple years ago, didn’t play as well as we should have. Last year, played great for a while, then played terrible for a while, then played great at the end. So we gotta have a good even high energy game. But it will be great to be home. Back with our fans.”