As the Stanford offense came over to the sideline on a fourth-and-9 on Friday, with 37 seconds remaining, it appeared the Cardinal were about to let another game slip away. The JMA Wireless Dome was rocking, and sophomore quarterback Ashton Daniels was struggling with accuracy issues all night.

But pre-snap, Daniels glanced to the left and spotted the redshirt sophomore receiver Elic Ayomanor in one-on-one coverage. From there, the signal-caller from Georgia knew where to go with the ball.

“We just tried to isolate Elic,” said Stanford head coach Troy Taylor after the game. “We talked about if it’s a zone, we have a concept to the three-receiver side of the field. If it’s man [coverage] with Elic, we got to win. He’s got to win.”

The six-foot-two receiver from Alberta, Canada certainly won his matchup, catching a 27-yard back-shoulder fade to keep the Cardinal’s hopes alive, and put the team in field goal position.

After running a couple plays where they tried to center the ball, senior Emmet Kenney kicked a 39-yard field goal straight through the uprights to give Stanford a 26-24 win over Syracuse — its first conference win as a member of the ACC. 

But it is not just Ayomanor, Daniels or Kenney that should be given credit for Stanford’s victory.

The Cardinal gave up just 26 rushing yards to Syracuse while also forcing Orange quarterback Kyle McCord into throwing two picks.

The defensive line tandem of senior Anthony Franklin and junior Zach Rowell controlled the line of scrimmage, quickly plugging up gaps in the offensive line throughout the game. Moreover, for the first time in Taylor’s time on the Farm, Stanford demonstrated the ability to generate a pass rush.  

Junior outside linebacker David Bailey displayed why he was such a highly touted prospect out of high school, tallying two sacks and generating pressures all game against the Syracuse offensive line. In total, Stanford’s defense generated seven tackles for loss in Friday’s game — and even got a touchdown with Mitch Leigber’s pick-six in the third quarter.

“They wanted to pressure and they wanted to take away their RPOs (run-past options) to a really good RPO team,” Taylor said. “[McCord] looks like a guy that’s played a lot of football, and so at times, we were able to hurry him a little bit. The other part of it is I felt we stopped the run game. Kind of made them one-dimensional.”

But Stanford ran into trouble late in the fourth quarter. Up 23-17 with nearly five minutes remaining, Taylor elected to accept a holding penalty after Syracuse failed to convert on a third-and-8 near midfield. However, the Orange converted the subsequent third-and-18 to keep its drive alive, eventually reaching the end zone to take the first lead of the game.

Despite the offense sputtering, particularly in the second half, Taylor instilled belief in his players that they would walk out of upstate New York victorious.

“I said, ‘Hey we’re going to drive down, we’re gonna spot the ball in the middle of the field, and we’re going to kick a field goal and get out of here.’” Taylor said. “They all yelled, and obviously were able to do that.”

After performances that fell short of power-conference level, including losing to Sacramento State on Sept. 16, Friday’s early-season victory against Syracuse is an indication that Stanford’s rebuild is on the right track. 

Other Notes

• Fifth-year defensive tackle Tobin Phillips did not travel with the team to Syracuse. Phillips was injured in the first quarter of Stanford’s game against Cal Poly on Sept. 7.
• Update: Junior receiver Mudia Reuben limped off the field at the end of the first quarter. He did not return to the game, and was seen with crutches and boot on his left leg post-game.
• Update: According to Ben Parker of CardinalSportsReport, freshman quarterback Elijah Brown is out 4-6 weeks with a hand injury. Brown was not in uniform on Friday during Stanford’s game against Syracuse.
• Despite being a game-time decision, graduate defensive lineman Clay Patterson did see action against the Orange.
• Stanford’s starting offensive line remained the same as week two, with the exception that fifth-year Levi Rogers started at center.