Recap: Stanford sneaks past San Jose State
On Saturday, Stanford football defeated San Jose State 30-29 on The Farm in the Bill Walsh Legacy Game. Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbranson went 29-43 for 444 yards, two touchdowns, and zero interceptions for a passing efficiency rating of 169.5, the third most yards thrown by a Stanford quarterback in program history. Stanford wide receiver CJ Williams had 12 receptions for 138 yards while Caden High had five receptions for 110 yards.
San Jose State quarterback Walker Eget went 36-58 for 473 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions for a 147.6 passing efficiency rating while wide receiver Danny Scudero had 11 receptions for 135 yards and two touchdowns. Stanford improves to 2-3 on the season (1-1 in the ACC) while San Jose State falls to 1-3 (0-0) in the Mountain West.
VIDEO: Stanford Postgame Press Conference-San Jose State
BOX SCORE: San Jose State at Stanford-Saturday, September 27th
Stanford got the ball to start the game and did a great job of setting the tone on their opening drive as they found end zone thanks to an eight yard rushing touchdown by Cole Tabb. That capped off an 11 play, 81 yard drive, giving the Cardinal a 7-0 lead with 7:42 to go in the 1st quarter. The longest play of the drive was a 21 yard reception by tight end Sam Roush.
San Jose State would score on their next drive as a 41 yard field goal by Denis Lynch capped off a seven play, 61 yard drive. That made it a 7-3 game with 4:50 to go in the 1st quarter. The longest play of the drive was a 44-yard reception by tight end Jackson Canaan.
Stanford’s next drive would end in a fumble by Gulbranson, giving San Jose State a short field to work with as they were just 24 yards away from the end zone. The Spartans found the end zone rather easily as a 10 yard touchdown reception by Scudero capped off a five play drive. 10-7 San Jose State led with 55 seconds to go in the 1st quarter.
Both teams would trade punts until a 36 yard field goal by Lynch made it a 13-7 lead for the Spartans with 7:59 to go in the 2nd quarter. That capped off a five play, 52 yard drive. Stanford then quickly re-took the lead 14-13 as a 15 yard touchdown reception by Roush capped off a seven play, 77 yard drive that was greatly helped by a 21 yard reception by High. With 4:06 to go in the 2nd quarter, Stanford was hoping to take the lead into halftime.
San Jose State would instead enter the tunnel with the lead as a 29 yard touchdown pass from Eget to Kyri Shoels capped off a four play, 75 yard drive. That made it a 20-14 lead for San Jose State with 1:59 to go in the half. Neither team would score the rest of the half, keeping it at 20-14. San Jose State failed to tack on a 28 yard field goal that Lynch pulled left with under one minute to go in the half.
After an action packed first half, neither team scored in the 3rd quarter. Stanford had a 4th and 1 from the 8 yard line that they failed to convert as they tried a direct snap to running back Micah Ford. San Jose State’s kicker Denis Lynch missed a 29 yard field goal as he was starting to look more like his shaky self. Probably the most important moment of the quarter was Stanford linebacker Matt Rose getting ejected for targeting. He’ll have to sit out the first half of the next game as the penalty occurred in the second half.
“Next-man-up mentality,” Reich said of soldering on without Rose. “Tough call. Matt is a tough player. I thought the guys stepped up. Everybody knows you got to rally. The guy stepping up has to play hard and do his job. Everybody else knows we just lost a leader of our defense, number one tackler. I thought our defense did that exceedingly well, like I said, especially in the second half. Just felt like our defense played with so much energy and did a great job of making the plays that we needed to make to stop them.”
San Jose State had the ball entering the 4th quarter and quickly found the end zone as a five yard touchdown reception by Scudero capped off an eight play, 61 yard drive. That made it a 26-14 lead for the Spartans with 14:19 to go in the 4th quarter.
Stanford would quickly strike back as Gulbranson found Myles Libman for a 14 yard touchdown pass to cap off a five play, 75 yard drive. That made it a 26-21 game with 12:19 to go. For Libman, that was a huge play as it was his first career touchdown reception.
After Lynch missed two layups, he would finally get back on the scoreboard as he made a 31 yard field goal with 7:51 to go, giving San Jose State a 29-21 lead. Stanford now needed to act fast if they were to win this game.
On the next drive, Stanford would have to settle for a 36 yard field goal by Emmet Kenney, who had no trouble splitting the uprights. That made it a 29-24 game with 5:55 to go. Stanford’s defense would then hold firm, forcing a punt and giving themselves the ball back with 2:45 to go. Ball on the Stanford 20 yard line.
Stanford would march the ball down the field for a bit until 4th and 10 from their own 41 yard line came up. It all came down to this. Gulbranson would connect with High for a 34 yard reception, keeping the drive alive and giving the Cardinal a fresh set of downs with the ball now on the San Jose State 25 yard line.
