STANFORD, Calif. – Rarely does one player decide a game. Not in football. So much depends on what happens in different places, especially up front near the line of scrimmage.

But Saturday’s contest at Stanford Stadium offered an exception. In front of an announced crowd of 44,422, Bryce Love was the difference in Stanford’s 34-24 win over Arizona State. The junior running back from North Carolina was the best player on the field, and it wasn’t even close.

Love rushed for a school-record 301 yards on just 25 carries. For most of the day, he was like a boxer, setting up his punches, every short run striking the Sun Devils like a jab.

Short run. Short run. Short run.

Gone.

Short run. Short run. Short run.

Gone.

“The guy’s really hard to tackle,” ASU coach Todd Graham said. “Every play that he broke, we had someone there, unblocked, and couldn’t tackle him. You have to give him a lot of credit. He’s very, very good.”

Said senior defensive tackle Tashon Smallwood: “Man, he runs hard.”

Love scored on rushes of 61, 43 and 59 yards. Overall, he had six rushes of 15-plus yards, putting him over 1,000 yards for the season. The crowd here is so used to seeing something great, it produces an audible sense of anticipation whenever Love breaks to the outside or gets a step through the middle.

The only person holding him back this day was Stanford coach David Shaw, who decided to put it in the running back’s hands on just 25 of 57 plays.

“I’ve never seen anybody get hit and stumble and then get back up full speed,” Shaw said. “I’ve just never seen that before. It’s unbelievable.”

Said Love: “It really hasn’t hit me. Just like I said on the field, it’s more so just a testament to my teammates.”

In dropping its ninth consecutive conference road game – a streak that dates nearly two years – ASU fell to 2-3 and 1-1 in the Pac-12. Stanford improved to 3-2 and 2-1.

Despite Love’s dominance, ASU scored with eight minutes left to pull within 31-24. All the Sun Devils needed was a defensive stand to knot the score, but the defense has not yet matured to that point.

Running time off the clock, Stanford rode Love down the field. Two yards (jab). Nine yards (jab). Then – poof! – into the clear for 31 more. Although the Cardinal were forced to settle for Jet Toner’s 22-yard field goal, the damage had been done. Stanford increased its lead to 10 and left ASU just 2:26 to try and pull off a magic act.

Poof!

Up in smoke.

The Sun Devils’ consolation this day: Aside from Love, they might have had the second-best player on the field. Sophomore N’Keal Harry is a weekly experiment for Billy Napier. The offensive coordinator keeps coming up with different ways to get the ball in the talented receiver’s hands.

Last week, Harry shifted to the backfield and took hand-offs for the first time in his college career. Against Stanford, the 6-4 216-pound receiver lined up in ASU’s “Sparky” formation, taking direct snaps and running for first downs.

In the second quarter, Harry caught a 21-yard pass to give ASU a first down on the Stanford 21, but not much later he had to come off the field and seek medical attention.

“I just had a player laying on my stomach, so I kind of lost my air at the bottom of the pile,” Harry said.

Two plays later, Harry returned and lined up in the backfield. On 3rd-and 3, Harry took the snap, ran right and threw the first touchdown pass of his career, a 14-yard strike to junior tight end Ceejhay French-Love.

Overall, Stanford did a nice job shutting down ASU’s vertical passing game, but Harry still produced 40 rushing yards and 40 receiving yards.

“The more you watch Number 1 play, the more you realize he’s a pretty elite guy,” Napier said.

Graham counted ASU’s missed opportunities: Two turnovers. A first-quarter sack that took the Sun Devils out of field-goal range. A third-down miscommunication. A poor decision to field a punt.

“Against (Stanford), the margin for error is very small,” Graham said. “They’re not going to make mistakes.”

After posting 268 yards in the first half, ASU managed just 141 in the second. Stanford changed its defensive front – going with bigger personnel – and the Sun Devils never regained their rhythm. 

Maybe it wouldn’t have mattered. Not against Love.

Not on this day.

Contact Doug Haller at 602-444-4949 or at [email protected]. Follow him at Twitter.com/DougHaller. Download and subscribe to the ASU Pick Six Podcast, available on iTunes.