Luck defeats another opponent: Adversity

LOS ANGELES

For most of the country, there has been a mythic quality to Andrew Luck, as if he were college football's white whale.

Luck, with a name out of a Dickens' novel, is smart — he does go to Stanford, of course. He turned down the NFL not to improve his draft stock — he would have been the top pick last April — but because he actually, you know, enjoys college. He is the Heisman Trophy front-runner almost by acclimation and fans in woebegone NFL cities have embarked on "Suck for Luck" campaigns, hopeful that if their teams lose enough, they'll be able to draft Luck.

But because Stanford has steamrolled through a soft schedule, and done it on the strength of a crunching running attack, there was a question that began to build alongside the outsized expectations:

When Luck got popped in the mouth, when he made a bad throw or when his team desperately needed him, what was inside him? Yes, he could make all the throws and get his team in the right play, but what kind of quarterback was he?

The answer revealed itself Saturday night in scintillating form, when Luck lifted Stanford — and himself — from the brink of disaster to a 56-48, triple overtime victory over USC that was sealed only when the Trojans made one of their few mistakes all evening, tailback Curtis McNeal's fumble into the end zone that was recovered by Stanford linebacker A.J. Tarpley.

The dramatic ending kept Stanford, No. 6 in the BCS, alive in the national championship chase. Nobody seemed more elated — and relieved — than Luck, who wrapped Stanford coach David Shaw in a bear hug before rejoicing with fans while the band played the school's anthem, "All Right Now."

"I might need a couple of minutes to digest everything," Luck said, his stomach still churning.

Luck rallied his team from a 10-point third-quarter deficit — the first time Stanford trailed anyone all season — and then had to bring the Cardinal back in the waning minutes of regulation after a monumental gaffe, an interception that Nickell Robey returned 33 yards for a touchdown with 3:08 to play.

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When Luck walked back to the bench, he was wide-eyed and shaking his head. He sought out receiver Chris Owusu — the intended target — to apologize for a poor throw. Moments earlier, Luck sat on the bench and told the linemen sitting next to him "Hey, we're going to win this game." Now, the thought occurred to him that he might have lost it.

"For a couple seconds, I wanted to go dig a hole and bury myself in it," Luck said. "But the guys believed in me — for that I was grateful. I was so happy to still see time on the game clock and have another chance to go out there. There was just relief that there was more time left."

Luck treasured the opportunity, just as he has treasured the chance to chase a national title this season with linemen David DeCastro and Jonathan Martin, and the rest of the recruiting class that has turned Stanford's fortunes.

It is why, days after the Cardinal routed Virginia Tech in the Orange Bowl, Luck announced — with little fanfare, just a brief statement — that he would return for his junior season.

"Before coach [Jim] Harbaugh left, before I got the job, when Andrew came back, our guys got a sense of purpose," said Shaw, who took over when Harbaugh left to coach the 49ers. "He came back for a reason. They don't want to let him down. He doesn't want to let them down. So every time we get in a tough situation, we fight until there's no time left on the clock."

Luck, with the help of a crucial personal foul penalty on T.J. McDonald on a third-down incompletion, drove Stanford 76 yards to even the score with 38 seconds left on Stepfan Taylor's 2-yard plunge. Then, when the clock ran out on USC before receiver Robert Woods could get out of bounds and stop the clock for a field goal, Luck was near flawless in overtime.

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His back shoulder throw to tight end Levine Toilolo left USC cornerback Isiah Wiley without a chance, and his final throw — a 2-point conversion pass to another tight end, Coby Fleener — was out of an NFL catalogue. Luck looked to his right where the Cardinal had three receivers in the pattern, then came back to his left to hit Fleener, open in the back of the end zone.

"He was calm and collected," Taylor said. "He wasn't nervous so we feed off that."

Luck also threw a 62-yard pass to Ty Montgomery, taking a pitch after he lined up as a receiver in a wildcat formation, a play that will certainly catch the eye of Heisman voters.

But for much of the night, it was grit that was required, not glitz. Luck, who had been sacked twice in seven games — none of them closer than 26 points — was dropped twice by USC, including one by Wes Horton that jarred the ball loose. Luck narrowly escaped sacks three other times. But he made several big plays with his feet, particularly a 15-yard dash on the drive that tied the score at the end of regulation and a 2-yard dive into the end zone.

"He took some hits, he took some shots, he just kept going," USC linebacker Chris Gallipo said. "He's just so competitive. He runs for first downs. The touchdown he ran for was awesome."

This was no secret to the Trojans, who watched Luck drive Stanford to a last-second field goal that beat them 37-35 last season. Luck also rallied Stanford to a fourth-quarter comeback over Arizona State last year, but since then the Cardinal had won 10 consecutive games by at least 25 points.

Luck was so good that it is easy to wonder why the Cardinal run the ball so much. Yes, they rushed for a school-record 446 yards last week against Washington, but the Trojans largely slowed their ground game. And, facing a third-and-8 at the USC 13, and trailing 27-24, Shaw ran the ball out of the wildcat, for 2 yards.

Shaw was bothered that anyone would wonder why he chose to take the ball out of Luck's hands and put it on the foot of kicker Eric Whitaker, who before Saturday night had never attempted a field goal.

"It was a safe call, but we thought it was a good call," Shaw said. "What else do you guys want?"

No questions. Just answers, like the ones Luck provided.