Lights Out as Stanford falls to San Diego State 20-17

The lights went out late in the fourth quarter with less than four minutes to play at San Diego Jack Murphy Stadium and it was not in Stanford’s favor. San Diego State came out from what seemed like a second halftime, and had all the momentum for the win. The lights came back on in the stadium after a 25 minute delay and Rashaad Penny had a 6 yard rush that eventually lead to the game winning touchdown by David Wells from quarterback Christian Chapman. The Cardinal couldn't answer the bell: with just 52 seconds left in the game Keller Chryst threw an interception to Kameron Kelly on the ensuing play to end the game.

Stanford fell 20-17, pushing San Diego State to a now 3-0 record and Stanford to a 1-2 record.

The Cardinal struggled from the start of the game on offense. Bryce Love finally struck with the first touchdown of the game with a 51 yard run to the endzone, the score 7-3. At the end of the second quarter, Rashaad Penny had a short 4 yard run to take the score to 10-7 before heading into the half. There was little to no offense outside of Love and it seemed as though the Cardinal could not find their footing offensively. The Cardinal finished with just 88 yards of total offense at the end of the first half and 51 of that came from one scoring play from Love.

In the third quarter, John Baron II hit a 36 yard field goal to give the Aztecs the 13-7 lead. Stanford’s kicker Jet Toner responded with a field goal of his own.

Bryce Love once again exploded with a 53 yard run giving the Cardinal a 17-13 lead with 14:51 left in the game.

Then the lights went out in the stadium causing a twenty-five minute delay to get them up and running while fans in the stadium used their cell phone lights to try and shed some sort of light to the place. After the lights came back on, the game was essentially over with Penny leading the way on the winning drive.

Stanford’s defense tried to keep pace and was able to keep the game close.

The Aztecs, however, controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball all night long. Stanford did not get a first down in the first quarter going three and out in three straight possessions. San Diego State meanwhile seemed to dominate the time of possession.

Coach Shaw from the beginning tried to mix things up from last weeks loss to USC reshuffling the offensive line. There seemed to be no other options for coach Shaw besides finally feeding the ball to Love more in the second half but it was too late.

Bryce Love had 13 carries for 184 yards with two touchdowns while San Diego State held Keller Chryst to a mere 80 passing yards and two interceptions. Trent Irwin led the Cardinal in receiving with 6 receptions for 49 yards.

San Diego was no cake-walk coming into the game having beat Arizona State last week and looking strong with one of the nation's best running backs in Rashaad Penny. Penny, the national rushing leader, had 32 carries for 175 yards and 1 touchdown in tonight’s game. San Diego State’s quarterback Christian Chapman was 21-29 for 187 yards with 1 touchdown.

SDSU has won three consecutive meetings against power 5 teams for the first time in its Division I era (since 1969).

The Cardinal have a lot of work to do on offense. Seeing glimpses of Ryan Burns tonight and the tweaks along the offensive line were signs that Shaw is still shuffling things around to get things in order but there has to be answers before UCLA next week. Stanford will take on the Bruins in Palo Alto in their opening home game for the year hoping to avoid a third straight loss.