Stanford has won three Pac-12 titles in the past four seasons, but for the Cardinal to win it again, they probably can’t afford another conference loss.
The 15th-ranked Cardinal, in the midst of a brutal stretch of the season, are coming off a 44-6 loss at Washington, their worst defeat in coach David Shaw’s six-year tenure. Stanford (3-1 overall, 2-1 Pac-12) will try to pick up the pieces against Washington State on Saturday at Stanford Stadium, beginning at 10:30 p.m. ET.
Shaw said there will be no panic.
“I will be in the minority, but it’s the fourth game, and we’re 3-1,” he said. “We’ll get attacked like we’re 0-12 already. We’re not going to give up on ourselves. Others might. That’s fine. We’re not going to get too low.”
Washington State (2-2, 1-0) comes in on a high. The Cougars defeated visiting Oregon 51-33, rolling up 651 total yards, including 280 on the ground, their most in a conference game since 2005.
WSU head coach Mike Leach, who usually works with the quarterbacks and receivers during practice, recently has been spending more time with the offensive line. The running game, fueled by a trio of tailbacks — James Williams, Gerard Wicks and James Morrow — has gained 508 yards on 65 carries in the past two games.
“The offensive line did a really good job,” Leach said about the Oregon game. “They are quality backs, but we are bigger than we have been, and now they are starting to play a little better together than they were early on.”
Stanford is the team in this matchup better known for its big offensive line and star running backs. But junior running back Christian McCaffrey, the 2015 Heisman runner-up, managed just 49 yards on 12 carries against Washington, his lowest output since a 2014 game against California.
Quarterback Ryan Burns has been efficient, completing 50 of 79 passes for 546 yards, with four touchdowns and two interceptions. But he was held to 151 passing yards last week and was sacked six times.
“We didn’t play well. We didn’t block well. We couldn’t run the ball. We couldn’t pass protect and we couldn’t complete passes with any consistency, particularly the first two and a half quarters,” Shaw said. “Just not the style of football that we can play and not as well as we can play.”
Stanford, the preseason Pac-12 favorite in a league media poll, opened conference play with victories over USC and at UCLA before the Washington game. Now comes Washington State, a game at Notre Dame and then a home game vs. Colorado, which entered the AP poll this week for the first time since 2005.
The Cardinal are dealing with a few key injuries, notably starting cornerbacks Quenton Meeks and Alijah Holder, who each missed the loss to Washington. Shaw said Tuesday that both are likely to miss Saturday’s game.
Holder leads the team with five pass break-ups. Meeks twice intercepted Washington State quarterback Luke Falk in last season’s 30-28 Stanford victory in Pullman, Wash.
Alameen Murphy and Terrence Alexander started in their place last week and will be busy if they get the call against Washington State’s Air Raid passing attack. WSU is tied for first nationally with Texas Tech for the most passing attempts per game — 53.75.
Falk, fourth in the country in passing at 373.8 yards per game, completed 36 of 48 passes for 371 yards without an interception against Oregon. Senior wide receiver Gabe Marks ranks sixth nationally with 9.0 catches per game and has 29 career touchdown receptions.
“They’re running the ball with good efficiency,” Shaw said. “Combined with their pass attack, they’re very tough to stop.”
Stanford has won eight in a row over the Cougars, matching its longest winning streak in the series. Cardinal kicker Conrad Ukropina, who has made all six of his field goal attempts this season, was the hero of last season’s game. Ukropina hit three field goals, including the go-ahead 19-yarder with less than two minutes remaining.
This area could be an edge to Stanford, as WSU place-kicker Erik Powell has missed all four of his field goal attempts this season (two were blocked) after a season in which he was just 5 of 10. He missed a 43-yard field-goal attempt on the final play of last year’s game against Stanford that would have given the Cougars the victory.
“We should have won last year,” Leach said of the Stanford game. “That’s our own fault. We have to do everything we can to control our own destiny.”
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