Hogan’s perfect-to-not great pass ratio was remarkable—his deep balls particularly, but he also got the swing throws to guy in perfect stride.
As part of that, there was an amazing stretch that started with our 13th play, the 21 yard catch and run by Love. Over those 23 plays, we had six plays of over 20 yards. An explosive offense averages one of those play in ten; Stanford averaged over one in four, and had two other plays over 15 yards.
But the key play came on 3rd and 8. SC appeared to have Hogan for a sack, but he spun away from the pressure and scrambled ten yards.
He then followed that with a gorgeous 22 yard strike to Schultz, lofting the ball over the LB and to a spot where only Dalton could get it. One spike, then the ankle breaker by Cajuste for the Td on the roll out. Totally unexpected call—there’s no way USC expected Hogan to roll right and throw right.
As a result, our second quarter number: 21 plays, 218 yards.
In one quarter.
The final drive appeared to be an OL and Mac show. Mac: 6 run, 6 run for the first down. Then Garnett false starts to set us back to 2d and 15, but Mac goes 14 yards to set up Wright for the 2d and one. Wright makes it, then gains three yards in two carriers—followed by the brilliant decoy of Love left, setting up Mac for the 19 yard swing to the right.
On that series, we gained 57 yards. Mac accounted for 48 of them.
That decoy play was beautifully designed and executed—and Hogan again gets credit here. He came up and saw USC in man coverage, which meant if we could block the man assigned to Mac, Mac had a good chance of breaking out. Kevin totally sold the fake to Love, then turned and hit Mac in perfect stride to make the play.
One of the best games I’ve ever seen from a Stanford QB. No interceptions, only one poor throw, three key scrambles, and maybe the prettiest deep ball game ever.
As part of that, there was an amazing stretch that started with our 13th play, the 21 yard catch and run by Love. Over those 23 plays, we had six plays of over 20 yards. An explosive offense averages one of those play in ten; Stanford averaged over one in four, and had two other plays over 15 yards.
But the key play came on 3rd and 8. SC appeared to have Hogan for a sack, but he spun away from the pressure and scrambled ten yards.
He then followed that with a gorgeous 22 yard strike to Schultz, lofting the ball over the LB and to a spot where only Dalton could get it. One spike, then the ankle breaker by Cajuste for the Td on the roll out. Totally unexpected call—there’s no way USC expected Hogan to roll right and throw right.
As a result, our second quarter number: 21 plays, 218 yards.
In one quarter.
The final drive appeared to be an OL and Mac show. Mac: 6 run, 6 run for the first down. Then Garnett false starts to set us back to 2d and 15, but Mac goes 14 yards to set up Wright for the 2d and one. Wright makes it, then gains three yards in two carriers—followed by the brilliant decoy of Love left, setting up Mac for the 19 yard swing to the right.
On that series, we gained 57 yards. Mac accounted for 48 of them.
That decoy play was beautifully designed and executed—and Hogan again gets credit here. He came up and saw USC in man coverage, which meant if we could block the man assigned to Mac, Mac had a good chance of breaking out. Kevin totally sold the fake to Love, then turned and hit Mac in perfect stride to make the play.
One of the best games I’ve ever seen from a Stanford QB. No interceptions, only one poor throw, three key scrambles, and maybe the prettiest deep ball game ever.
