sportal.co.nz file photo: Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns struggled in his last game against the Washington State Cougars and the Cardinal get prepared to face Notre Dame on Saturday
You might recall last week we talked about the fact that Washington State Cougars had a high powered offense they lived up to their billing. Cougars quarterback Luke Falk was terrific in the Cougars win over the Stanford Cardinal. The Cougars just shredded the Stanford defense. The Cardinal had two cornerbacks who were injured. The Cougars ate them up the Cougars were better offensively and then they were.
Washington State controlled both sides of the ball on offense and defense and you might have noticed how good Washington State is they destroyed the Oregon Ducks scoring 70 points in Oregon. Talk about demoralizing loses you have to wonder what’s going on with the Ducks program as their 2-3 for the season.
AP photo: The Texas A & M quarterback Trevor Knight (8) gets a keeper over the goal line past the Tennessee Volunteers defensive end Derek Barnett (9) in overtime at College Station at Texas A & M on Saturday
Daniel Dullum is filling in for Michelle Richardson on the NCAA podcast:
The Texas A&M Aggies and the Tennessee Volunteers played double overtime like their lives depended on it. This nationally televised game was more like a playoff or bowl game with everything at steak. Neither team gave either one an inch there was intensity and every ball was like a rugby match with the defense trying to jar it loose or grab it out of the carrier or the receiver’s hands for that matter. The Aggies came up a 45-38 winner.
Virginia Tech (25) shocked the nation in a 34-3 win over North Carolina (17) the Hokies just dominated on defense
The Stanford Cardinal continue to stumble with 35-10 loss to the visiting Washington State Cougars. The Cardinal drop their record to 3-2 while Wahzoo improves to 3-2.
Daniel is filling in for Michelle Richardson PhD for this week’s segment of the NCAA podcast
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.
AP photo: Washington State Cougars quarterback Luke Falk (4) drops back in the pocket against the Oregon Ducks at Pullman last Saturday. Falk and the Cougars are at Stanford against the Cardinals Saturday Oct 8
On the Stanford Cardinal podcast with Matt Harrington:
The Cardinal (3-1) are coming off a 44-6 crushing at the hand of the Washington Huskies (5-0) last week in Seattle. The Cardinal now prepare to face the Washington State Cougars (2-2) at Stanford Stadium Saturday afternoon. The question is how Stanford head coach David Shaw needs to prepare the offensive line and get quarterback Ryan Burns some protection after Burns was sacked eight times last week from the Washington defense.
The Cougars will start quarterback Luke Falk whose 153-206 for 1495 yards and 12 touchdowns. The Cougars speaking of protection are looking to provide Falk with some blocking up front to give Falk sometime to throw. He’s been able to manage that with the 12 touchdowns he has for the season thus far. Against the Stanford pass rush if the last few Cards games are any indication Falk might get enough time to move the offense in the red zone and take aim at the end zone.
AP file photo: Stanford Cardinal quarterback Ryan Burns was running all day from the Washington Huskies defense Saturday in a lopsided loss at Husky Stadium in Seattle
On the Stanford Cardinal podcast with Jerry:
Unfortunately for the Cardinal last Saturday it was a bad day losing in Seattle to the Washington Huskies 44-6 a bad day at Black Rock because the Cardinal did nothing. Washington controlled both sides of he ball defensively and offensively. Washington quarterback Jake Browning had three touchdown passes in the first half. They totally controlled the Washington line and they controlled the Stanford defense.
The Stanford offense couldn’t get anything going against the Huskies defense and it was just a tough day for head coach David Shaw. It’s only one game and they have time to regroup and last year they didn’t play well against Northwestern and as a result everyone got on the bandwagon and said that the Cardinal wasn’t going to go anywhere but they ended up going to the Rose Bowl.
Last week the Cardinal (3-1) were all over the UCLA Bruins but in Husky Stadium the Washington Huskies did a end around on the Stanford Cardinal with a landslide win 44-6. The Cardinal concluded their two game road trip with a split-more like a splitting headache in Friday’s loss. Cardinal quarterback Ryan Burns was sacked eight times and the Husky defense just kept breaking through what happened to the O line of Stanford.
The Huskies quarterback Jake Browning had three touchdowns and was 15-21 in passing, the Huskies didn’t waste anytime putting up scores as they executed on offense with the first 30 points of the night. The Huskies defense were so hard to figure out for the Burns as it was tough for Burns to get a read on them. The Cardinal line it up in a game they need to redeem themselves as they face the Washington State Cougars next week Saturday.
The Cardinal were blown out by the Huskies on Friday (Jennifer Buchanan / USA Today Sports)
By: Eric He
A week ago, No. 7 Stanford squeaked by unranked UCLA at the Rose Bowl. On Friday, the Cardinal had no such fortune, as they were blown out 44-6 by the No. 10 Washington Huskies up in Seattle.
Stanford’s offense struggled mightily, as quarterback Ryan Burns was sacked eight times and star running back Christian McCaffrey rushed for just 49 yards and no touchdowns.
Meanwhile, Huskies quarterback Jake Browning had three touchdowns on 15-of-21 passing as Washington scored the first 30 points of the game.
A 3-yard touchdown pass from Browning to Dante Pettis started the barrage for the Huskies in the first quarter; a four yard run for a score by Miles Gaskin later in the quarter put Washington ahead 16-0. In the second quarter, Browning found John Ross for a 19-yard score and Washington took a 23-0 advantage into halftime.
Meanwhile, the Cardinal had nothing going offensively. Their only points came on a 19-yard lob throw from Burns to JJ Arcega-Whiteside in the third quarter. Stanford also committed 11 penalties.
