What went wrong in Stanford's loss against No. 13 Oregon

The Cardinal continue to struggle this season

Despite confidence before the season, this Stanford team has found themselves in a rough place.

After beating Colgate, Stanford then had to embark on one of the toughest stretches in college football, playing three ranked teams in USC, Washington, and Oregon with the last two being on the road. This stretch has done nothing but expose the flaws of Stanford, and things are only going to continue to get more difficult. 

Saturday's loss at No. 13 Oregon may have been the worst of the three though, as unlike the other two, it was never really close. At least in the losses to USC and Washington there were certain drives and moments where Stanford had somewhat of a chance to get back into it. However, in the 45-27 loss last night, the game never seemed close. 

Let's take a look at what went wrong for Stanford in the loss.

Lackluster offense

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After holding Oregon to a field goal on the first drive, Stanford went three-and-out on their first four drives, with seven of their first eight drives ending in no points. The team was down 28 at half, and it was no secret why. The offensive line was banged up with Walter Rouse powering through, but Barrett Miller who was starting at RT for Myles Hinton, got hurt on 3rd play from scrimmage. This led to Jack Leyrer making his collegiate debut, which David Shaw eluded to in the post game presser that having inexperienced players limited the play calls. The Cardinal also played without star running back E.J. Smith who is out for the year, but was the teams best all around playmaker. 

Not sure how the play calling could get more limited, but that Cardinal offense found a way. McKee was under duress, and was unable to find his pass catchers. He had just 45 passing yards at half, and wasn't helped at all by the play calling which still seems to force them to run long developing plays. It appeared that the Oregon defense knew exactly what was coming seemingly every play, and the Cardinal really didn't find any momentum until it was too late. The mesh look continued to underwhelm.

Defending the dual threat

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Even though Caleb Williams and Michael Penix both can run if needed, there were not many designed runs or instances when they would look to run. That is not the case with Bo Nix, as Oregon dialed up multiple designed runs for him and he is also not shy about tucking it and running if he sees an opening. Something we saw on his 80-yard touchdown run.

While Stanford won't be facing Oregon again, practically every team they play the rest of the season has a dual threat quarterback. This defense appeared to have no answer for a quarterback who can run, and when I asked about it postgame it was evident that they know it's a major weakness for this defense. 

Building off momentum

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This is something that both the offense and defense struggle with, as they never seem to be able to string together possessions where each unit does well. For example, the defense held Oregon to a field goal on the first drive, which Stanford's offense then followed up with a three-and-out. Another instance was when Tanner McKee found Casey Filkins for the long touchdown run, which was of course followed up by the defense giving up an 80-yard rushing touchdown to Nix.

Football is a game of who can build off momentum, and that is something that has plagued the Cardinal all year and might be the difference between then getting more wins or not. This team is already showing signs of frustration as we saw a couple times where there would be extracurriculars after the play, they just don't know how to build off success.