Recapping Stanford's blowout Week 10 loss to Washington State
Finding themselves just three wins away from bowl eligibility, Stanford had a prime opportunity to win a game against a struggling Washington State team.
The only issue being the fact that Washington State came out hot to open the game, and looked like a completely different team than they did in the past few weeks. Their defense was making huge stops, Cam Ward was making all the right throws, and their running game which is statistically one of the worst in the country looked elite.
At halftime the Cardinal found themselves trailing 42-7 with four fumbles lost, and really nothing positive to build on.
To start the second half, the Cardinal drove down the field and were finally able to find pay-dirt after Ashton Daniels rushed in his second score of the game to make it 42-14. The defense followed this up with a nice drive, but it was evident by watching freshman David Bailey that there is clearly frustrations among the players. In a three play stretch, Bailey yelled at his teammates, hit Cam Ward well after he had thrown but went unnoticed, and then got hit with a roughing the passer the following play for pushing Ward down after he had clearly thrown the ball.
Washington State would get the ball again after another poor offensive drive by the offense, and drive down the field thanks to a couple perfect throws Ward. The drive ended in a field goal to make it 45-14. After a couple more lackluster drives that saw the offense do absolutely nothing, Washington State decided to call off the dogs and pull their starters.
Even despite the reserves being in, Stanford's defense was unable to prevent the Cougars from marching down the field and scoring another touchdown to fall behind 52-14.
Even in garbage time this Stanford team was unable to get the ball in the end zone in what very well may have been the team's worst performance of the year.
The offense was once again plagued by turnover issues, giving the ball away four times that led to 21 Washington State points. The defense on the other hand was absolutely embarrassed by a Washington State rushing attack that came into the game ranked No. 127 in rushing offense, giving up over 300 yards rushing. Not sure what David Shaw will have to say about this performance after the game, but surely won't be pleased with how his team looked.
Stat Comparison
Total Yards: Stanford 337, WAZZU 514
Passing Yards: Stanford 208, WAZZU 266
Rushing Yards: Stanford 71, WAZZU 306
Penalties: Stanford 5-35, WAZZU 5-62
Turnovers: Stanford 4, WAZZU 0
Time of possession: Stanford 30:05, WAZZU 29:55
