Stanford vs. Oklahoma State: Why Cowboys Will Blow out Cardinal in Fiesta Bowl

Oklahoma State is going to blow out Stanford in the Fiesta Bowl. Oklahoma State is too fast, too good and too strong to let Stanford even have a hope of remaining in this game.

Stanford does have the best quarterback in the country in Andrew Luck. But that’s all they have. They have no outside receiving threats and their defense is big and slow.

Stanford will try to run the clock and keep the ball in the middle of the field, hoping to keep Oklahoma State’s dynamic offense on the sidelines as long as possible.

That might work for the first quarter or so, but ultimately Oklahoma State will get on the field and will score a lot of points.

Stanford can’t do anything outside the numbers. Their best outside receiver is Chris Owusu, who will not be playing in this game. The Cardinal’s entire offense is based around throwing the ball to tight ends and running the ball.

This team has been very good at that, but it will take them a long time to score against this Oklahoma State defense, who will stay back and force them to work their way gradually down the field.

Even if Stanford is only stopped a couple of times it will be enough for Oklahoma State to win the game. The reason is because Oklahoma State’s offense is the exact opposite. Cowboy quarterback Brandon Weeden can throw the ball anywhere on the field at literally any time. He has eight different guys who catch passes on a regular basis, and all of them are fast and sure-handed.

Stanford proved in their 53-30 loss to Oregon that fast offenses can work them over. Oklahoma State has just as fast an offense, if not faster. The Cardinal will be lucky to keep the Cowboys under 40 points.

Oklahoma State’s defense is also very underrated. Although they rank poorly nationally in yards and points (60th) given up, those stats are overstated and inflated by a number of factors.

The first is the offenses this team has played. Playing teams like Oklahoma, Baylor, Texas Tech and Texas A&M, all vaunted offensive attacks, greatly inflates the averages.

Another issue is that inferior teams like Arizona, Tulsa and Louisiana all gained a bunch of yards against second- and third-string players in the junk time of blowouts. That also greatly inflates opposing offenses average yardages.

Stanford does have a top-10 offense, but they inflated their numbers against a weak early schedule. Blowing out teams like San Jose State, Duke, Colorado, UCLA and Washington State ballooned their numbers while not saying much about their team.

Oklahoma State is a real offense that has faced real opposition. Out of Oklahoma State’s 12 regular season opponents, nine went to bowl games. This team has played better competition than Stanford.

Oklahoma State is better, faster and stronger than Stanford, who is a good team, but not in the Cowboys’ class athletically. All of this will lead to a huge Cowboy victory.