Go Mighty Card

Stanford 48, UCLA 47

Where do you even begin? There have been some improbable Stanford wins in the past, but if we agree to put the 2007 upset over USC in a category by itself, there isn't another game in the last fifteen years that brought a more unlikely result than Saturday night's game at the Rose Bowl.

Blogging with the Enemy: UCLA Bruins

There were two long streaks lost during Stanford football's lost season of 2019 -- nine straight wins over Cal and eleven straight wins in ten years over UCLA. The loss to Cal was probably more painful because there was part of me that thought that streak might go on forever, but the UCLA streak was fun because it was so improbable. It just didn't make sense for a program like UCLA to lose eleven straight games to anyone, and while there were certainly times when the game between the Cardinal and the Bruins highlighted the large gap between the teams, it was still... unnatural. It was never a streak meant to last.

In my previews of the last four games in the rivalry, I enjoyed writing about an imagined young boy named Kevin and his UCLA parents, Joe and Betty. In the world I created, Kevin had been born during the closing moments of UCLA's last win over the Cardinal back in 2008, and he passed one milestone after another, all without celebrating a win over Stanford.

Now that the streak is finally over, I'm sure 12-year-old Kevin has probably lost interest. While he'll likely spend his evening watching TikToks in between sessions of Among Us with his friends, his parents will be glued to the screen. Both Stanford and UCLA have already announced that they won't accept any postseason invitations. For each team, this is the end, and each team will look to use this final game to erase the might-have-beens that have plagued them through 2020.

Stanford 27, Oregon State 24

One day I'll visit Corvallis. It will be an autumn weekend, so the leaves will be changing as I enjoy a morning walk in the hills. If time allows I'll visit one of the local vineyards or wander into a bookstore. But with every step I take in that small college town, I'll be thinking of the game that will have brought me there. No matter how strong the Stanford team might be, no matter the quality of the Oregon State squad, I'll be worried. 

It's never easy when Stanford travels to play the Beavers in Corvallis, not even back during the glory days of last decade. Even though the Cardinal hasn't lost to Oregon State since Andrew Luck's first season at quarterback, several of the wins have been narrow, and at least one (a 15-14 Stanford win in 2017) undeserved. (By the way, I just read my recap of that game, and three years later it still gave me anxiety. Serious anxiety.)

Blogging with the Enemy: Oregon State Beavers

Two of the most impressive winning streaks in the history of Stanford football came to an end last season, nine straight wins over Cal and eleven straight over UCLA, but there's still one active conference streak that remains intact. David Shaw has never lost to Oregon State, and Stanford has beaten the Beavers ten times in row overall, with their last loss a 38-28 defeat in 2009. Oregon State has been at or near the bottom of the conference for much of that time, but they've still managed to give the Cardinal some tough games -- 27-23 in 2012, 15-14 in 2017, and 31-28 in 2019. It doesn't seem like it's ever been easy.

Expect another tough game on Saturday night. While the Cardinal has been struggling over the past couple seasons, head coach Jonathan Smith has been building something in Corvallis. After just two wins in his first season, the Beavers won five games last year, and although they've got just two wins in the this fractured season, one of those victories is over Oregon, only the second in the last thirteen tries against their rivals from Eugene. From the outside looking in, this seems like a program that's coming.

Stanford 31, Washington 26

Imagine you're walking out of the Rose Bowl on the evening of January 1, 2016. You've just watched Christian McCaffrey and the Cardinal completely dismantle the Iowa Hawkeyes, and the future of Stanford football is bright. But as you walk away from the stadium and into the darkness, you stumble after stepping on an empty beer bottle, you hit your head on parked car, and you fall into a coma that lasts more than four years.

You wake up on the afternoon of December 5th, 2020, and the world seems to have turned upside down. A reality show personality is President of the United States, and a global pandemic has claimed more than a quarter million American lives. Nothing, it seems, is as it was before your coma. Seeking an escape from the swirling confusion, you turn on the Stanford-Washington game, and for a few hours you bask in the familiarity of intellectual brutality, of fullbacks and pulling guards, of jumbo sets and time of possession. For three hours on Saturday afternoon, it's as if you had never stepped on that bottle.

Blogging with the Enemy: Washington Huskies

As the Cardinal headed into last season's matchup with the Washington Huskies, they carried questions with them. They were 2-3, they were without their starting quarterback, and many felt they were without the identity that had produced so much success over the previous decade. They emerged with a 23-13 victory that seemed to provide not only answers but also optimism heading into the second half of the season. It felt like a clear turning point, and the closing lines of my game recap reflected that:

...the future looks much different than it did a few days ago. While a ten-year bowl streak once seemed to be in jeopardy, the Cardinal now sits at 3-3 and won't have to leave Palo Alto until the second Saturday of November. They play just twice in the next twenty days, and it isn't inconceivable that they could win the next four games before hosting Cal on November 23rd.

It's foolish to think that far head, though, so instead we'll focus on what we know for sure after this 23-13 victory. Stanford Football is alive and well.

That optimism, it turned out, was short lived. The Cardinal lost five of six games to finish the season at 4-8, and their four-game losing streak to close 2019 stretched to six after losing the first two games to start 2020. Before 2019, David Shaw had never endured a losing streak as long as three games; last week's win over Cal was the program's first victory in more than a calendar year.

So while there are lots of individual issues facing different aspects of the program, they all fall under one larger question -- which stretch of games is more reflective of Stanford Football under David Shaw: 64-16 from 2011-2016, 18-9 in 2017 and 2018, or 4-10 in 2019 and the first two games of this season?

...the future looks much different than it did a few days ago. While a ten-year bowl streak once seemed to be in jeopardy, the Cardinal now sits at 3-3 and won't have to leave Palo Alto until the second Saturday of November. They play just twice in the next twenty days, and it isn't inconceivable that they could win the next four games before hosting Cal on November 23rd.

It's foolish to think that far head, though, so instead we'll focus on what we know for sure after this 23-13 victory. Stanford Football is alive and well.

That optimism, it turned out, was short lived. The Cardinal lost five of six games to finish the season at 4-8, and their four-game losing streak to close 2019 stretched to six after losing the first two games to start 2020. Before 2019, David Shaw had never endured a losing streak as long as three games; last week's win over Cal was the program's first victory in more than a calendar year.

So while there are lots of individual issues facing different aspects of the program, they all fall under one larger question -- which stretch of games is more reflective of Stanford Football under David Shaw: 64-16 from 2011-2016, 18-9 in 2017 and 2018, or 4-10 in 2019 and the first two games of this season?