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Stanford Wins a Wild One Against USC

More photos » Ezra Shaw - Getty Images

There wasn't a whole lot for Sione Fua and the Stanford defense to celebrate most of the night, but the Cardinal came away with a 37-35 win.

If only the deciding points in No. 16 Stanford's 37-35 win over USC tonight at Stanford Stadium had been a two-point conversion. That certainly would've been a whole lot less stressful than how things actually unfolded. The Cardinal and Trojans traded touchdowns throughout the defense-optional game, as neither team built more than a 7-point lead.

USC freshman Robert Woods, who finished with an absurd 224 yards receiving on 12 catches, tied the game at 28 early in the fourth quarter when he caught his third touchdown pass from Matt Barkley. Andrew Luck (20-for-24, 285 yards, 3 TDs) answered with a touchdown pass to Doug Baldwin less than 3 minutes later, but Nate Whitaker's extra point attempt sailed wide to the right.

It appeared Whitaker's miss might be the difference in the game after the Trojans marched deep into Stanford territory following a Stepfan Taylor fumble. Allen Bradford's 3-yard touchdown run and the ensuing extra point gave USC a 35-34 lead, but by scoring on 1st and Goal, the Trojans left 1:08 on the clock.

That was more than enough time for Luck, who benefited from a 15-yard personal foul penalty on the first play of the game-winning drive. Taylor made up for his fumble with a strong run to move the Cardinal into field goal range, and Whitaker drilled a 30-yard field goal three plays later.

Then Stanford fans rushed the field, which is somewhat curious. Then again, I was ready to rush the halls of my condo building. I'll have more on this game tomorrow. In the meantime, share your thoughts in the comments. Go Cardinal!

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Comments

Display:

Yippie skippie.

Jim has the first comment.

Ask not what you can do for your hubris, ask what your hubris can do for you...

by Jim Harbaugh on Oct 9, 2025 9:11 PM PDT reply actions  

Fumbles kept the game close, and the extra point put it in jeopardy. But that was a hearty victory!

by JonWeisman on Oct 9, 2025 9:13 PM PDT reply actions  

congratulations

That was a lot closer than I was expecting. Aside from a little TO competition here and there, I think it might also have been disappointing for people who tuned in hoping for bad behavior from our respective coaches ;)

"When the seagulls follow the trawler, it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea"

by DC Trojan on Oct 9, 2025 9:13 PM PDT reply actions  

Andrew Luck’s hit at the end of the first half after one fumble deserves to be the stuff of legend.

by JonWeisman on Oct 9, 2025 9:17 PM PDT reply actions  

Yes! That hit deserves its own post. Who has the video?

by Scott Allen on Oct 9, 2025 9:34 PM PDT up reply actions  

First things first......

Great win…….awesome job by the offense.

Glad to see the bounce back for Whitaker and Taylor………huge lift on that last drive to make up for costly errors.

On the negative side…….the defense still lacks good enough speed, but more disheartening was the horrible tackling tonight……….(credit to USC’s playmakers too though) The open field tackling needs to shore up.

Back to the positive………Andrew was Andrew tonight……solid 20-24 285 yards 3 TD’s 0 Int and 40 more key yards on the ground.

A Pac-10 win and a step closer to getting an at large BCS bid……..cant ask for more than that!

"Oh man, moral victories and pulling confidence from losses, that's crap" -Marcus Stroud

by norcaliangelsfan on Oct 9, 2025 9:30 PM PDT reply actions  

Biggest Negatives

Taylor has to hold on to the ball. The first fumble especially was just careless. McDonald “stripped” him, but it didn’t even look like he had to work that hard to do it.

We have to get a pass rush. Barkley had all day to throw…all night.

And, yes, of course we need to tackle better. That’s going to always be an issue against the better athletes.

At the end of the day, though, Luck bailed everybody out. He wasn’t as flashy or as dominant as he was against Wake, but considering the fact that we needed to score just about every time we got the ball, one of his best games.

by cardhorn on Oct 10, 2025 7:18 AM PDT reply actions  

The team was lucky to win this one, but those are gonna happen over the course of a season. 5-1, baby!

Billy Ripken is not a fuck face

by Karlifornia on Oct 10, 2025 7:51 AM PDT reply actions  

Was there

Very nailbiting; agree with all said above. Sure the secondary looked bad, but I think that was in part because of the absolute lack of any pass rush that would ever hurry Barkley. Cutting against that, though, is he threw a couple of fabulous completions when he was almost sacked.

by Gus Zernial on Oct 10, 2025 10:51 AM PDT reply actions  

First off - I can’t believe I haven’t noticed this site yet - FINALLY SB Nation has a site for the most successful sports program in the country! So excited…

Now, the game… it was a sloppy, thrilling win, but a win nonetheless. Can’t complain to loudly about that…

by RickeySteals on Oct 10, 2025 12:08 PM PDT reply actions  


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