Something peculiar happened on Saturday night in the Rose Bowl: Stanford’s all-everything running back Christian McCaffrey failed to score a touchdown. He also failed to reach 200 all purpose yards, breaking an 8 game streak. He still had a strong game rushing, racking up 138 yards on 23 carries. Outside of McCaffrey, Stanford didn’t even score a touchdown until late in the 4th quarter on an end zone fade which proved to be the game winner.
What caused this type of offensive performance from Stanford, who a year ago had an offense as explosive as it was tough and physical - traits you usually don’t see on the same offense.