Stanford's Opponents Rush Defense

[Utah]

Team – Rank (how many yds/game they allow)
Utah – 10 (87 yds/gm)

Rice – 35 (122 yds/gm) Versus Stanford: 287 yds. Diff: +165 yds

UCLA – 125 (284 yds/gm) Vs Stan: 413 yds Diff: +129 yds. (p.s. UCLA threw for almost 500 yards. 4 TO’s lost them the game)

USC – 67 (147 yds/gm) Vs Stan: 170 yds. Diff: +23 yds (p.s. USC ran for over 300 yards on Stanford. We may have a breakout game rushing wise this weekend). 

ASU – 96 (190 yds/gm) vs Stan: 328 yds. Diff: +138 yds. (p.s. ASU ran for over 200 yards)

SDSU – 47 (131 yds/gm) vs Stan: 174 yds. Diff: +43 yds. SDSU ran for 172 yards. 

So, what do we know about Stanford? 

Their defense isn’t as good as everyone says they are. You can run against them. 

What is going on/what happened to Rice? Great run defense…except against Stanford. Ha ha. 

If you believe our defense is as good as USC’s or SDSU’s, then you’d think we’d give up around 110 to 140 yards rushing to Stanford. Let’s say we keep them under 150 yards rushing…we win that game. That is very doable. 

ASU kept the game close. They were within a TD in the fourth quarter. 

We give up 87 yds/game. Arizona ran for 200 yards against Utah. Coming into the game, they averaged 337 yds/game. Stanford averages 274 yds/game. Stanford’s rushing attack is a lot more simple than Arizona’s. It is a “we are going to line up and just beat you”. It plays to our strengths. 

So, if we want to be a little silly with numbers, Arizona ran for on 59% of the yards they usually run for. If we do the same vs Stanford, that means they will run for about 161 yards. 

I think a very realistic goal for Utah is to hold Stanford to under 150 yards. 

I feel good about this game. This is NOT an easy game. Not at all. BUT, it is a very winnable game. Troy is good enough to win the game. I know people are down on our run game, but when we have gone back to run principles that we used last year, we’ve done really well. With Huntley going down, I see us going back to last year’s running calls, which we did last week, and we saw success doing so. We ran for over 200 yards and Moss averaged over 5 yards a carry. 

This is a good old fashioned ball game. Don’t turn the ball over and stop the run. If we do so, we win. And we can do so. 

[RavenousUte]

170 is what USC held them to and 174 SDSU.  If we are in that range we win I think.

[UM4G]

Agree on pretty much everything. I think the big key is limiting the yards to between the 20’s, can’t give up any big plays or allow them to do well in the red zone, bend but don’t break.

[Anonymous]

Just as we don’t seem to match up well vs Arizona, Stanford doesn’t match well with us. imo

[AlohaUte]

I don’t know. I disagree. Run defense is our defensive strength. I think we match up quite well with Stanford. I think our worse matchups are the teams that throw a lot, like Wazzu. That game worries me.

[RavenousUte]

Two was saying we are a nightmare match up for Stanford… not vice versa

[AlohaUte]

Ah, my bad TwoUtes. I misread your comment.