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Holding a 21-point cushion in the final two minutes, Stanford freshman quarterback Elijah Brown launched a wayward heave toward the sideline. It missed its mark, sailed out of bounds, and landed right in the hands of an unlikely, very much ineligible receiver: Cardinal general manager Andrew Luck.
The stray throw served as a crowd-pleasing cap on an unexpected night for the home team, and a bitter one for visiting Cal. Stanford, eclipsing a three-win regular season for the first time in four years, recaptured the Axe for the first time since 2020 with a 31-10 win in Saturday’s 128th Big Game.
“I’m just proud of this team and proud of getting this Stanford Axe back where it belongs,” interim head coach Frank Reich said postgame, after taking in the scene of the student body pouring onto the field. “This is college rivalry football, it’s a new experience for me, and I felt every bit of it.”
In the first quarter, Stanford managed just six yards of offense. But after producing only five first downs in the half, the Cardinal took a 14-10 lead into the intermission — then shut out the Bears the rest of the way and surpassed their season-high point total in the win.
As 50,000-plus fans leisurely walked in from tailgates at sunset, Stanford’s defense did what its offense couldn’t: it forced two Cal fumbles, turning the giveaways into scoop-and-scores. Safety Jay Green picked up the ball and raced 49 yards to the endzone, and not long after, Darrius Davis pounced on another loose ball for a 17-yard score.
“It’s one thing for the defense to keep you in the game while you’re struggling, it’s another thing for them to score two touchdowns for you and you can go in with the lead when you feel like you haven’t even made a first down,” said Reich, who had high praise for his team’s defensive showing, which included nine tackles-for-a-loss. “That really injected us with some confidence.”
Stanford’s defense set the tone, giving its offense the confidence to click in the latter half of the game. The Bears’ recurring struggles in establishing the run were once again glaring, as they managed just 12 yards gained on the ground, Stanford, on the other hand, began to dominate in the trenches as running back Micah Ford charged ahead for 150 yards.
The run game opened the field for Brown, in only his fifth appearance of the season, to complete some key late throws, including a 34-yard touchdown strike to CJ Williams that put the game on ice. For fans hoping to see a young signal-caller make his Big Game mark, it was Brown who ultimately stole the spotlight.
Cal freshman Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele was the Bears’ leading playmaker, racking up 269 yards through the air and scoring the team’s only touchdown on a quarterback keeper. The short-to-intermediate passing game only did so much damage, as Stanford held Cal to 5.5 yards per completion.
When Cal coach Justin Wilcox took the podium postgame, his team’s ball security issues and 13 penalties weighed heavy — “I would not have seen that coming. It wasn’t part of the plan,” the nine-year Cal coach said as the noisy celebration in Stanford’s adjacent locker room leaked through.
“It’s extremely painful, difficult, especially when the game goes like it went. There were plenty of opportunities to move the ball and score touchdowns and keep them off the field and we just shot ourselves in the foot way too many times,” he said.
The self-inflicted setbacks defined Saturday’s Big Game for Cal and has become a persistent thread throughout the Wilcox-era in Berkeley. Now, the Bears will have to take down an 8-3 SMU team next week to avoid posting a 6-6 regular-season record for a third straight year. After the high of upsetting a ranked opponent for the first time in five years when they pulled out an overtime win over Louisville before the bye week, and despite flashes of potential thanks to their promising freshman quarterback, consistency has eluded the Bears.
Meanwhile, Luck may have glimpsed a vision coming to life in Stanford’s Big Game win, as the Cardinal have begun restoring the program’s pride. After former head coach Troy Taylor arrived on campus and embraced a wide-open offense with spread principles, Luck’s return to the program and hiring of Reich signaled a philosophical shift designed to pull the Cardinal back toward the power-I days fans embraced during Jim Harbaugh’s tenure and the early days of David Shaw’s leadership.
Stanford’s offense has stagnated at times this season, but during the second half of Saturday’s game, the Cardinal used two-tight end offensive sets and gashed the Bears on the ground.
The transformation in the program’s identity is not unfolding in a flash, and now more change is in store for a team in transition, as Reich is set to lead his final Cardinal game next Saturday against Notre Dame.
Only at the helm on a year-long interim basis, Reich will hold onto his 1-for-1 Big Game record as a part of Stanford history. “I will remember a lot of things about this year, but these last two weeks and this game tonight will certainly stick with me for a long time,” the former Indianapolis Colts head coach said..
After stunning Cal, one thing is certain: Stanford won’t be standing still — Luck’s careful selection for his next leader might just be the spark that propels his agenda in Palo Alto forward.
While Reich’s tenure is fleeting, the memory of Saturday’s game will certainly stick with Cal’s leadership — Wilcox, general manager Ron Rivera, UC Berkeley Chancellor Rich Lyons — for all the wrong reasons. And situated in a season defined by inconsistency with narrow margins after a hopeful projection, this Big Game loss could carry ramifications for the future as questions about the program’s direction grow louder.