Recap: Stanford gets pummeled in Provo
On Saturday, Stanford football fell to BYU on the road by a final score of 27-3. BYU running back LJ Martin led the way for the Cougars, rushing for 110 yards on 18 carries while quarterback Bear Bachmeier went 17-27 for 175 yards while also rushing for one touchdown while totaling seven yards on 12 attempts. Stanford linebackers Hunter Barth and Teva Tafiti each had two tackles for loss and one sack.
VIDEO: Stanford Football Postgame Press Conference: BYU
VIDEO: Stanford CB Collin Wright talks BYU loss
VIDEO: Stanford QB Ben Gulbranson talks BYU loss
BOX SCORE: Stanford at BYU-Saturday, September 6th
Despite getting the ball first to start the game, Stanford couldn’t get anything going as their offense was more inert than a sloth slinking its way through the Amazon Rainforest. Their three points didn’t come until the 4thquarter as Emmett Kenney drained a 26 yard field goal to make it a 24-3 game with 10:31 to go.
I’ll spare you the details of all their drives, but suffice to say, it was painful to watch from the Stanford perspective. Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbranson had another poor outing, going 17-32 for 142 yards and two interceptions. Gulbranson threw too many balls into the dirt, wasn’t able to make clean enough throws, and quite honestly once again looked like a guy who you would think was the backup or even third string quarterback.
To give him some credit, Gulbranson started to get going a bit towards the end of the 3rd quarter and early 4thquarter to set up that field goal as he connected with wide receiver CJ Williams for a 13 yard reception and wide receiver Caden High for a 26 yard reception. The problem was they were down 24-0 at the end of the 3rd quarter. It was too little too late and it’s human nature for defenses to loosen up a bit once they get a big enough lead.
“Yeah, I think (we were) protecting well,” Gulbranson said of that late 3rd and early 4th quarter performance. “We were running routes, getting the right spacing and completing the ball, getting the ball in guys’ hands, and they were making plays.”
While Stanford’s offensive struggles were in no small part due to their own insufficiencies, credit still has to go to BYU for the way they came out and punched Stanford’s offense in the mouth. They looked like the elite defense they were last year, making it really rough on the Cardinal offense.
“I give them credit. We knew that they run a lot of pressures aimed at stopping the run game,” Stanford interim head coach Frank Reich said of BYU’s defense. “Against Hawaii, we ran the ball, with that we figured we would come in with their game plan being to make us beat them by throwing the football. That’s what I was assuming that they were coming in thinking, and so they did a good job in the run game. We’ve got to be better there. If we’re going to be a successful team, for us to win games, we have to have a balanced offense, and so we’ll make the improvements.”
“Obviously, BYU’s an excellent defense, and they bring a lot of tough looks,” Gulbranson added. “They’re going to be a great team the rest of the year, a great defense.”
What kept Stanford in the game at all was their defense. As I mentioned, both Hunter Barth and Teva Tafiti each had two tackles for a loss and a sack. Tafiti finishing with six total tackles and Barth finishing with five total tackles. There were multiple times throughout the game where BYU was threatening to score a touchdown only for Stanford’s defense to find a way to hold them to a field goal.
“I mean, I think we played really well,” Stanford cornerback Collin Wright said of their effort on defense. “A big point of emphasis coming into this week was not giving up too many explosive plays. We had a lot of big third- and fourth-down stops that were critical to holding them to field goals.”
To the credit of BYU’s kicker Will Ferrin, he went 4-4 on his field goals with a long of 36. He was automatic and showed why he might have a chance to kick on Sundays. Stanford’s defense did all they could to keep the game close. They got a stop on a two-point conversion after a Bear Bachmeier rushing touchdown made it a 6-0 lead with 3:29 to go in the 1st quarter. They battled, they competed, but with their offense being as bad as it was (29 yards in the 1st half), they were honestly lucky it was only a 14-0 lead for BYU at halftime. And those 14 points included just the one touchdown from Bachmeier. The other eight came from a safety and two field goals.
In the second half, it was more of the same as Ferrin had two more field goals for the Cougars while the lone touchdown of the half came from running back Sione Moa, whose eight yard rushing touchdown with 3:41 to go in the 3rd quarter capped off a five play, 43 yard drive. And then of course, Kenney had that field goal for Stanford to avoid the shut out. 27-3 would be the final score as BYU found a way to win decisively despite having only two touchdowns.
“It wasn’t the best game that I’ve played,” Moa said of his touchdown. “We weren’t the best at converting touchdowns in the red zone tonight, so I just had to get in. … I had to do something positive.”
To touch quickly on BYU, this was a solid win for them. Stanford’s defense came to play and with two weeks to prepare, the Cardinal came in with a lot of confidence. While Stanford is starting from the ground up as they get this rebuild underway, they’re still an ACC program and have guys who can play. Any time you cruise to a win like BYU did, you have to feel good.
“Happy we got the win, really pleased with a lot of things we saw, especially on defense,” BYU head coach Kalani Sitake said of his team’s win. “Things got a little rough at the end, and we had some mistakes there, but overall just happy with the win. Obviously Stanford had an extra week to prepare for us, and hopefully we can take advantage of our extra week for East Carolina. Stanford did some really good things on defense, and they were a little more familiar with our quarterback, so we just had to control the things we could control.”
As for Stanford, this was a rough one. Yes, the defense did what they could, but the offensive woes, particularly at quarterback and offensive line were hard to ignore. When I asked Reich if they ever considered making a change at quarterback, he said that was not on the table.
“No, we did not talk about any switch,” Reich affirmed. “Listen, I’m not going to make any quick judgment on this. I’ve been around too long to understand the quarterback play is the byproduct of a lot of things, and the protection needs to be better. We need to coach better. We need to make a few throws as well, but we need to go back and look at the tape.”
Despite their firm commitment to Gulbranson, one can’t help but wonder how much longer they’ll keep trotting him out there when they have a redshirt freshman quarterback in Elijah Brown who was a 4-star talent out of Mater Dei. At some point, you have to mix things up and try something new. Granted, Gulbranson didn’t get the best of protection from his offensive line and in the second half, he did get going a bit, making some nice throws. But on the whole, his body of work suggests a change in quarterback would be wise to consider.
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this game and look ahead to Boston College, which will be their home opener. That game will be on Saturday, September 13th at 7:30 PM PT on ACC Network.
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