“I can’t talk enough about the offensive line and the holes [they created]”, McCaffrey said.
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Stanford took over at its own 35 and immediately handed to McCaffrey.
Helton earned the job in part because of a return to physical football, but the Trojans were steamrollered by Stanford in the first half.
The Cardinal defeated the USC Trojans, 41-22.
Those two wins closed the playoff door.
Jackson ran for 27 on the next play, into Stanford territory. While he didn’t throw an interception, he rarely made the big play through the air.
Not that it was a total success for Stanford coach David Shaw.
“I mean, what doesn’t he do is what you could ask me”, Cravens said. I talked to coach (Duane) Akina one day and he was like, ‘What about No. 5? “The game got bigger than us”.
While there are no moral victories for a program that all-time has more than 800 real ones, these Trojans still salvaged a season that could have crumbled and managed to stick with a very good Cardinal team until again succumbing to Stanford’s unrelenting manner. He scored his third touchdown of the night late in the fourth. “We talked about him in the spring – that he’s going to have to handle it all”.
The Rose is pigskin postscript. Shaw thinks there should be an eight-team playoff, which might be hypocritical if the sport is trying to limit head injuries and study time.
“We were out of our element (emotionally)”, he said.
“It’s the only thing that makes sense”, he said.
The Trojans (8-5) need an offseason to try and get as physical as Stanford.
While the bowl pairings aren’t yet set, the Cardinal likely will play in the Rose Bowl.
Stanford’s trip to Pasadena will be more joyous. The Pac-12 North entered Saturday’s game 4-0 in the conference title game, with Stanford winning twice and OR winning twice.
Yet, it is only human to wonder what might have been.
And don’t you know Stanford wishes it could have its two losses back?
The Trojans averaged 5.3 yards per carry, 0.2 better than the Cardinal, but were still limited to 170 yards rushing.
That one was eventually forgiven.
On the next Stanford drive, Trenton Irwin missed a catch on a would-be first down. The Cardinal fell, 38-36, with time expiring on a failed two-point conversion that could have forced overtime. Two wildcat snaps to McCaffrey picked up four yards.
Earlier in the week, Shaw said he he wasn’t losing any sleep worrying whether the Cardinal would make the final four.
“To my left here is the best player in the nation”, he said as he shared the stage with McCaffrey. Here are three thoughts on Stanford’s conference title.
It wasn’t pretty, but it didn’t matter. That parity could be credited for keeping the Pac-12 out of the playoff.
The Trojans suddenly were leading 16-13 on a 27-yard touchdown by Ronald Jones II. McCaffrey will be in NY for the Heisman ceremony for a reason. He surpassed Sanders’ all-purpose mark of 3,250 yards in Stanford’s 13th game of the season while Sanders established his record in 11 games during his Heisman Trophy season of 1988, when the NCAA did not count statistics from bowl games.
“It’s a huge honor, it really is”, McCaffrey said of breaking Sanders’ record. “It’s an extremely exciting feat for me”. I couldn’t do it without my teammates. “I can’t tell you how much I love those guys”.
SANTA CLARA At times Saturday night, some probably wondered if the ink was dry on new USC coach Clay Helton’s contract. McCaffrey is one of three FBS players, including Sanders and former Western Kentucky running back Antonio Andrews, to ever total 3,000 all-purpose yards in one season.
He would join John Elway, Toby Gerhart and Andrew Luck. Rushes the ball inside and on the edge and scores with any play they draw for him.
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“What I take away from it is as a bunch of players coming together as a team, coming together as a family”, said Helton. There’s nobody in the nation doing what he’s been doing.
