Recap: Stanford stumbles against Pittsburgh
On Saturday, Stanford football fell to Pittsburgh at home by a final score of 35-20. Pittsburgh freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel led the way for the Panthers going 23-38 for 304 yards, three touchdowns, and two interceptions for a 143.3 passer rating while freshman running back Ja’Kyrian Turner rushed for 127 yards on 22 carries. Stanford senior wide receiver CJ Williams had seven receptions for 122 yards and two touchdowns while senior tight end Sam Roush had eight receptions for 104 yards. Stanford sophomore cornerback Brandon Nicholson had two interceptions on the day, making him the team leader in interceptions for the season (2). Pittsburgh improves to 7-2 overall and 5-1 in the ACC, receiving 35 votes in the AP Top 25 poll on Sunday morning. Stanford falls to 3-6 overall and 2-4 in the ACC.
VIDEO: Stanford Postgame Press Conference
BOX SCORE: Pittsburgh at Stanford-Saturday, November 1st
“Tough loss at home,” Stanford interim head coach Frank Reich said after the game. “Our first loss of the year at home, so that’s disappointing. I thought we had a really good week of practice. I thought overall, give Pitt credit. They’re a good football team. I thought our defense played really well, got turnovers, got stops. So I give — the defense played well. Offensively we made some plays in the pass game, but we came into this game, we know we have to be a balanced team. We have to be able to run the football, and we just weren’t able to do that today, and then overall the turnovers hit us as well.”
The game didn’t start the way Stanford wanted it to. On the opening drive of the game, they went for it on 4th and 1 and didn’t convert. Pittsburgh then responded with a 17-yard touchdown pass from Heintschel to his favorite target Kenny Johnson. That made it a 7-0 lead for the Panthers with 11:16 to go in the 1st quarter.
Stanford would get on the board on the next drive as Emmet Kenney drained a 39-yard field goal to make it 7-3 with 9:35 to go in the 1st quarter. A 53-yard reception by Sam Roush helped set that up. Stanford quarterback Ben Gulbranson nearly got picked off on the drive, so Stanford was lucky to come away with points.
After forcing a fumble and recovering, Stanford was able to make Pittsburgh pay. Gulbranson had a 35-yard touchdown pass to Williams. The ball was deflected, but Williams stayed focused to catch the ball. 10-7 Stanford was in front with 6:20 to go in the 1st quarter. 10-7 would remain the score at the end of the 1st quartet as Pittsburgh had 4th and 2 coming up from inside the 5-yard line.
“Yeah, 3rd down, I think we all kind of know Ben trusts me a lot on 3rd down, even when there may be bracket coverage or cover-two man, and he threw a ball that the DB obviously played pretty well,” Williams said of his first touchdown. “He had great leverage, I think, on the play. He tipped it in the air. I guess kind of when the football gods are on your side a little bit, the play tends to go your way, so it bounced into my hands. I saw the end zone, so I just went. People said I had pretty good speed on that right there.
“Obviously a crazy touchdown; I’ve never seen that before. It was just good football all the way around. Great protection by the line, as well.”
Stanford would not get the stop to open the 2nd quarter as Deuce Spann had a four yard rushing touchdown for the Panthers to make it 14-10 with 14:56 to go in the 2nd quarter. The Panthers were back in front.
On the next drive, Gulbranson would throw it deep and get picked off by Javon McIntyre. The first of three interceptions that Gulbranson would throw. Stanford’s defense would then force a punt, giving them the ball back on their own 25 yard line with 12:48 to go in the 2nd quarter.
Gulbranson would get picked off again on the next drive as Kyle Louis intercepted the ball at the 12 yard line for no return. Roush was the intended target. Just a poor decision by Gulbranson. There was now 9:39 left in the 2nd quarter.
Pittsburgh would then find the end zone as Heintschel found Raphael Williams for a five-yard touchdown pass. Williams had an 18-yard reception earlier in the drive. 21-10 Pitt was in front with under 2:00 to go in the 2nd quarter.
Stanford would get on the scoreboard before halftime to make it 21-13 as Kenney nailed a 45-yard field goal to end the half, giving Stanford a bit of life.
In the 3rd quarter, Stanford’s defense forced a punt on the opening drive, giving the offense a chance to close the gap. Unfortunately for Stanford, Gulbranson would get sacked, forcing them to punt. Pittsburgh would then have a 7 play, 89-yard drive capped off by a 14-yard touchdown pass from Heintschel to Jake Overman. That made it a 28-13 lead for the Panthers with 5:54 to go in the 3rd quarter.
