Davis Warren put together the best passing night of his career, and Stanford needed every bit of it to keep Georgia Tech from walking out of California with a win.
Warren threw for 396 yards and three touchdowns Saturday night as the Cardinal erased an early deficit and finished off a 34-27 comeback victory in Stanford, Calif. Stanford trailed 20-10 after Georgia Tech scored late in the second quarter, but the Cardinal flipped the game with three straight touchdown drives after halftime.
The turning point came in the third quarter when Warren hit Caden High for a 49-yard touchdown to pull Stanford even at 20-20. On the next possession, Stanford faced fourth-and-11, and Warren delivered again, finding Nico Brown in the corner of the end zone for a 33-yard score. In the fourth quarter, Warren connected with High on a sweep for another touchdown to push the lead to 34-20.
“I expect a lot out of Davis,” Stanford coach Tavita Pritchard said. "He is operating this offense at a high level.
We put a lot on him. We put run checks on him and protection checks on him, and he's playing at a high level.
He's protecting the football.
"We coach him hard, and he handles it beautifully. And he's such a leader in that locker room. And I can't say enough about the player he is and is becoming."
Warren also showed no hesitation on the biggest downs. He completed all three of his fourth-down passes and went 5 for 8 on throws of 15 yards or more. After the game, he pointed to both the protection up front and the work of his receivers.
“I feel like if I got time, then there's no throw on the field that I cannot access," Warren said. “So I was very prepared for some of those things, and obviously our receivers did a great job going and getting open. We talked before this game about emptying the clip in terms of the way we're going to go out, play with our hearts on our sleeve, don't leave anything out there and go take it."
Georgia Tech did plenty early to put Stanford on the ropes. The Yellow Jackets scored on their first four drives and took a 20-10 lead into halftime behind a first half that looked sharp and efficient. Trelain Maddox finished both of Georgia Tech's touchdowns in the opening half, catching a nine-yard scoring pass after Justice Haynes broke loose for a 46-yard run, then adding a 20-yard touchdown run in the second quarter.
But the game turned hard after halftime. Stanford piled up 24 points while Georgia Tech had trouble slowing the Cardinal’s passing game, and the Yellow Jackets were also hurt badly by penalties. Georgia Tech was flagged 12 times for 105 yards in its first road loss of the season.
Georgia Tech got one last push when Alberto Mendoza threw a touchdown to Jaiven Plummer in the fourth quarter to cut the margin back to one possession, but Stanford held on for its first ACC win after two straight blowout losses to conference opponents.
For Stanford, the night belonged to Warren. He entered the season with seven touchdown passes and 10 interceptions in 16 career games, and he has now thrown five touchdowns without an interception this year.
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