Stanford Holds Off NC State 31-28 Behind Davis Warren
Davis Warren had thrown seven touchdown passes all season before this game. Then he threw four against NC State, and Stanford needed every one.
Stanford was in front 14-0 before the first quarter was out, on touchdown passes of eight yards to Nico Brown and 17 to Sedrick Irvin. NC State got it back to 14-14 with CJ Bailey's 58-yard touchdown pass to Deandre Desinor and a two-yard run by Will Wilson. That was the only tie of the game. Warren then hit Caden High from 26 yards with 25 seconds left in the half, and Stanford never trailed again. A five-yard throw to Brown early in the third made it 28-14.
NC State kept coming. Wilson scored from two yards out again with 14:50 left in the fourth, Emmet Kenney kicked a 31-yard field goal to make it 31-21, and Bailey found Keenan Jackson from 16 yards with 1:20 to play. That is as close as it got, 31-28. Take away Kenney's field goal and the last touchdown ties it, so that three-pointer was the whole game.
The yardage was a lot closer than the margin. Stanford had 481 total yards to NC State's 381, including 178 on the ground (Micah Ford had 150 of them on 22 carries). Neither team threw an interception or lost a fumble. Stanford is 4-4 now. NC State falls to 3-4, with a quarterback who threw for 256 and ran for 59 and still came up short.
For fantasy, Warren's 36.7 points came out of nowhere, a season high by a mile.