Cardinal Let One Slip Away

Jim Harbaugh has the Stanford Program headed in the right direction. In 2008 they went 5-7 and the goal for this year is to make their first Bowl Game since 2001 when the Cardinal played Georgia Tech in the Seattle Bowl. After defeating Washington State 39-13 last week, a victory at Wake Forest would have been a tremendous accomplishment. Stanford lead the Demon Deacons 17-3 at the half, but the offense, defense and special teams could not get anything going in the second half of the game.

There is no excuse for Stanford getting out scored 21-0 in the second half of the game. What is shocking is the fact that the Cardinal could not lean heavily on RB Toby Gerhart to help the offense to keep putting points on the board. Gerhart finished the game with 17 carries for 82 yards. The Cardinal defense gave up 251 rushing yards. That is not a good sign when Stanford must face players like Jahvid Best, Joe McKnight, Stafon Johnson and Jacquizz Rodgers in the upcoming weeks. The defense also had trouble adjusting to Wake Forest when the Deacons starting using 3 WR sets.

Coach Harbaugh will be second-guessed for not calling timeouts and allowing the clock to run in the last minute of the game. The bottom line is when they had a 17-3 lead the game should have been over. Stanford gets San Jose State at home on September 19th and hopefully this loss will not be the game that prevents them from being Bowl eligible later in the season.