Micah Ford made Stanford Stadium feel a lot more like a launchpad than a pressure cooker on Saturday afternoon.
Behind Ford’s huge day and a defense that smothered Elon for most of the afternoon, Stanford rolled to a 34-7 win and snapped its losing streak in convincing fashion. The Cardinal moved to 3-4 overall and 1-3 in the ACC, while Elon dropped to 4-4 and 2-2 in the CAA.
The win also kept Stanford rolling at home. The Cardinal are now 3-1 at Stanford Stadium this season and 7-3 there going back to last year.
Junior linebacker Sam Mattingly said the group finally started to show what it can be.
“I think for the first time in a minute, we started to put together some really good football,” Mattingly said after finishing with five tackles for the second straight week. He and senior safety Jay Green were central to a defense that held Elon to 52 passing yards and kept the Phoenix out of the end zone through three quarters.
Elon tried a new look at quarterback, starting junior T.J. Crews IV for the first time since Sept. 12 at Rhode Island, but Stanford’s defense immediately made life difficult. The Cardinal opened with a quick three-and-out forced by disrupted passing attempts, and the Phoenix spent much of the afternoon fighting off incompletions and mistakes.
Both teams had their share of early wasted chances. Stanford drove 64 yards before sixth-year kicker Emmet Kenney missed a 35-yard field goal. Elon answered with a 44-yard march in 10 plays before junior kicker Luke Barnes missed wide from 54 yards out.
Once Stanford settled in, the game tilted fast. On the Cardinal’s second drive, Ford broke tackles on a key third-and-nine, then sixth-year quarterback Davis Warren hit sophomore wide receiver JonAnthony Hall for 32 yards to set up first-and-goal at the Elon 7. Ford finished the sequence with a touchdown run on the first play of the second quarter.
The Cardinal still weren’t perfectly clean on offense, but the second touchdown drive showed a steadier rhythm. Warren worked the middle of the field with patience, and head coach Tavita Pritchard said Warren’s strength is “staying the course.”
“When some of those plays do start to go our way, he’s ready for those moments; he’s not pressing,” Pritchard said, adding that Warren’s ability to stay away from turnovers matters. That drive ended the same way as the first one: with Ford in the end zone.
Ford’s impact was everywhere in the first half. He also caught two passes on that second scoring drive, and by halftime he and Elon freshman running back Kamerin McDowell-Moore were the rushing and receiving leaders for their teams.
Stanford’s only first-half scores came on Ford rushing touchdowns, while McDowell-Moore had already become the Phoenix’s entire engine. By game’s end, he accounted for just over 70 percent of Elon’s total offense.
The Cardinal weren’t content with a 14-0 lead, and the third quarter brought their sharpest stretch on both sides of the ball. Ford said the halftime message was simple.
“Execute and effort, that’s what [Pritchard] really harped on in the halftime speech,” Ford said after the game.
Stanford’s defense backed it up by limiting Elon to 36 yards on four third-quarter drives. The offense then cashing in again, starting with a strong punt return by sophomore Liam Thorpe that gave Stanford the ball at midfield. Three Ford runs later, Warren dropped in a 27-yard back-shoulder throw to senior running back Sedrick Irvin for Stanford’s third touchdown.
A few minutes later, Warren found junior tight end Benji Blackburn for 18 yards to set up another trip inside the red zone. Two plays after that, Ford added another score when he fumbled a direct snap but still outran the Elon defender to the pylon.
Then came the moment that put Ford in Stanford history. He broke loose for an 81-yard touchdown run, his fourth rushing score of the day, joining only seven other Stanford running backs to do it in a game. The last Cardinal to hit that mark was Christian McCaffrey in 2015.
“We practiced that all week and to just see the hard work coming to fruition… it just means a lot,” Ford said.
His final line was eye-catching even by big-game standards: 179 rushing yards, which made up more than one third of Stanford’s rushing total for the entire season before the game, and 231 all-purpose yards overall. It also doubled his personal yardage total on the year.
That performance came just one week after Ford appeared to leave the Notre Dame game with an injury. He was back practicing Wednesday, and afterward he said the issue was minor.
“It was just kind of a spasm… our strength guys and training staff did a good job getting me back full,” Ford said.
Elon finally got on the board late, with McDowell-Moore breaking off runs of 53 and 18 yards on the same drive for the game’s lone Phoenix touchdown. Stanford kept moving the ball even after freshman backup quarterback Michael Mitchell entered. One more apparent Irvin touchdown was wiped away after replay ruled the ball had barely come loose before touching the pylon.
Even with the lopsided finish, Pritchard and the players were quick to point out that there’s work ahead, especially with a short week coming before North Carolina State visits.
Pritchard praised the offensive line’s improvement in both run blocking and pass protection, but said “there’s plenty to clean up.” Mattingly was happy with the win, but still wanted more from the defense.
“I was a little upset it wasn’t a shutout…. [defensive coordinator Kris Richard] has just preached ruthless and relentless over and over and over again… I think we’re just going to build off of that,” Mattingly said.
Stanford will try to carry that momentum into Friday night’s ACC matchup against NC State, set for 7:30 p.m.
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Micah Ford was a big part of that momentum, earning ACC Running Back of the Week after running for 179 yards and piling up a career-best 231 scrimmage yards. His four-touchdown night gave Stanford a clear offensive centerpiece at a time when the Cardinal are trying to turn one strong performance into something more lasting, and Fridays test will show whether that spark can carry over under the lights. [Read more 🡒]
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