“Yeah, so the play we had designed was really kind of designed just to throw outside, get the sure completion,” Reich said of that 4th down conversion to High. “After we were talking it through, myself and Coach Osborne and Coach Merkle and Coach Byham, we said, you know what? Let’s just put — on the slot where Caden was in, because they were bringing blitz zero, so they’re going to think we have to low it quick. Let’s have Caden run up there. The DB will be squatting. Caden will run up there, just give him a little nod, and run right by him. I mean, it worked to perfection. Ben gave him the perfect throw.
“As it turned out, I was hoping he was going to score. But as it turned out I’m glad he didn’t because then we were able to burn more time off. It was great execution by the players and great protection up front. I can’t emphasize that enough. They’re blitzing seven guys; you still got to block everybody, and we did a great job.”
“Yeah, he’s been winning on his routes all year and there has been some times I just haven’t put a good ball on him,” Gulbranson said of High. “He’s been doing that all year long. I’m really happy just to see him go out there and execute, for me to find him and him make the plays he’s making.”
Gulbranson then connected with CJ Williams for a 10 yard reception, making it 1st and 10 on the 15 yard line. After an incomplete pass intended for High, Gulbranson found Williams for a 14 yard reception, getting the ball down to the 1 yard line. That actually ended up being good for Stanford as they were able to burn more clock before Sedrick Irvin Jr. waltzed into the end zone for the most enjoyable one yard run of his life. Stanford would fail to convert the two point conversion, making it a 30-29 lead for Stanford with 19 seconds to go.
“Yeah, that’s the best one-yard carry of my life,” Irvin said with a smile. “Yeah, it was a beautiful moment. My freshman year around the similar time I scored a touchdown in literally the same spot, same yard line. It was kind of just like a déjà vu type of moment. I was really appreciative of it. Shoutout to the O-line, shoutout to CJ Williams? He made a great block. Shoutout Caden High. He made a beautiful catch. Ben threw a beautiful ball. Ben played a great game today. I love to see it and I’m just happy about it.”
“Yeah, huge play. Really credit to Ben,Caden High, the offensive line,” Reich said of the game-winning drive. “We saw that team in preparation they like to bring blitz zero in that situation. We studied it hard. We worked on it hard. We talked about our answers all week. We practiced them. We practiced them over and over and over again.
“But you still got to execute it. They executed it to perfection. It worked exactly how we wanted it to work. But Ben just had all the poise in the world. All the poise in the world to sit in there, to trust his guys, and know you got a bunch of guys blitzing trying to breathe down your neck.
“We got Sam Roush, bringing him back into the backfield to block. We got the running backs, everybody blocking. We got seven guys blocking seven defenders and you still have to make the blocks and then make the throw. Obviously a huge play in the game.”
On the final drive of the game, Stanford safety Jay Green had a key pass breakup on a deep ball by San Jose State that might have saved the game as there were only five seconds left after that. 30-29 the Cardinal escaped with the victory.
“What a massive play by Jay,” Reich said. “I almost forgot about that. That could be the play of the game, right? I mean, that could be the play of the game. There was a second I thought it was a catch and fumble. Wasn’t sure it wasn’t a catch and fumble. Just all out effort. Just strained and play making. That’s what we talked about in the locker room afterwards. That was so satisfying for us as coaches, watching the players make the plays that are necessary to win the game.”
For Stanford, this is a win that means a lot. Not only is this a rivalry win, but given all they’ve gone through as a program, to find a way to dig deep and come out on top has to feel good. This season is all about changing the culture around the program and wins like this help to do just that. They could have given up and thrown in the towel. Instead, they kept fighting and got rewarded in the end, improving to 2-0 at home.
“Yeah, just really proud of the way we stayed in there and fought and battled offensively and defensively,” Gulbranson said. “Them getting those huge stops towards the end of the game, to have chance to go down there. Just really proud of the way we focused as a team and finished there at the end.”
Of course, this win wouldn’t have been possible without the amazing play of Ben Gulbranson. After getting a lot of heat from the media (including myself) for his sluggish start to the season, he has really turned things around and firmly established himself as the starting quarterback. Once again, his 444 passing yards is the third most yards thrown in a single game by a Stanford quarterback in program history.
“Yeah, really exciting being in a game like this. I guess this is what they say college football is all about, right? Spread it out,” Reich said. “Throw the ball all over the yard. Two quarterbacks with over 400 yards is pretty incredible. Like I said, at the end of the day I’m really proud of our team and our guys, the whole team, but certainly Ben and the offense, to see how far we’ve come. It felt like in those first game or two there were times where I felt like we were really struggling to throw the ball. I mean, we were really struggling to throw the ball, to protect, to get the ball down the field, to do much of anything in the pass game. To see where we’ve come, that’s pretty satisfying and really credit to the players.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at SMU on Saturday, October 11th. Kickoff time is TBA. They’ll get a bye week next week, using that as a chance to rest up and get early prep on the Mustangs as they dive back into ACC play.
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