Cardinal now face a stretch that will make or break their season
The toughest part of Stanford’s season is over.
After three games in 14 days against ranked teams—an upset of thirdranked Oregon sandwiched between deflating losses to No. 24 UCLA and No. 22 Arizona State—the Cardinal (3-3, 2-2) next play five straight unranked conference opponents, starting Saturday at Washington State.
A 3-3 record, 2-2 in the Pac-12 “is obviously not where we want to be,” sophomore tight end Benjamin Yurosek said. “But right now we just have to regroup and finish off the season strong. We have a Pac-12 championship to win, that’s our only goal right now.”
Yurosek, who had career highs of 118 yards and six receptions in Friday night’s 28-10 loss at ASU, is one of 20 key contributors for Stanford with less than 12 games of experience. That’s a fact that gives coach David Shaw hope that the Cardinal can finish strong.
“I still believe that we’re capable of some special things,” Shaw said. “I think we’re going to continue to grow and get better. There’s a lot of football left to be played for us, and that’s our challenge is to play great the rest of the year and let the chips fall where they may.”
Conference title aspirations might seem overly optimistic, but even in defeat there were encouraging signs Friday night, depending on your perspective.
After giving up three long touchdown drives to begin the game, the Stanford defense didn’t give up a point in the final 40 minutes (ASU’s only score after that came on a picksix). And even though the offense produced only 10 points, it moved into ASU territory 10 times in its 11 possessions.
Not that it was any consolation to Shaw.
“It doesn’t matter if you can move the ball between the 20s,” Shaw said. “If you can’t get in and score touchdowns you’re not going to win not in this league. The defense gave the offense opportunities the entire second half, and the offense did not take advantage of those. We’ve got to play much better.”
In the first half, Stanford drives ended with punts from the ASU 39, 40, 40 and 45. Among the six other trips into ASU territory, two ended with interceptions (both on tipped passes) and two others ended on fourth-down plays that failed.
The two outliers: A 6-yard touchdown pass from Tanner McKee to Elijah Higgins that tied the score at 7, and a 32-yard field goal from Ryan Sanborn early in the third quarter when it was 21-7.
The pick-six, which accounted for the final score of the game, was one of three interceptions thrown by McKee, ending a run of 168 career passes without a turnover. The sophomore QB, who claimed the starting job after sharing it in Week 1, completed 27 of 45 passes for 356 yards, all career highs, as ASU played a single-high safety, loaded the box and played man-toman coverage, daring the Cardinal to pass.
Along with Yurosek’s big night, Higgins caught seven passes for 110 yards stepping into the No. 1 receiver role after Brycen Tremayne suffered a season-ending leg injury last week. Stanford still hopes to add Michael Wilson, who had started 18 games before sustaining a leg injury last season from which he is still working his way back.
Defensively, Stanford needs to find a way to stop the run. Entering play Friday as the Pac-12’s worst rushing defense at 215.6 yards a game, the Cardinal allowed 255 yards on 44 attempts.
Though it was coming off a short week, the defense’s slow start was a letdown after last week’s thrilling overtime win over Oregon. ASU (5-1, 3-0) was also coming off a big road win over UCLA but kept its momentum going and now enjoys what Stanford hoped to have—control of the division race at the midway point.
“This was a big game with a lot of conference implications, and they rose to the challenge and we did not,” Shaw said. “So we’re going to take a couple days, get off our feet and get back at it on Monday ready for our next challenge.”
That would be next Saturday on the road against Washington State. The Cougars defeated Oregon State 31-24 on Saturday.
Freshman Emmet Kenney appeared to suffer a hip injury on his first collegiate extra point attempt. Shaw does not comment on injuries and did not give an update on his status immediately after the game.
Punter Ryan Sanborn took over kicking duties and made a 32-yard field goal, as well as a 48-yard attempt that was negated by a holding penalty.