Unranked Stanford routs Oregon State 38
Updated 4:03 pm, Saturday, October 25, 2014
Stalled last week at Arizona State, the Stanford offense got the wheels moving Saturday. They moved briskly before long.
It will take four more wins in a row, starting next Saturday at Oregon, for the Cardinal to reach the Pac-12 championship game, but they took care of business against Oregon State. In their first game as an unranked team since the first week of the 2010 season, they rolled 38-14 at Stanford Stadium.
Stanford (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) harassed Sean Mannion throughout the game and held the Beavers (4-3, 1-3) to 221 total yards and 12 first downs, many of them coming in a late drive against the reserves. Mannion passed for just 122 yards, completing 14 of 30 attempts.
A week after a shaky performance against the Sun Devils, Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan completed 18 of 28 passes for 277 yards and two touchdowns before giving way to Evan Crower in the fourth quarter. It was not a perfect day for Hogan; he also threw two interceptions.
Against the second-best defense in the conference in yards allowed, the Cardinal amassed 438 yards. Meanwhile, their six sacks helped reduce the Beavers' rushing total to 11 yards.
Ty Montgomery returned a punt 50 yards for a touchdown early in the second half to open a 35-7 lead. Jordan Williamson added a 33-yard field goal in the fourth quarter.
Montgomery, who hadn't scored in nearly a month, picked up a block from Christian McCaffrey on his big punt return and headed to the right sideline. He easily maneuvered around punter Keith Kostol and outraced the Beavers to the end zone for his second punt-return TD of the season.
In the first half, Stanford survived three fumbles - none lost - and two interceptions to take a 28-7 lead. Considering how thoroughly the defense stifled the Beavers' offense, the margin should have been much worse. But Hogan threw two interceptions in a span of a few minutes, and Williamson missed a chip-shot field goal attempt, his sixth miss of the season.
Stanford coach David Shaw promised changes this week on offense, and one of them was that the Cardinal went into a hurry-up offense on their first series. On that drive, Hogan had to recover his own fumble and pick up a first down on a third-and-1 play at the Beavers 44. Two plays later he threw a short pass that McCaffrey turned into a 42-yard touchdown.
Hogan completed four early passes to Ty Montgomery, but later in the first quarter, back-to-back passes intended for Montgomery were intercepted. The second, by linebacker Michael Doctor, set up a 5-yard touchdown run by Chris Brown to tie score 7-7.
No doubt upset by the previous sequence, Hogan put Stanford back in front with a 37-yard run. He faked a handoff, then ran through a huge hole and stiff-armed safety Ryan Murphy at the Beavers 7. Moments earlier, Barry Sanders ripped off a 27-yard run.
Hogan hit Jordan Pratt for a 37-yard touchdown, the first of the redshirt junior's career, early in the second quarter. Stanford caught OSU in a safety blitz, and Pratt caught the ball, reversed field, picked up a block by Michael Rector and dived for the pylon.
The Cardinal pushed the lead to 28-7 on Patrick Skov's 1-yard plunge with 2:49 left in the half. Stanford's big play was Hogan's 32-yard pass to tight end Greg Taboada. He fumbled on a hit by Murphy, but Devon Cajuste recovered for the Cardinal at the OSU 26.
The Cardinal had one more chance before halftime. They drove to the Beavers' 9 with the help of a 27-yard pass to Cajuste. But Williamson was wide right from 26 yards.
Oregon State freshman Demien Haskins scored on a 1-yard run against the Stanford reserves with 3:54 left. The touchdown was set up by a 52-yard pass from backup quarterback Luke Del Rio to Hunter Jarmon.
Tom FitzGerald is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: tfitzgerald@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @tomgfitzgerald
Post a Comment for "Unranked Stanford routs Oregon State 38"