“Whenever a new Barry Sanders highlight video came out, he would run to watch it”, Lisa McCaffrey said after the game.
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McCaffrey ran, caught and threw for a touchdown as he amassed 461 all-purpose yards.
McCaffrey’s total included 207 yards rushing and 105 receiving. In fact, most of those yards had a specific goal.
SANTA CLARA, Calif. – Run, pass and catch. “He did everything. he’s just a different animal”. “I know he did it in a few less games, but he’s the guy I had a poster on the wall of when I was growing up”.
The loss by the Trojans (8-5, No. 20 CFP) caps an emotional week that started with Helton having the interim tag removed two months after replacing Steve Sarkisian and ended with USC falling short of returning to the Rose Bowl for the first time since the 2008 season. Stanford gave themselves enough breathing room with a 34-22 lead.
This could have been far uglier than it was for USC.
Due to the creativity and physicality of the Cardinal, they held the ball on offense for 35:42 and at one point in the first half had 191 yards to the Trojans’ 20 total yards.
Their rally continued into the third quarter, as quarterback Cody Kessler directed a 65-yard touchdown drive that cut Stanford’s lead to 13-9.
“Stanford just beat us”, linebacker Su’a Cravens said.
“Calling that pass was completely my fault”, Shaw said. “We have a lot of young guys”. Stanford didn’t need the pass attack, but the USC secondary still looked vulnerable when called upon. But we’ll always celebrate any chance to show up the NCAA when we can, so good work, Pac-12. Junior running back Justin Davis led the way with 99 yards on 17 carries. They will learn the destination for their final game of the season on Sunday, Dec. 5.
That was the high-water mark.
With the Trojans threatening, Hogan found McCaffrey wide open between the linebackers and the safeties.
The Cardinal, which was No. 7 in the playoff rankings entering the week, put itself into position for a playoff berth with the victory.
Just as the Trojans seemed to be hitting their stride, the wheels fell off. That’s not saying anything bad about us. I was reading the quarterback there, and he dished it off. “We’ll go down to Pasadena and have a great time”. I felt like that the whole week. But McCaffrey kept Stanford in contention with a 67-yard pass from Hogan to McCaffrey.
Redshirt freshman Christian Chapman threw for 203 yards and one touchdown in his first start for the Aztecs (10-3).
“He leaked out kinda late”, Hawkins said. Before reporters could ask him about his running back, Shaw announced his vote – if only he had one. There were moments against Stanford when USC’s defense was flatly exposed.
However, the Cardinal could not be stopped from then on.
Stanford needed more than victory and, for McCaffrey, even unparalleled brilliance might not have sealed the deal. The son of Denver Brocnos receiver Ed McCaffrey isn’t as big as his dad but has untold foot quickness and a Porsche’s change of direction. He had 125 yards receiving, five catches, one touchdown. “You can’t say much else about it”.
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“At any rate, we don’t take that lightly, and we’re trying to balance on the one hand, very clear commitments all of our schools made when we received the increased revenue and increased exposure that we got”, Scott said. The Cardinal had 21 minutes of possession in it, which was full of Christian McCaffrey doing Christian McCaffrey things.
