Stanford was able to get into the Pac-12 title game despite some highs and some lows this season. They beat Oregon, but lost to Utah and USC. However, they ended up doing enough to end up in the championship game.
Arizona State, on the other hand, was not expected to be in the game. USC and UCLA were the proverbial favorites to win the South division, but with wins over Washington, UCLA, USC and a tight win over Utah, the Sun Devils played themselves to the #12 spot in the polls and into the title match.
However, even before the game began, the Sun Devils started behind, having to play without star running back Marion Grice. This season, Grice had totaled 1,941 yards and 20 touchdowns, so Arizona State was missing a lot of production, and had to rely heavily on Taylor Kelly to get the job done. And it showed, as they struggled to get a consistent offensive game plan going.
Stanford delivered the first blow of the game, with Tyler Gaffney gashing the Sun Devil defense for a 69-yard touchdown run less than a minute and a half into the game. Less than a couple minutes later, D.J. Foster rushed for a 51-yard touchdown of his own to even up the score.
From there though, it was all Cardinal. They rattled off three straight touchdowns to put the game away by halftime. Stanford finished the game with 517 yards of offense, and held Arizona State to only 311, with 51 of those coming on the big Foster run, and another 65 on a pass from Kelly to Foster. So minus those two big plays, the Cardinal held the Sun Devil offense to only 195 yards.
The key players of the game were Gaffney, who rushed for 133 yards and three touchdowns and quarterback Kevin Hogen, who threw for 277 yards on only 12 completions, as well as one touchdown.
The unit of the game was the Cardinal secondary who shut down the Sun Devil passing attack, as they successfully contained Kelly and receiver Jaelen Strong, who only caught two passes for 27 yards on the game.
The Cardinal are officially Pac-12 champions and will head to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl against Michigan State, which will be nothing short of a full-on boxing match. Both teams are incredibly physical on both sides of the ball and wear each other out. It may just be the best bowl matchup of them all.
The Sun Devils will play in the National University Holiday Bowl against Texas Tech. Hopefully they will have Grice back, as he will be extremely helpful in trying to keep up with the Red Raiders offense.