Washington State Football: How I’m Feeling About Stanford, Before Cougs Play Them

October 20, 2012; Berkeley, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal safety Jordan Richards (8) almost intercepts the ball against the California Golden Bears during the fourth quarter at Memorial Stadium. The Stanford Cardinal defeated the California Golden Bears 21-3. Mandatory Credit: Kelley L Cox-US PRESSWIRE

The Stanford Cardinal came into today as a tough team to judge, really. They have a lot of the pieces (as far as personnel) that made them great last season, aside from the qb of course. However, they have been less than impressive about half the time, while being very impressive the other half. For example, barely beating SJSU was a very unimpressive moment in history, while taking down Arizona in a comeback style shootout and then coming within a blown call of triple OT with the #5 Irish in the past two weeks were both overly impressive moments. So, they’re looking better, but how good are they? Thought I’d find out this week in The Big Game.

And I did, after watching a tough to describe 21-3 win, here’s the sitch. Stanford is a team that can be beaten in their times of weakness, because for some reason at those times they cannot find anything to get them going offensively. However, when they are rolling offensively, both their run game and in between passing game to their TE’s propel them. In the first half yesterday, they were an impressive team in this area, but in the second half they coasted and were less than whatever impressive is on the offensive side. Considering that also happened against SJSU, Washington and Notre Dame, that gives me much hope!

Neither of the following: ND, Duke, Washington nor Cal present an offense that carries any serious clout, in terms of numbers put up this season, so opponents low numbers are going to be a little overblown when talking Stanford defense. So what’s that tell you? I’d say we have a real chance next week if we can put up 24 or more. Hey, I’m just sayin’, if you’ll take a second look at the picture we’ve supplied, I hope there’s a lot of that going on (the falling flat part, not the almost intercepting part LOL). Stirrin’ the pot a little.

Go Cougs!