What went wrong for Stanford in stunning loss to Oregon State

Stanford had the game all but won until the final seconds

If I told you that Stanford led for about 59:30 of a 60 minute game, you would likely assume that maybe Oregon State got off to a hot start early in the game and that Stanford had a dominant win. 

However, that was not the case as the Cardinal were absolutely stunned on Saturday when they not only blew a double digit lead, but lost the game in the final 30 seconds. Stanford started off much better in the first half then they had in weeks prior, building a 17-7 lead. It wasn't until the fourth quarter that the Beavers showed any signs of life.

There was a general consensus and feeling around Stanford that the game was won, and that they just needed to run out the clock or score a touchdown to officially put the game out of reach. Which to be fair, they did play their best game of the season and for about three and a half quarters finally looked like they improved. 

Despite the strong start and improvement, Stanford is now in the middle of a four game losing streak, and have not beaten a FBS program since last season. 

Let's take a look at the two main things that went wrong in the loss.

Conservativeness On Offense

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Something that has continued to plague the offense all year is how conservative they get at times. There were multiple moments in the game where they could have forced the issue more, but none stuck out as much as the final drive that ended in a field goal to make it 27-22 rather than what would have been a game icing touchdown. 

Stanford moved the ball downfield as easily as it got, but as soon as they got in the red zone they scaled back the aggressiveness. After drawing a defensive holding call on a 3rd-and-8 that put the Cardinal on the Beavers 47, Stanford would go on to run the ball five times in a row. They were getting chunks going for eight, four, and 11 but it was evident the team was playing not to lose rather than to win. Oregon State clearly saw this and even went on to call their final timeout of the game to address their game plan. After a couple more short runs, Stanford had a 3rd-and-4 situation at the Beavers' 24. Rather than opening up the playbook of possibility, Shaw and company actually closed the playbook and turned it into a single piece of paper.

Off the field came potential first round quarterback Tanner McKee, and on the field came third string quarterback Ashton Daniels. A young player who has zero passing attempts on the year, and is only used to run RPO or power plays. Everyone in the stadium knew what was coming, and of course the Beavers stuffed him to force fourth down. Rather than bringing McKee back out to go for it and put the game away, they went the safe route with a field goal. This field goal of course coming when Oregon State has no timeouts, showed that they didn't want to kick field goals and possibly couldn't with their long snapper getting stitches, and with them having to go 80 yards down the field. The field goal made it a five point lead, so going for a touchdown poses no risk at all. If you don't get a first down here, Oregon State still has to drive all the way down the field without timeouts. Also, why would you choose to practically tell the defense the play by putting in a quarterback who never throws? 

Defense Giving up Big Plays

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In total this Oregon State offense compiled 14 big plays against this Stanford defense, and that was what kept the Beavers in the game. Three of their four touchdowns came on plays from 20 yards or more, with two of the three coming from beyond 40 yards. The last big play of course being lethal, as Oregon State's Tre'Shaun Harrison channeled his inner Michael Crabtree and Stefon Diggs to steal the win.

This defense was getting gashed in the run game all day, and quite simply gave up too many plays to a backup quarterback. It never truly appeared that Oregon State's Ben Gulbranson felt uncomfortable, especially when you see he completed all but one of his passes in the fourth. Giving up big plays is the achilles heel of this team, and until they can prevent those home run plays they will not win.