Stanford's Week 3 game against Sacramento State has the makings of a trap game

Every college football team whether they are contending for the championship or just doing everything in their power to make it to a bowl game are susceptible to a trap game.

A timeless tradition in the sport that pits a team still feeling the victory hangover after a big win or a team looking ahead to a rival, against a frisky underdog that will do everything they can to ruin a season. Trap games are every coach's worst nightmare as we often hear that every opponent should be valued the same, but at the end of the day getting teenagers and 20-something year olds to take a lesser opponent has proven to not always be easy.

Well, that is until players and fans alike are stuck doing the surrender cobra move after they are stunned.

While many outlets think Stanford would be lucky to even reach four or five wins, they still have a couple games on their schedule that they absolutely should win. However, in a recent article by 247Sports' Raymond Lucas Jr. where he identified the trap game for every team in the Pac-12, Stanford's was a tad more personal than most.

The Cardinal start their season off in Hawaii, take a trip to USC, and then return home for the first home game of the Troy Taylor era against none other than Sacramento State. If you aren't familiar with Troy Taylor yet, allow me to introduce you. The now Stanford coach took over at Sacramento State in 2019 and proceeded to lead the program to a 30-8 record and a playoff appearance each of the three seasons.

The Hornets while they are without Taylor now are expected to pick up where he left off, and with a little added motivation in a scorned ex type of fashion could be feeling a tad frisky. Lucas explained why this game stands out to him as a trap game saying:

Stanford is the only team in the Pac-12 that begins the season with consecutive road games, which could lead to the Cardinal becoming the first group to ever roll their eyes at a business trip to Hawaii. After traveling to Honolulu, Stanford departs for Los Angeles and squares off with USC. From there, the Cardinal meets a Sacramento State program Taylor built into a winner. Stanford plays host to the likes of Oregon, UCLA, Washington and Notre Dame. While those clashes taking place in Palo Alto is ideal, they are challenges nonetheless.

If the Cardinal do in fact drop this game against Sacramento State it surely would be a tough loss to swallow for Taylor and the program. The Cardinal are in the midst of a major rebuild after losing seven players to the NFL and nearly 20 to the transfer portal, but a loss to an FCS program regardless of how good they are would be detrimental to morale.

Taylor and his staff will have a vital fall camp ahead of them in order to determine starters, implement the system, and to simply get their inexperienced roster more reps.