The Stanford offensive line hoped to right the ship after recent struggles but could not prevent the North Carolina pass rush from stifling the Stanford offense in quarterback Elijah Brown’s first road start.
Frank Reich admitted that the Cardinal "struggled to protect early.” Brown got sacked nine times as the offense sputtered repeatedly. After a shaky first half ended tied at 3-3, Brown would end up completing 27/39 passes for 284 yards, 1 interception, and 1 touchdown made in a last minute comeback attempt.
“I’m proud of how Elijah fought back.” Reich said. “He didn’t flinch, and in the second half, we got it going a little bit and he started to get hot.”
Receiver Caden High had his second 100-yard game of the season on 10 receptions. Running back Micah Ford had 103 all-purpose yards in his first game back from injury.
However, it was too little too late after the defense fell apart in the second half. North Carolina overwhelmed Stanford with a pair of passing touchdowns and a field goal to make it 20-3 with 12 minutes left. The Cardinal went nearly 56 minutes of game play without a touchdown.
Mistakes cost the Cardinal much-needed points to stay competitive. Senior kicker Emmet Kenney missed a 41-yard field goal in the second quarter while the offense botched a pair of two-point conversions including a “Philly Special” attempt with under two minutes in the game.
“It was a version of the Philly Special,” Reich said. “We put it in for obvious reasons, thinking we might have a chance on it, but we just didn’t quite execute it well enough to convert.”
The Tarheels would recover the last minute onside kick to defeat the Cardinal.
Stanford has a bye week next before facing their rival California in the 128th Big Game at Stanford Stadium.
The California Golden Bears are led by one of the best freshman quarterbacks in the nation, Jaron-Keawe Sagapolutele. The Bears became bowl-eligible with an overtime 4th down conversion to defeat No. 15 ranked Louisville.
“We got to get ready. We gotta go win this game,” Reich said. “There are no pity parties. We got to be mentally tough and line back up and learn from this game and get better and fight to the end.”
--Sam made me make a signature.