Lake Says Pass-Happy Stanford Will Run the Ball Against the Huskies

The Stanford football team throws the ball this season for nearly triple the yardage it generates on the ground.

An easy scout for Jimmy Lake's University of Washington coaching staff, right?

Time to get those ace cornerbacks of his in Trent McDuffie and Kyler Gordon all revved up to defend the pass?

Best to tell the defensive line it will revert from three starters to just two for this Bay Area visit?

No, no and no, according to Lake.

Asked about the lopsided Stanford scenario — one in which the Cardinal has piled up 1,798 passing yards and 14 touchdown passes in comparison to 664 rushing yards and 8 scores — the Husky coach seems to think it's all a situational smokescreen.

"When you watch film of the games they've been in, they've been behind and that's why you see more passes than runs," Lake said. "We're expecting fully that they're going to run the football on Saturday night."

Did he mean the Cardinal (3-4 overall, 2-3 Pac-12) are going to be ahead?

Actualy scoreboard totals won't be a factor.

The UW's inability to stop opposing rushing attacks, from Michigan to Arizona, is a far greater lure for Stanford to pound the ball rather than fling it.

While the Cardinal averages just 98 yards rushing per game, Husky opponents have been able to greatly pad their ground-game numbers this season against Lake's team (3-4, 2-2) by rolling up 194 per outing.

Arizona (0-7, 0-4) is a young team with all sorts of problems, least of all a nation-worst 19-game losing streak. The Wildcats still picked their way through UW tacklers for 218 yards rushing, or 5.4 per carry.

Those sort of numbers will be enticing enough for Stanford to scrap its passing-heavy attack, at least for this weekend, and get in the trenches against the vulnerable Husky defense, which is missing several players.

"We're going to have to do a good job of stopping the run," Lake said.

Yet the numbers don't lie: the Huskies don't do this very well.

They've permitted totals of 127, 343, 48, 138, 242, 237 and that 218 yards this season, really stopping only lower-level Montana and Arkansas State.

Granted, this Stanford team has been hard to gauge all season, with the Cardinal beating Oregon and USC yet limping into this game with a sub-.500 record.

But that limp quickly will turn to a run.

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