An emotional day for 25 Stanford seniors playing their final game at Stanford Stadium ended in a victory for the No. 24 Cardinal (9-3, 6-3 Pac-12) as they defeated the Rice Owls (3-9, 2-6 Conference USA) 41-17 Saturday night in the rain.

The Stanford offense amassed 534 yards, marking its third straight week with over 500 yards. The better part of those yards came on the ground, as the Stanford offensive line overpowered a weak Rice defense and allowed the Stanford ball-carriers to run wild on their way to gaining 373 yards on 8.7 yards per carry as a group.

Significant contributions came from multiple sources in the running game, with junior running back Christian McCaffrey leading the pack with 204 rushing yards, while sophomore running back Bryce Love had 111 yards on just seven attempts, and junior quarterback Keller Chryst took the ball 62 yards to pay dirt in the first quarter, the longest run by a Stanford quarterback in over 20 years. Saturday was the first time Stanford has had two 100-yard rushers since quarterback Kevin Hogan and McCaffrey did it against Washington State in 2015.

“We have had injuries left and right, but our guys have done a great job staying resilient and doing an awesome job sticking to the P’s and Q’s of what we know. And when [the offensive line] comes together as a group and pushes guys and moves guys, it makes our job easy as backs,” McCaffrey said.

While Stanford’s passing game didn’t have quite the same output as the running game, it was still effective. Keller Chryst connected with his receivers 11 times on 16 attempts and accumulated 154 yards through the air on a solid 9.6 yards per attempt.

“[I’m] proud of Keller Chryst and the growth he’s continued to make. Once again, not perfect, but we don’t expect that … he made some great throws,” head coach David Shaw said.

Chryst started the party for the Cardinal offense, getting it on the board with an exciting 62-yard run in which he barely stayed in-bounds by tiptoeing the sideline and proceeding to throw a Rice defensive back off of him en route to the end zone. Stanford would use the accurate leg of senior kicker Conrad Ukropina its next two drives, going up 13-0 by the end of the first.

Meanwhile, the Cardinal defense suffocated Rice’s offense in the first quarter, forcing three three-and-outs and not allowing the Owls to pick up a first down for the entire quarter. Stanford outgained Rice 199 yards to 14 in the first.

“Defensively, we came out and played really well. We kept them out of the end zone for a long time. Really excited about the guys we have there,” Shaw said.

The Owls picked it up a little in the second quarter, forcing Stanford to punt before allowing McCaffrey to score a 23-yard receiving touchdown on the next drive. Rice then put together a long 19-play, 63-yard drive and found the end zone, but a holding penalty negated the score and forced Rice to settle for a field goal and go into the half trailing 20-3.

Stanford’s first-half performance against arguably one of the worst teams in the nation left a little more to be desired, but as the rain picked up in the third quarter, so did the Cardinal offense, and they scored touchdowns on three consecutive drives, including a 19-yard McCaffrey run, a 50-yard touchdown off of a reverse to Bryce Love and a 45-yard touchdown reception from senior wide receiver Francis Owusu.

The catch was Owusu’s first receiving touchdown since his ESPY-nominated grab against UCLA last season.

“[Francis] is a big part of this football team, and he’s done so much over the last couple years … It was a great ball by Keller down there and for him to run it down, it was great to see,” Shaw said.

The Cardinal gave freshman linebacker Curtis Robinson, who had two sacks in the game, more experience and put seniors who don’t get a lot of playing time in early in the fourth on their way to closing out the Owls, 41-17.

“Every Senior Day is so hard … These guys have done so much and it’s hard to shake those guys’ hands and [hear] the names get called without getting emotional … proud of those guys,” Shaw said.

Saturday marked the end of the 2016 season for the Rice Owls. Stanford now waits to hear who it will be playing and when and where they will be traveling for the postseason, which will be announced at the end of the week.

Contact Samuel Curry at currys ‘at’ stanford.edu.