By: Joe Lami

AP photo Jose Sanchez: It’s a zoo at Wahzoo as Washington State Cougar players assemble after a convincing win 42-16 over the Stanford Cardinal at Stanford Stadium Saturday night

STANFORD, Calif.—After a demoralizing 44-6 loss to the Washington Huskies last week in Seattle, the Stanford Cardinal wanted to return to home cooking on Saturday against the other team from the apple state. Unfortunately for them, it was exactly the opposite, as the Washington State Cougars owned the Cardinal in every aspect of the game, defeating Stanford 42-16.

Everything that could go wrong did go wrong for Stanford, starting up front with an awful performance from the offensive line. For the first time since 2008, Stanford managed not to achieve over 300 total yards, finishing with 296 on the day. “We are a work in progress up front right now. I didn’t think at this point in the season I would be saying that, but that’s just where we are,” said Stanford coach, David Shaw.

The run was completely shut down by the Cougars, forcing Stanford to finish with only 61 yards on 26 carries, good enough for a 2.3 per attempt. With the inability to run the ball, David Shaw was forced to attempt to pass.

Starting quarterback, Ryan Burns threw 20 of 30 for 233 yards and one interception. Burns also threw one touchdown on the very last play of the game. At one point; he was pulled for Keller Chryst, who only threw four passes before being taking out for Burns’ return. Burns felt the pressure all night, being sacked four times, and ten in the last two games.

At the end of the first half, Stanford trailed 14-3, after two missed field goals from kicker Conrad Ukropina, who has only missed two in each of his last two seasons. Both field goals hit the left upright, something that was happening during his pre-game warm-up.

On the defensive side of the ball, Stanford got torched, giving up 458 yards. Luke Falk threw for 357 of them on his way to finding the endzone four times. His main target was River Cracraft, who brought down seven catches for 130 yards. He also went to Tav Martin Jr. twice, both of which ended with touchdowns.

When Stanford was defending the pass with a nickel formation, that’s when Washington State ran the ball. Three different running backs saw at least seven carries apiece, for a combined total of 120 yards.

Christian McCaffrey was a non-factor in this game, with only 83 all-purpose yards. 35 of them came on the ground on eight carries. McCaffrey was seen going to the locker room in the third quarter with an apparent injury. He wouldn’t return to the game after that. Shaw assured the media that McCaffrey should be fine and that he was left out for precautionary reasons, “McCaffrey did get banged up, but there was no reason to put him in late in the game. We just left hi out. We’ll see how he is during the course of the week”. 

If one bright spot can be taken from the game, it was Frank Buncom picking off a Falk pass and returning it to the house. Many on the team thought that it would’ve been the turning point in the third quarter, making it 21-10, but Washington State regained their composure, going on an 11-play 75-yard touchdown drive to put the nail in the coffin.

Stanford has a lot to work on in the upcoming week, before they travel to South Bend, Indiana with their seasonal matchup against the Notre Dame Fighting Irish.