USC vs Stanford Final Score: Cardinal Cruise to Victory

Saturday night’s USC vs Stanford game featured a Christian McCaffrey highlight, promising yet unproductive play from the Trojans’ offense, and another win for David Shaw, 27-10.

The lowdown: The first half of this installment of the USC-Stanford rivalry went briskly, but fell right in line with what the Cardinal wanted to do. Christian McCaffrey showed off his skills with a 56-yard touchdown catch, and Stanford scored 17 points on three-straight drives, amassing 197 yards on 29 plays.

On the other side of the ball, USC’s offense was hit and miss. Despite having a 6.3 yard-per-play average, the Trojans struggled to finish drives thanks to five false start penalties in the first half. The infractions repeatedly put USC behind the sticks and prevented them from converting a single third down conversion during that span.

Coming out of halftime down 17-3, USC marched down with one of the most impressive touchdown drives in recent memory. They went 75 yards on nine plays, never facing a third down and mixed up personnel along the way to pull within 17-10.

LISTEN: USC vs. Stanford Postgame Reaction

But that was the closest the Trojans would come. Stanford scored the game’s final 10 points, including a 56-yard dagger run by wide receiver Michael Rector on a reverse.

Offensively, USC continued to shoot themselves in the foot with costly penalties, questionable play calling on key drives while trailing, and punted the ball away down 27-10 with 9:12 left to surrender a defeat.

The Takeaway: In a lot of ways, the Trojans have to feel like they played well in Palo Alto. They held Stanford to a manageable 27-point output and they moved the ball efficiently on offense at times.

But their effort was marred with costly penalties and mind-boggling decisions. The Cardinal kept JuJu Smith-Schuster limited to just three catches, but it took until the fourth quarter for USC to change things up to try to find room for him.

On a must-score drive down 17 points to start the final quarter, Adoree’ Jackson came in as a decoy, which freed Smith-Schuster in the end zone for what should have been a touchdown. He dropped a Max Browne pass.

The next play, on 3rd and 10 from the 28-yard line, Clay Helton brought red zone and short-yardage quarterback Sam Darnold. He handed off twice to Ronald Jones, who couldn’t pick up a first down.

It was just one series, but it was the perfect summary for how USC struggled on Saturday night. Constant over-thinking, baffling coaching decisions and an undisciplined offensive line cost the Trojans on a night they looked good enough to potentially take Stanford to the wire.

But potential means nothing when you only score 10 points.

The bright side? Ronald Jones’s emergence –he had 11 carries for 63 yards– has to make the Trojans feel confident in the running game going forward.

Player of the game: Per usual, Stanford’s Christian McCaffrey had a fine day for the Cardinal. He totaled 260 all-purpose yards in what felt like a relatively quiet game from him… by his standards vs. USC, at least.

Stat of the game: USC had six false start penalties against Stanford, in what feels like it should be a record of some sort.

Next on tap: The Trojans will now wrap up the daunting month of September with a Friday night trip to Salt Lake City to take on the Utah Utes.