The Eugene rain stopped just before kickoff.
That in itself was improbable, given the 90 percent chance forecasted earlier in the week. Then again, it never rains at Autzen Stadium.
As the skies cleared up, and the lights and cameras turned on, everything seemed perfect — ESPN’s College GameDay crew on hand for the last home game of the season; Senior Day for Oregon’s veteran players; a shot at the Pac-12 Championship (and maybe a national title) on the line.
It was all projected as the perfect final party at Autzen before everyone flocked down to Miami to watch Oregon finally get crowned champions.
17-14 Stanford.
“It’s really hard to win a game, let alone ten in a row, 11 in a row, or 12 in a row,” said Oregon offensive coordinator Mark Helfrich after the game. Widely seen as the heir to the head coaching job if Chip Kelly takes his talents to the NFL, Helfrich instead looked like a man who wanted nothing to do with football. “Anything can happen. We’ll focus on what we can fix, and let the chips fall.”
Speaking of Chip’s falling, for the first time in his career, Kelly’s now lost to the same team twice. His 42-0 record when leading after three quarters is out the window. His quarterback, redshirt freshman Marcus Mariota, is no longer undefeated either. As if it wasn’t bad enough, despite Stanford boasting the nation’s best rushing defense, not even Cardinal media thought Stanford could pull off the upset.
“No, Stanford is not going to win this game,” said Stanford Daily beat writer Miles Bennett-Smith in a Q&A with The Oregonian before the game. “If we know anything, it’s that no one can stop Oregon’s attack. Too many weapons, too good a scheme, too much mental and physical exhaustion for the defense.”
Even when Palo Alto students are wrong, they come out on top.
Led by linebackers Chase Thomas and Shayne Skov, who combined for 13 tackles, the Cardinal defense clogged running lanes and shut down running back Kenjon Barner. The senior, averaging 6.5 yards per carry this season, was held to just 66 yards on 21 carries — a 3.1 average. The Ducks’ 198 rushing yards fell 127 short of their season average.
“I think the Stanford defense got to all of us,” Kelly said, eyes glazed over at the postgame presser.
“They beat us. Flat, fair and square,” Helfrich said. “Is there a lot of things we left out on the field in our opinion? Sure. But it doesn’t matter. You have to execute and you have to finish. We didn’t finish drives well, we didn’t string things together well.”
Perhaps more deadly than Stanford’s brute strength in the trenches were Oregon’s own mistakes. There were the two missed field goals by Alejandro Maldonado, yes, but that was hardly the only issue. Mariota’s very human statline — 21 for 37 for 207 yards and a touchdown — also included a head-scratching interception and a handful of missed throws and signals. For the first time all season, he looked like a freshman quarterback playing with everything on the line.
Sophomore stud De’Anthony Thomas also underperformed, muffing two punts on special teams and missing a crucial block that could have turned Mariota’s 77-yard scramble in the first quarter into a 92-yard touchdown.
Even Kelly, a rock of consistency and even temper, was reportedly “nervous” before the game. According to The Oregonian, Kelly made a “loose threat” to the team on Tuesday, regarding team sources leaking injury and personnel information to the media.
It all painted a picture of an Oregon team caught up in everything except the next game on its schedule.
“You just never know how the game is going to be played,” Helfrich said. “A bounce here, a ball there, an assignment here, an assignment there … Our guys didn’t blink. We just didn’t execute at the level we’d like to.”
As Jordan Williamson’s kick sailed through the uprights to complete the upset, fans stood in silence, stunned. Then heads fell, hands covered eyes, tears began to flow. One little girl hugged her dad and cried, her tears smearing her cheeks’ “O” tattoos.
“It’s just sports, honey,” the father said.
But it hasn’t felt like sports. Watching the Ducks this year has been magical and special. Words like “destiny” and “fate” have been thrown around; Oregon’s dominance bred a blissful invulnerability across campus that was impossible to ignore or refuse to believe.
And as Stanford took its celebration into the visiting locker room, and fans milled around wondering what to do, what they could do, the rain started again.