By Matthew E. Milliken
MEMwrites.wordpress.com
Dec. 10, 2021
It’s still hard to believe that 3-2 Stanford, fresh off a 31-24 overtime upset of third-ranked Oregon, closed out the season with a seven-game losing streak. The longest string of defeats for head coach David Shaw led to only his second losing campaign in 11 years at the helm of the Cardinal football team, with a 3-9 overall record (2-7 in conference). Fans of the program and colleagues around the conference will watch closely to see what changes, if any, he makes to his staff and to the team’s off-season activities.
Let’s see what we can make of the Cardinal’s final game of 2021, a 45-14 loss to Notre Dame.
• The Bad
The 2021 Stanford team was 3-1 in games in which the offense had at least 100 yards rushing and 0-8 in games in which it did not.
Nov. 27’s loss to the Fighting Irish was among the latter. The Cardinal finished with an anemic 55 yards on the ground, the club’s fourth-worst output of the year. Stanford ran 22 times for 39 yards in the season opener against Kansas State, 20 times for 13 yards (!) at Arizona State and 26 times for 43 yards vs. California. (Note: I’ve seen the rushing numbers for the ASU game listed at 20 carries for nine yards, but I’m going with the figure from the original box scores.)
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