Stanford Football: Should Cardinal Be on Upset Alert?

The No. 8 Stanford Cardinal find themselves in the driver's seat to the Pac-12 championship game.

At 6-0 (4-0), the Cardinal are the highest ranked Pac-12 team with No. 10 Oregon just behind them.

Andrew Luck continues to be the key to Cardinal success on offense, but defensive leader Shayne Skov is gone for the season.

With a huge prime time game on ABC against the No. 25 Washington Huskies, all eyes will be on Palo Alto this Saturday. But should the Cardinal be on upset alert?

Washington Has All the Momentum

The first reason I see this game being a tight one is because no team in the Pac-12 (maybe Oregon) has been as hot as the Washington Huskies the past few weeks. After a bleak start to the regular season, with disappointing wins over Eastern Washington and Hawaii and a loss in Lincoln to Nebraska, the Huskies have won three straight over Cal, Utah and Colorado.

The Huskies dominated the competition in all three games, with a margin-of-victory averaging 17.7 points per game. The Huskies are ranked in the initial BCS standings at No. 25 and riding high with confidence.

While the Cardinal has been silently taking care of opponents, it’s been exactly that. Silent.

The Cardinal have not faced an opponent anywhere close to as good as the Huskies, and don’t be surprised to see Stanford slow to react at first.

Stanford’s Only Quality Win Is a 3-3 UCLA Team

I touched on it a little bit in the previous slide, but the Cardinals' best win is over a terrible 3-3 UCLA team that has been dominated by overrated Houston and Texas teams.

The Huskies’ level of competition has shown the team their areas of weakness and has allowed them to fix those areas of concern over the past three weeks.

The Cardinal have not faced an offense like the one the Huskies will present, and I can guarantee you that Steve Sarkisian will have that defense ready to play. Expect the Huskies to take an early lead in the game that they will carry into halftime.

Washington’s Price and Polk Combo Will Cause Fits

Washington’s offense is simply electric. The one-two punch of Keith Price (QB) and Chris Polk (RB) has been almost unstoppable all season long.

The dual-threat Price has passed for 1,466 yards with a 21-4 touchdown to interception ratio. On the ground he’s been less dominant, simply because teams have had to keep a spy to slow down his run option.

As for Polk, he’s arguably the best running back in the Pac-12 with the injury to LaMichael James (until James returns). Polk has amassed 728 yards on the ground as well as 142 in receptions.

I realize that the Cardinal run defense ranks No. 2 in the entire FBS, just behind Alabama, but Polk is by far their biggest threat yet. Two of the Cardinals' opponents, Arizona and Duke, rank No. 119 and No. 110 in all of college football at running the football.

Add in the loss of Stanford’s best player, Shayne Skov, and I see the Huskies running all over the Cardinal defense.

Preview

Most lines have the Cardinal at around a 20-21-point favorite, which is an absolute joke.

I still expect Stanford to come away with the win, but not by anywhere close to that much.

Expect an early Husky attack to give Washington a halftime lead, but the depth and over all talent advantage for the Cardinal eventually gets them the W.

Score Prediction:

Cardinal 31

Huskies 27