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Given what you've seen from the defense against Notre Dame and Cal, do you feel more confidence that they can handle the various bunches of offenses on their schedule going forward?
Hank Waddles, Go Mighty Card:. Washington State, Colorado, Oregon State, and UCLA will all be kept under wraps. Oregon is a completely different story. The coaching staff and some of the players have hinted that this defense has been built to stop Oregon's spread offense, so it will be interesting to see what happens on November 17th. In years past the defense has had trouble keeping up with the furious pace and wilted in the second half, and they've also had trouble tackling. This year's squad is much deeper, and coaches finally have a talented two-deeep defense. In fact, they've often substituted entire units on the fly (four linebackers out, four new ones in), with a clear eye towards the high-paced subbing necessary to compete with the Ducks. Also, this is probably the best-tackling Stanford defense I've ever seen, even in the secondary. I don't think the Cardinal can beat Oregon, but I'm really looking forward to seeing how the defense measures up with them.
Scott Allen, Rule Of Tree: I don't feel any more confident that this defense can handle Oregon, but that probably has more to do with the Cardinal's recent history against the Ducks than anything they have or haven't done this season. I worry about Oregon State, too. Notre Dame's offense isn't very good and neither is Cal's. It's great that Stanford has put together back-to-back dominating performances against mediocre offenses, but I don't think it's made anyone forget the Arizona debacle.
How do you predict Stanford will perform against Washington State?
Hank Waddles, Go Mighty Card:. Stanford will crush Washington State. Stepfan Taylor might set a career high in rushing for the second week in a row, and the team should rush for at least 275 yards. Defensively, I don't think they can match what they did against Cal, but I can't see the Cougars rushing for more than 60 yards or so.
Scott Allen, Rule Of Tree: I expect Stanford to roll the Cougars. If Cal rushed for 318 yards against Wazzu, the Cardinal might rush for, what, 600?