Pac-12: Oregon stops Stanford; Arizona stuns Utah

Vernon Adams Jr. had Oregon’s big-play offense clicking. Stanford was able to grind it out behind Kevin Hogan and Christian McCaffrey.

When it came down to it, two botched snaps and a failed two-point conversion spoiled the Cardinal’s playoff hopes and kept the Ducks alive in the Pac-12 race.

Adams threw for 205 yards and two touchdowns and Oregon used its quick-strike offense and the late two-point stop to beat No. 7 Stanford, 38-36, Saturday night at Palo Alto.

“We kept fighting out there,” Adams said. “It was a great team win. It shows how good we can be.”

In a game dominated by offenses that combined for more than 900 yards, it was a defensive stop on the two-point attempt with 10 seconds left that sealed the win for Oregon (7-3, 5-2 Pac-12) and kept the Ducks’ hopes for a conference title alive.

After Hogan lost two fumbles on snaps in the fourth quarter, Stanford (8-2, 7-1) tied it on Hogan’s four-yard touchdown pass to Greg Taboada. Needing a two-point conversion to tie it, Hogan tried to find tight end Austin Hooper over the middle against the blitz. But linebacker Joe Walker got a finger on the ball and the Ducks held on for the win.

“I might have touched it a little bit,” Walker said. “Just a little finger.”

Royce Freeman ran for 105 yards and a score and Charles Nelson scored on a 75-yard run on one of the Ducks’ three touchdowns of more than 45 yards.

Oregon needs to win the final two games and hope Stanford loses next week at home to California to win the Pac-12 North title.

Though Stanford is still in control of the division race, the Cardinal had higher goals of making the College Football Playoff if they could win out.

“Any time you lose, it stings, it’s tough,” linebacker Kevin Anderson said. “If you told me at the beginning of the season we’d have a chance to beat Cal to win the Pac-12 North, go to the Pac-12 championship with a chance to go to the Rose Bowl, I’d say that’s awesome. A little bit of perspective here, but it definitely stings right now.”

Hogan threw for 304 yards and two touchdowns and ran for another score. McCaffrey set a Stanford record with his eighth straight 100-yard rushing game, running for 147 yards and a touchdown.

at Arizona 37, No. 10 Utah 30 (2 OT): Backup quarterback Jerrard Randall threw a 25-yard touchdown pass to Nate Phillips on the first play of the second overtime — his only completion of the game — and the Wildcats stunned the Utes.

The loss knocked the Utes (8-2, 5-2 Pac-12) into a first-place tie with USC in the Pac-12 South, and the Trojans hold the tiebreaker because they beat Utah.

Anu Solomon passed for 277 yards and two touchdowns and ran for a season-high 86 yards for Arizona (6-5, 3-5) before leaving the game after a helmet-to-helmet hit with 9:25 left in regulation. No penalty was called.

Utah’s Devontae Booker carried 34 times for 143 yards.

at Arizona State 27, Washington 17: Sophomore running back Kalen Ballage broke three tackles on a 48-yard run in the fourth quarter for his second touchdown and the Sun Devils rallied from a woeful first half.

Arizona State (5-5, 3-4 Pac-12) staggered its way through a lethargic first half, looking nothing like a team trying to play its way into a bowl game. But after falling into a 17-0 hole, the Sun Devils got their groove back, dominating the Huskies (4-6, 2-5) on both sides of the ball to move within one win of bowl eligibility.

Arizona State shut down Washington’s offense after losing two key starters in the first half and starting the game without injured safety Kareem Orr. Stagnant in the first half, ASU’s offense clicked in the second to cap the program’s biggest comeback since rallying from 17 down to beat UCLA in 2010.

Ballage had 92 yards in 11 carries and Mike Bercovici threw for 253 yards for the Sun Devils, who need to beat Arizona or Cal to become bowl eligible for the fifth straight season.

at California 54, Oregon State 24: Jared Goff threw for 453 yards and six touchdowns as the Bears ended a four-game losing streak and kept the Beavers winless in the Pac-12. Cal had more than 700 yards of offense.