Stanford Passes on Victory Over Cal

STANFORD, Calif. -- Jim Harbaugh talked a little bit about hubris early this week, the danger of thinking you are more than you are.

Did Stanford think that putting up 106 points in consecutive upset victories over Oregon and USC would guarantee another flurry of points and touchdown celebrations?

Did they think that being ranked nationally and favored in the 112th Big Game – unheard of occurrences since Tyrone Willingham left The Farm for Notre Dame after the 2001 season – gave them an advantage against California's Bears?

Did they think that throwing the ball on 2nd down at the Cal 13-yard line with 1:36 to go was a better option that giving it to Toby Gerhart?

Cardinal redshirt freshman quarterback Andrew Luck dropped back less than 15 yards from an epic comeback victory and tried to get the ball to tight end Coby Fleener. But the redshirt freshman quarterback, who has shown remarkable poise and impressive accuracy all season, instead threw it into the arms of Cal linebacker Mike Mohamed and the Bears hung on for a 34-28 win Saturday at Stanford Stadium.

Cal celebrated its seventh win in eight years in this longstanding series.

The 14th-ranked Cardinal jogged off the field still bowl eligible, though eliminated from the Rose Bowl race, and with a great sense of the reality about who they are – a very good team, but not yet a great one. But not good enough to go away from what has worked for them all year.

Harbaugh said the game was filled with should-haves.

"[Luck] should have thrown it higher," Harbaugh said. "We should have given him a better play at the time, a better play on fourth-and-nine [when the Cardinal turned it back over to Cal on the Bears' 38 with 3:28 to go]. A lot of should-haves, offensively and defensively."

The offense should have kept its momentum after moving out to a 14-0 first-quarter lead, instead of stalling out and forcing the defense on to the field for long stretches that allowed Cal to score on five of six possessions and take the lead with a 30-7 rally.

The defense should have tackled better, made a few more plays, instead of allowing Bears sophomore tailback Shane Vereen to rack up 193 yards on 42 carries with three touchdowns.

Luck should have hit a few more receivers instead of missing short, long and wide on passes he'd been hitting much of the season, and certainly in the last two weeks.

And if he wasn't hitting, then the Cardinal should have handed off to Gerhart, the player who has taken Stanford to this place of renewal and excitement.

Gerhart, who finished the game with 136 rushing yards, a huge 29-yard pass reception on the play that preceded the interception and four touchdowns, admitted he would have liked the chance to carry the ball into the end zone a fifth time.

"I would've liked to have it," Gerhart said. "We had some time, it was second down, it would have been nice, but that's the way the game goes. They made a good play and things turned out the wrong way."

Harbaugh said his team was going to "go down swinging", but they way it worked out, the Cardinal might not have had to go down at all.

"We should have run the ball a couple of times when we got the ball inside the 15," Harbaugh said.

The fact is, Stanford was a longshot for Pasadena. The Cardinal settle into third-place in the conference standings, are in a bowl game and have a chance to finished the season with eight wins with the regular-season finale against a reeling Notre Dame team.

But there was a chance for something truly seismic to happen on Saturday evening. Stanford had the chance to cap its remarkable run of the past month with a huge win in its rivalry game, to put an exclamation point on the end of a memorable season.

If only the Cardinal had run the ball. They should have.