Halftime recap of Stanford's Week 5 game against No. 13 Oregon
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Stanford is on the back end of one of the toughest three week stretches in the country, taking on the third ranked team in as many weeks.
The Cardinal started the game off with the ball for the third straight week, and for the third straight week they did absolutely nothing with it.
Stanford lucked out that the No. 13 Ducks missed on a deep throw, and a had a penalty negate a touchdown on their first possession. Oregon was able to put up a field goal, but similar to the past couple weeks were able to move the ball easily with Bucky Irving.
On Oregon's second drive, the defense came up huge with a scoreless drive. Bo Nix has missed on all of his deep shots thus far, which is typically what hurts Stanford. However, like I have said countless times in the past couple weeks, the Cardinal offense was unable to build off the momentum. With a 3-and-1 situation in their own territory, Stanford went to the ole reliable that is the quarterback sneak, which came up short leading to another punt.
With time expiring in the first quarter, Oregon's offense was going pedal to the metal, and was able to catch the Cardinal defense off guard with a screen pass that Chase Cota took 49-yards for the score. This of course was followed up by an electric three-and-out by the Stanford offense.
After another defensive stop, the Cardinal offense was finally able to drive down the field but were unable to finish off with a touchdown. They did finally get on the board though, as after a made field goal they cut the lead to 10-3.
The Ducks, despite shooting themselves in the foot all game and especially their next drive, were able to go down the field and add another touchdown on a nice catch by Troy Franklin to make it 17-3. The Cardinal who have been plagued by turnovers all season continued to struggle with not giving the ball away, as Benjamin Yurosek fumbled the ball on Stanford's first play of the drive.
Noah Sewell recovered the fumble and returned it to the Stanford four, which led to the Ducks punching it in to go up 24-3. This now marks the third straight game they have trailed by double digits in the first half, and is the second time in three games they have trailed by 20.
My thoughts: This Stanford offense is abysmal, the play calling is elementary at best, and the team looks defeated. The defense was actually holding up, but they are just on the field way too much. The defense getting chippy by the Oregon sideline just shows a frustrated and undisciplined team.
Stats Comparison:
Total Yards: Stanford 102, Oregon 324
Passing Yards: Stanford 45, Oregon 111
Rushing Yards: Stanford 57, Oregon 213
Penalties: Stanford 2-16, Oregon 10-90
Turnovers: Stanford 1, Oregon 0
Time of possession: Stanford 15:44, Oregon 14:16