On the next drive, Gulbranson would throw a pick six to Shawn Lee Jr. that was intended for Caden High. That made it a 35-13 lead for the Panthers with 5:46 to go in the 3rd quarter.
After that, Gulbranson would get one more drive before he was finally benched for redshirt freshman Elijah Brown, who came in at the very end of the 3rd quarter after Brandon Nicholson got an interception in the end zone to give the ball back to the Cardinal. 35-13 would be score entering the 4th quarter.
“Yeah, big plays,” Reich said of Nicholson. “He’s worked hard. He’s a confident player. That’s what I love about Brandon. It’s tough to play out there. We played some good offenses, but he goes out there every week and fights and scraps and claws and I was really happy for him to see the day that he had out there today.”
In the 4th quarter, Stanford would outscore Pittsburgh 7-0 after being outscored 14-0 in the 3rd quarter. Nicholson getting his second interception of the game helped with that and then Brown’s final drive of the game would result in a 19-yard touchdown pass to Williams, capping off an 11 play, 97-yard drive. With only 18 seconds left, that would be ball game as Pitt won 35-20.
“Yeah, Elijah, I see that in him all year,” Reich said of Brown. “I could feel it in his eyes, in his body language out there when he was going in that he was feeling pretty confident. He did a nice job of just taking what the defense gave him.
“On that last touchdown pass, they really — we’re just trying to throw it out of bounds. We got an out-of-bounds play call just to get the clock stopped and then maybe take a shot in the end zone, but if they want to get greedy and jump the quick out, and Elijah just made a big-time throw to C.J. A credit to C.J. because on that particular play in that particular situation, usually that receiver isn’t full speed. He should be, but a lot of times they’re just not. So he was ready, and it was a big-time throw and route.”
“Yeah, it’s been probably a while since I played with Elijah,” Williams said of Brown. “I played with him until my senior year, his sophomore year of high school, and I came back here to Stanford, very excited to play with him if given the opportunity, of course, and then Ben came in and ended up being named the starter. I’m so excited to play with Ben and very, very grateful to play with Ben, as well.
“But even just in my short time being back with Elijah, I think he’s matured as a man, as a football player. Like he makes really good reads, and it’s not that he didn’t before, but Elijah’s thing is that his timing and his ability to go and place the ball where he wants to is at a high level, and I think that just showed on that last drive there. I’ve only seen that elevate in my time here. He did a really good job of grasping this offense, like all the quarterbacks did when Coach Reich came in, because we installed a whole new offense, and he’s done a really, really good job so far. And you love to see that of a redshirt sophomore or just a sophomore in general. Elijah is a younger kid that I know everyone is really, really excited about. I’m excited to see him grow, as well, as I move on.”
To touch quickly on Pitt, this was a nice win for them. Stanford came into the game 3-0 at home and so to be the first team to get a win at Stanford Stadium has to feel good. They made a cross-country flight and came out on top. They played the better game start to finish.
As for Stanford, had they had better quarterback play, they could have won this game. This is a game where they once again have to wonder if Ben Gulbranson is the right guy to be starting under center. Especially since Elijah Brown came in and did some nice things on that final drive. Side by side, Brown had the better day going 10-14 for 108 yards, one touchdown, and zero interceptions while Gulbranson went 17-30 for 228 yards, one touchdown, and three interceptions. It’ll be interesting to see what decision the Cardinal make at the quarterback position going forward.
“You know, I’ll have to look at the film,” Reich said of the quarterback situation. “There was a lot going on out there. We made a few plays. We missed some plays. I’ve learned over the years, don’t just jump the gun on who’s — not looking to point fingers, I’m just looking to figure out how do we get better. We’ve got to go back and look at the plays, the mistakes that we made. We’ve got to look at the opportunities that we missed and we’ve got to figure out why we didn’t run the ball better when we thought we’d come in here and have at least a decent day running the game, so those are the things we’ve got to take a close look at.”
Stanford was also without some key players in this game as running back Micah Ford, cornerback Collin Wright, and safety Jay Green were all unavailable. That didn’t make things easy for the Cardinal, but they made it clear that wasn’t an excuse for the result.
“No, you certainly miss Micah,” Reich said. “But I have a lot of confidence in our other guys. I think they’ve been running the ball well. Certainly always miss Micah if he’s not out there. He’s a really good player. But that’s not an excuse for us not being able to run the ball better today.”
Up next for Stanford is a road game at North Carolina on Saturday, November 8th. Kickoff is set for 1:30 PM PT on The CW.
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