The Cardinal leaned heavily on its ground game (47 carries for 295 yards), limited USC’s big plays and made fewer mistakes: The Trojans had eight penalties, many of them false starts that killed momentum in the first half, while Stanford committed just three. A big reason for that is the return of running back Christian McCaffrey, a Heisman Trophy finalist who set an NCAA FBS record with 3,864 all-purpose yards as a sophomore.
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Before the No. 7 Cardinal kicked off their 27-10 win over USC, several of the Trojans’ Song Girls took turns posing for photos in front of McCaffrey’s picture in that tunnel. If you thought USC went into the Alabama game respectful of the Crimson Tide, listen to this.
Almost every McCaffrey carry was between the tackles, and he still has 12 carries of 6 or more yards.
McCaffrey would get Stanford on the board early in style.
The positive vibe, though, was short-lived, as Stanford scored the game’s final 10 points.
“I think we’re still in an area right now where the spread world, and the no-huddle offenses, and the up-tempo offense, are still prevailing, even more so than our style”, Shaw said. Basically, he wants USC to be more like Stanford. Guys played hard. They played physical.
“Sometimes when the game’s on the line, we’re OK getting 5, 5, 5, 12, 5, 4 yards a pop if that’s what it takes to win and that’s what they’re giving us”, said McCaffrey, who surpassed 200 all-purpose yards for the eighth straight game.
As a whole, Stanford’s offensive performance was a big statement, as well as a display of its full personnel.
Adoree’ Jackson shut down Stanford’s primary receiver Michael Rector, breaking up a pass in the endzone and nabbing an interception. But his relatively quiet night points more to the dazzling show that the offensive weapons surrounding him put on.
“We spread the ball around”, Helton said. “Burns threw a great ball and from there it’s history”. The Trojans meanwhile couldn’t do much on either end of the field. Justin Davis and Ronald Jones have combined for 126 yards on 35 carries. He has a good ability to read the field, but only when he has the time in the pocket.
Stanford: This was the start of the toughest stretch of the season for the Cardinal.
That TD, McCaffrey’s second of the game, helped give Stanford a 17-3 lead at halftime. Keller Chryst, who was beat out by Burns in the preseason, doesn’t necessarily change Stanford’s approach, but Shaw has said he’ll get his chances.
But Smith-Schuster had only 56 yards receiving against Utah State. If Helton decides to stick with Browne for a vast majority of the game, Trojan fans may be stuck seeing a repeat of week one where Browne was constantly under pressure and the offense could not sustain a drive.
“They came back in the third quarter, established the run again”, Shaw said. “We played two really good football teams in Alabama and Stanford in our losses”. “It’s not anything new to us to see what he’s done the first two games”.
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USC (1-1) enters Saturday’s game on the Farm as a nine-point underdog to the seventh-ranked Cardinal (1-0), looking for an upset to lift the program out of a malaise and bring some positive feelings to a team that has dealt with a ton of negativity. There is certainly room to improve, from a passing game that could be more accurate to a run defense that still misses the occasional tackle, but overall, Stanford has to be happy with how it looks through a pair of games against challenging opponents.
