Last-second comeback falls short as Stanford’s playoff hopes die with loss to Oregon

All season long, Stanford’s coaches and players have been adamant that their primary goal this year was the Pac-12 Championship — with the College Football Playoff picture being out of their hands, they wanted to focus on what they could control on their own. And in that regard, they absolutely still control their destiny.

But as Kevin Hogan’s desperation pass into the end zone fell just short of Austin Hooper to cut short a potential game-tying comeback, so fell Stanford’s aspirations at making college football’s final four — and the significance of that wasn’t lost on the Cardinal.

“It stings, man,” said fifth-year senior defensive end Brennan Scarlett. “It stings. It stings.”

Such was the somber mood on the Stanford side after the No. 7 Cardinal (8-2, 7-1 Pac-12) struggled on defense yet came oh-so-close to finishing a dramatic last-second comeback against Oregon (7-3, 5-2), failing to complete the game-tying two-point conversion to seal a heartbreaking 38-36 home loss.

“We didn’t do enough in any of the three phases to give ourselves a chance to win,” said head coach David Shaw. “We gave ourselves a chance to tie — but we didn’t give ourselves a chance to win.”

Fifth-year senior quarterback Kevin Hogan (above) completed 28 of his 37 passes for 304 yards but yielded two critical fumbles in the fourth quarter that allowed Oregon to build the 8-point lead that Stanford was unable to overcome in the end. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

Even after Hogan fumbled away two snaps in the fourth quarter and let Oregon set up a late 38-30 lead, the defense got a big stop and the offense executed a flawless one-minute drill with the clock running out, punctuated by a 4-yard end zone fade touchdown to junior tight end Greg Taboada — his second of the game — with 10 seconds left on the clock.

With Stanford needing the two-point conversion to force overtime, Hogan was hurried by a blitzing Tyson Coleman and let loose an inaccurate pass that fell incomplete and sent the Oregon sideline into a frenzy.

“There was a guy coming after [Hogan] scot-free, which we knew if they blitzed us was going to happen,” Shaw said. “We just didn’t make the play — either the throw or the catch.”

Stanford can still clinch the Pac-12 North with a win next week or an Oregon loss, but in a seemingly scripted saga between the two schools, the tradition of each ruining the other’s championship aspirations dragged on for yet another year — this time, with Stanford coming out on the wrong side of history.

Even though Stanford outgained Oregon on offense 506-436 and converted on 12 of its 17 third downs, the Cardinal had to settle for too many field goals in the red zone and suffered with Hogan’s uncharacteristic fumbles. Stanford also suffered from big penalties at pivotal times that stalled its own drives and kept Oregon scoring drives alive.

And on the other side, the defense gave up too many big plays to an athletic Oregon offense, yielding a season-high 9.1 yards per play and suffering some crucial blown coverages that allowed the Ducks to pick up easy points.

“We made big plays, and we gave up too many big plays,” Shaw said. “The effort was outstanding. The fight was outstanding. Our guys never stopped fighting, and I take my hat off to our guys for that. We gave them way too much in all three phases.”

All five of Oregon’s touchdown drives involved explosive plays of longer than 30 yards. Oregon fired out of the gate with a 49-yard run from running back Royce Freeman to set up a score and a 75-yard touchdown run from wide receiver Charles Nelson, which set the tone for the rest of the game.

“For us, it was just misfits,” said Scarlett, who had a career game with 2.5 sacks of Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams. “We didn’t defend the run like we should have. We’ve done pretty good all season in limiting big plays, but tonight we didn’t bend like we should have in order to win this game.”

Fifth-year senior defensive end Brennan Scarlett (center) had 2.5 sacks of Oregon quarterback Vernon Adams in one of the best performances of his career. He also forced a fumble with a strip-sack that was returned deep into Oregon territory by Kevin Anderson. (SAM GIRVIN/The Stanford Daily)

Oregon later added two passing touchdowns of 49 and 47 yards on a pair of blown coverages by Stanford’s secondary, the latter of which gave the Ducks a 35-23 third-quarter lead — its largest lead of the night.

“[Adams is] a dynamic athlete, and he can make plays take a long time,” Shaw said. “And he was able to scramble back there and move back there and then find big plays down the field. And we just cannot give those up and we did.”

Meanwhile, the Cardinal were their usual slow, methodical selves, with four of their scoring drives eating more than four minutes of clock apiece. The difference for the Cardinal was that Stanford failed to convert effectively in the red zone, forcing field goal attempts instead of touchdowns. Stanford lost despite dominating the time-of-possession battle, 42 minutes to 18.

“You combine [Oregon’s big plays] early in the game, offensively, with being down in the red zone and having chances for touchdowns and getting field goals,” Shaw said. “That’s how this game balanced out. We were moving the ball down the field and we didn’t capitalize in the end zone.”

The outcome put a damper on career games from Taboada and senior wide receivers Michael Rector and Rollins Stallworth, as well as a solid outing from Hogan (28-of-37, 304 yards, 2 touchdowns).

Sophomore running back Christian McCaffrey also added 244 all-purpose yards, setting a new school record for single-season all-purpose yards. He also set a school record with his eighth straight 100-yard rushing game, with a final tally of 147 yards on 33 attempts.

But in the end, all of those individual accolades were trumped by the end result on the scoreboard, which means that Stanford will need to wait one more week for another chance to wrap up the division title — this time, against Cal with the Axe on the line.

Despite the loss, Stanford still has plenty to play for — although the playoff dream is over, the Rose Bowl hopes live on.

“Any time you lose, it stings,” said fifth-year senior linebacker Kevin Anderson. “It’s tough. But if you told me at the beginning of the season that we would have a chance to beat Cal to win the Pac-12 North, play in the Pac-12 Championship and potentially go to the Rose Bowl, I would say that’s awesome. So we need a little bit of perspective here.

“But it definitely stings right now.”

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.