The 38-point defeat was the biggest loss by a top 10-ranked Stanford team in history, and it was Washington’s biggest win over a top-10 team since 1990.
The Cardinal host Washington State next week at Stanford Stadium.
AP photo: Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns tries to elude UCLA Bruins linebacker Deon Hollins (58) on Saturday at the Los Angeles Coliseum
On over 57 1/2 minutes Stanford was in trouble quarterback Ryan Burns couldn’t complete passes and turnovers were ending possessions for Stanford in UCLA on Saturday but Stanford came back and won it late 22-13 win. At 2:36 down 13-9 in the second half the Cardinal came back with no time outs. Burns set up a ten play 70 yard drive to pass to JJ Arcega-Whiteside for corner catch touchdown.
UCLA’s defense was looking for Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey but Arcega-Whiteside caught a pass for a eight yard touchdown. How key was Stanford head coach David Shaw in setting up the last few plays to get Stanford the win. Stanford plays at Washington next Saturday and Jerry talks about the match up.
PASADENA — For 57 and a half minutes, No. 7 Stanford was in trouble. The offense was sputtering, the quarterback couldn’t complete a pass, turnovers were ending possessions early and the Cardinal were in danger of being upset by unranked UCLA on the road on Saturday.
But in two minutes and 35 seconds, trailing 13-9, they roared back to life. With no timeouts and a quarterback who had thrown just one complete pass in the second half, it was Ryan Burns helped orchestrate a 10-play, 70-yard drive, culminating in a fade pass to JJ Arcega-Whiteside in the left corner of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown, spurring a 22-13 win over the Bruins.
The down was second and goal from the 8-yard line, after Burns had completed four passes and Christian McCaffrey converted on a key third-and-3 in the red zone. And it was Burns who trusted Arcega-Whiteside, making his college debut, to make the game’s biggest play.
“One-on-one, that guy can jump pretty high,” Burns said. “I just put it up for him, and he made a great play. Couldn’t be more proud of him.”
Arcega-Whiteside said he had been dreaming of that moment since he was little, but added he was prepared for the fade thrown his way.
“After practice, we always [say], ‘Hey, let’s throw some fade balls, let’s go deep, let’s have fun,’” he said. “Once coach called that play, I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to have some fun.’”
UCLA had 24 seconds to work with following the touchdown, but quarterback Josh Rosen was sacked and fumbled on the game’s final play, leading to a Stanford touchdown by Stanf Solomon Thomas as time expired to finish off the game.
It was a dazzling final three minutes to atone for a frustrating night of offense for the Cardinal. But the defense was good enough to keep the Bruins from expanding upon a 10-3 halftime lead. Stanford settled for two field goals to cut the deficit to 10-9 with under five minutes to play, though UCLA answered with a field goal of its own to push the lead back up to 4.
Head coach David Shaw, even in victory, was dissatisfied with his team’s performance.
“The youth of our football team showed in the first three quarters,” he said. “You’ve got to come into somebody else’s house and play well. We didn’t play well.”
Stanford scored first with a field goal on its first drive, but on its next drive, Burns was intercepted by UCLA’s Kenny Young, who returned it 40 yards into Cardinal territory.
That set up a touchdown as Rosen found Nate Iese over the middle on a third-and-five play from the 10-yard line. Iese just crossed the plane with the ball just before his knee hit the ground.
The remainder of the half was a field position battle, though Stanford coughed up the ball once more to UCLA. Midway through the second quarter, Burns completed a pass to Francis Owusu, who fumbled the ball after he appeared to be targeted with a helmet-to-helmet hit by UCLA’s Tahaan Goodman. But there was no penalty, and the Bruins took over.
Their ensuing drive ended in a 27-yard field goal and UCLA went into halftime ahead 10-3.
McCaffrey had an uncharacteristically modest game by his standards, finishing with 139 yards on 26 carries and no touchdowns. Still, Stanford outgained UCLA 207-77 on the ground to atone for the Bruins out-throwing them 248-143 in the air.
The running back said that it was important the team still found a way to win despite the struggles.
“We’re never out of a fight and that’s how we went into that game, knowing that it was going to be a dogfight,” McCaffrey said.
Burns admitted that Stanford should never have been down late in the fourth quarter in the first place. The quarterback completed 13-of-25 passes for 137 yards.
“I was not making the best throws, definitely not making the best decisions,” he said. “This is the kind of team we are, though. We’re never going to give up, we’re never going to back down.”
Shaw agreed, speaking about the character of his players to overcome adversity.
“That’s what happens when you recruit well and you recruit great kids, tough kids, smart kids, guys that don’t bat an eyelash when things get difficult,” he said.
Players like Arcega-Whiteside, who had the moment of his life in his college debut. He said his vertical leap is usually around 31 and a half inches, but on that play, he could have reached the sky.
“When you get that adrenaline going, you jump as high as you need to,” he said.
AP photo: The Stanford Cardinal running back Bryce Love (20) is back in the line up after an injury. Here Love takes a hand off from quarterback Keller Chryst (10) during a practice game back in April at Cagan Stadium where the offense played the defense
On the Stanford Cardinal podcast with Matt, The Cardinal (2-0) come into face the UCLA Bruins (2-1) at the LA Coliseum. Matt is taking the Cardinal for the win in this one. The Cardinal turned USC inside out last Saturday with a 27-10 win. The offense had a great day with 47 catches and 295 yards. Stanford took the Trojans out of their game early in the second quarter.
The Cardinal offense consisting of quarterback Ryan Burns and running back Christian McCaffrey are all set but don’t forget to include running Bryce Love. Love missed the opener against Kansas State due to a lower body injury. Love should get some looks in LA and has been noted to be the fastest player on the Stanford squad. Yes even faster than team key player McCaffrey.
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