Things got weird as the sun set on the Bay Area on Friday and Cal pulled off the upset of No. 8 Washington State on Friday night. A day later and much further South, things were equally strange even if the ranked team didn’t look like it was quite on upset alert.
No. 23 Stanford wound up with a 28-7 lead into halftime over Oregon down on the Farm, but the locale lived up to its nickname in Palo Alto as a jackrabbit found its way onto the field late in the first quarter in one of those incredible moments that could only happen late into the night out West:
.@Blovee_20's spirit animal making an appearance. #HeismanLove pic.twitter.com/6uuqSnObK0
— Stanford Football (@StanfordFball) October 15, 2017
In actual game action though, Cardinal running back Bryce Love was once again adding to his Heisman highlight reel by ripping off a 67-yard touchdown run early on and finishing the half with 142 yards and a total of two scores. Wideout J.J. Arcega-Whiteside added another score through the air as Stanford’s normally hectic offense seemed to do what it pleased against the Ducks.
That also included special teams, as Brandon Simmons scooped and scored off a punt block in the second quarter.
The lopsided score was a little surprising considering how well Oregon ran the ball in the half. Royce Freeman wound up with 121 yards on just 12 carries and three others managed at least 25 on the ground too. The flip side was backup quarterback Braxton Burmeister managed just one completion for four yards.
Things figure to get even tougher for the young signal-caller as Stanford gets back two of its best defenders for the second half in Harrison Phillips and Peter Kalambayi after each returns from a targeting penalty from their last game.