STANFORD, Calif. – Christian McCaffrey had been putting up Toby Gerhart-like numbers in recent weeks.
No longer.
Nobody in Stanford history has put up the numbers the sophomore put up Thursday night in the No. 15 Cardinal’s 56-35 Pac-12 thrashing of No. 18 UCLA at Stanford Stadium. Not even Gerhart, regarded as the greatest runner in school history.
McCaffrey rushed for 243 yards on 25 carries (9.7 yards per carry), breaking Gerhart’s Stanford single-game mark of 223 against Oregon in 2009. McCaffrey also piled up 369 all-purpose yards, falling 10 yards shy of Glyn Milburn’s school record against Cal in 1990. And McCaffrey scored four touchdowns, tying a Stanford single-game standard reached eight times before.
“He's a heck of a football player,” said David Shaw, Stanford’s Bradford M. Freeman Director of Football. “Not just a great runner, but a great runner, a great receiver, kickoff returner, punt returner. He had an outstanding night.”
In McCaffrey’s primetime performance on ESPN, he had 844 rushing yards and his all-purpose total – enhanced by a 96-yard first-quarter kickoff return -- is 1,518.
“I was just lucky enough to run behind some great offensive linemen and went through some holes and tried to make stuff happen,” McCaffrey said.
After McCaffrey’s final touchdown, a six-yard run with 1:07 left in the third quarter, the entire Stanford offense gathered around to pick him up. It was a fitting final carry for the sophomore who zoomed back into the national lead in all-purpose yards.
Stanford (5-1 overall, 4-0 Pac-12) earned its eighth consecutive victory over UCLA (4-2, 1-2) and scored its most points in the series since a 57-0 victory in 1929. The victory also was Stanford’s fifth straight since a head-scratching season-opening 16-6 loss at Northwestern and its fourth consecutive 40-plus performance, the first time that’s happened since 2011.
“That Northwestern loss did something to us, it bonded us together,” McCaffrey said. “A lot of teams fold after a loss like that first game and a lot of people were against us and we remember that. It continued to push us and it will continue to push us because you can't forget where you come from.”
The Stanford postgame locker room mood was happy, but largely businesslike … with one exception. Shaw gave the game ball to McCaffrey – a rare Stanford happenstance to give the ball to a player. Teammates greeted the gift with a thunderous celebration and hoisted McCaffrey on their shoulders.
Adding to McCaffrey’s big night was the fact that his father, former Stanford and Super Bowl champion receiver Ed, was on hand to see it. Ed McCaffrey, a radio analyst for the Denver Broncos, rarely gets the opportunity because of his radio commitments.
Stanford broke open a 14-10 game with 21 unanswered second-quarter points. McCaffrey had two scoring runs in that span, of 9 and 28 yards. He followed in the second half with TD runs of 70 and 6. His all-purpose yards were broken down thusly: 243 rushing, 122 on two kickoff returns, and one reception for four yards.
In all, Stanford rushed for 310 yards, and the Cardinal nearly scored as many points as it had plays (61).
“That's definitely a lot of fun to go out there and see holes and make plays,” McCaffrey said. “It makes people scream a lot, but there's still are no trophies at the end of that. We got a lot of football left. We got a lot left in the tank and we got to move on and look to next week.”
In non-McCaffrey news, the last time UCLA played at Stanford Stadium, Kodi Whitfield made a catch regarded as one of the best ever by a Stanford player. However, the quality of that catch may have been eclipsed by the one Francis Owusu pulled off on a third-quarter flea-flicker.
The play began with McCaffrey lined up in the shotgun and quarterback Kevin Hogan wide right. McCaffrey handed to Bryce Love on a reverse and pitched the ball to Hogan curling back around the pocket.
Hogan threw deep to Owusu behind the defense as safety Jaleel Wadood caught up. Osuwu wrapped his arms around the defender and caught the ball behind Wadood’s back. As they fell to the ground, Owusu pinned the ball against Wadood with his left arm, securing the catch for a 41-yard score and a 42-17 lead.
During the entire process of the catch, Owusu never saw the ball into his hands. Owusu’s head was knocked to the side as Wadood collided into him, while the ball arrived. Wadood actually was flagged for pass interference on the play, but it didn't matter.
“That was one of the most amazing things I've ever seen in my life,” McCaffrey said. “I couldn't believe what I saw.”
The last time Stanford used the play was against USC in 2011 – Andrew Luck to Ty Montgomery.
“I still can’t describe the catch,” Shaw said. “I don’t understand what happened, to be honest. I was looking at my call sheet for the next call because I thought it was incomplete. And then it showed up on the board.”
The Cardinal never trailed because Alijah Holder put the Cardinal on the scoreboard with an interception return for a score on UCLA’s first series. Holder stepped in front of the receiver at the 31, spun out of a tackle at the 20, got a good block from Aziz Shittu, and then cut back across the field to beat the Bruins to the far pylon.
It was the first interception return for a touchdown since Kevin Anderson’s against Michigan State in the 2013 Rose Bowl.
After UCLA kicked a field goal, McCaffrey went to work, taking the kickoff two yards deep in the end zone, and returning the kickoff 96 yards to the UCLA 4. This set up a scoring pass on the next play, from Hogan to tight end Austin Hooper.
The game appeared to become a back-and-forth affair when UCLA hit on an immediate 70-yard pass play from freshman Josh Rosen to a wide-open Darren Andrews down the middle. But Stanford responded with its second-quarter surge.
McCaffrey’s running – he reached 200 all-purpose yards for the fourth consecutive game – and the play of the offensive line gave Stanford an nearly unstoppable push by the second quarter.
On its final drive of the half, which ended with McCaffrey’s 28-yard scoring run, Stanford began to move the ball at will on the ground. McCaffrey ran on the final four plays of the drive, getting five yards downfield on each play before being touched.
Hogan didn’t throw often, but he made great decisions, completing 8 of 15 passes for 131 yards and three touchdowns, with one interception for the game.
The Cardinal defense suffered a blow when Blake Martinez was in pursuit when he was hit in the head by UCLA receiver Kenneth Walker II in the second quarter. Martinez was shaken up and left for the remainder of the half, but Walker was disqualified for targeting. UCLA scored on the drive on a 3-yard run by Paul Perkins with 11 seconds left in the half.
“We thought it might be worse, but it was just the wind knocked out of him,” Shaw said. “No concussion issue at all. He had a little cut under his chin but he was fine.”
However, Martinez returned for the second half and Stanford regained command by stopping UCLA’s opening series of the half and converting its next possession on Owusu’s amazing catch.
The Cardinal led by as much as 56-20 after McCaffrey’s final carry, before the Bruins finished with a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns to cut the deficit.
Still, Stanford’s momentum continues and, with McCaffrey’s help, the country is beginning to learn what the Cardinal is all about.