Stanford has excelled in the role as the hunter the last four years, winning three Pac-12 championship games.
Advertisement
USC took the second-half opening kick and drove 75 yards in nine plays for a touchdown, cutting Stanford’s lead to 17-10 on Jones’ 1-yard blast with 11:24 left in the third quarter. USC cornerback Adoreé Jackson picked off the pass, which was intended for Francis Owusu, who was immediately whistled for a 15-yard facemask penalty following the play.
But by the time USC got the ball back, there was only 4:20 left. The key for USC to end Stanford’s run in the series will be stopping Christian McCaffrey. He did score a pair of touchdowns against Utah State last Saturday, but even that performance saw him tally a modest 55 yards receiving. It’ll be a great chess match between Coach (David) Shaw and Clancy of mixing it back and forth.
USC seems like a program that has been in crisis mode on and off the field since Texas’ Vince Young crossed the goal line in the waning seconds of the 2006 Rose Bowl.
The Stanford Cardinal (1-0) are coming from a 26-13 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats in week 2. “Not exceptional, but we played well in all three phases”.
As much as Helton has mentioned moving toward the physical style of play seen in Palo Alto and other teams like UCLA begin involving fullbacks, Stanford’s offense still remains more like an outlier.
The defense continued to shut down the Cardinals with Baron and Stein each knocking down two more Stanford powerplays while junior driver Blake Edwards barred in a goal to give the Trojans a 3-0 into the second frame.
Against Stanford, the Trojans will be facing a front seven that will be similar to that of Alabama.
The fifth-year senior ripped off a 56-yard touchdown in the third quarter against USC on Saturday night to basically put away a 27-10 win.
There’s a picture of every Stanford football All-American in the tunnel leading from the locker rooms to the field, so Christian McCaffrey’s face is already is already prominently plastered on that wall.
“That’s the way we train”, Shaw said. They’ll face stiffer competition in the Cornhuskers, who have also jumped out to a 2-0 start on the season on the strength of senior quarterback Tommy Armstrong Jr. and a ballhawking defense that is now tied at the top of the FBS with seven interceptions through only two games. The Cardinal tallied 6.3 yards per carry in the game, with 295 rushing yards in total. “When you have got the combination of both, you got to make a decision on what you are going to do”, Helton said. They ran up the middle and did it again.
Live streaming for Stanford-USC is available via Watch ESPN.
One thing that helps the chemistry of a team is when they see a player run hard when his number is called, which Burns did several times. USC LT Chad Wheeler started in place of Chuma Edoga, who was demoted after being ejected from last week’s game against Utah State for making contact with a referee. Once we bounce back and do a better job against the run, we make a team one-dimensional.
Helton’s account was at odds with two USC players, who said they believed some players had given up at halftime, when USC trailed by 14 points.
Advertisement
“Obviously they’ve had a lot of success”, quarterback Max Browne said, “but I think when you come to ‘SC, you’re not taking a backseat to anyone”.
