Three Things Stanford Football Must Do to Become Bowl Eligible

The Stanford Cardinal are on a bye week following a 52-24 loss to Louisville and will use the week off to rest, recover, and regroup ahead of their final three games of the season. Sitting at 4-5 (2-4 ACC), the Cardinal could not only still post their highest win total in a full season since 2018, but also earn their first bowl game berth since that season.

Head coach Tavita Pritchard has revamped the culture on The Farm football-wise, and while the results this season have been mixed, the Cardinal have displayed a tremendous amount of growth and improvement over the course of the first nine games.

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But these next three games are difficult. On the road the next two weeks, Stanford faces Virginia Tech and Cal in consecutive weeks before returning home to face SMU in the regular season finale. 

Theoretically, Stanford could become bowl eligible at 5-7, but 6-6 guarantees them a bowl game no matter what. In that case, it's better to be safe than sorry. Winning two of these next three games will be challenging, but not impossible. Here are three things they need to do if they want to see their bowl game hopes come to life.

Stay Focused

The Cardinal have been competitive in a number of games this season, but have struggled to string together four quarters of complete football on a consistent basis. This past weekend against Louisville, the Cardinal only trailed 24-17 at halftime before collapsing in the second half, being held to only one touchdown while Louisville scored 28 points.

One bad series to begin the third quarter just let the defense spiral and took this from a tie game after Stanford's opening touchdown to a blowout in a matter of minutes. Keeping that same focus and intensity in all three phases of the game will be paramount for the Cardinal to pull out two more wins. 

Improved Defense

The defense has improved in spurts, but major issues hindered Stanford's ability to compete. Against Miami and Duke, the Cardinal defense gave up a combined 80 points, while against Wake Forest and Notre Dame, they gave up a combined 115 points.

All of those teams are contenders this season, but the games won't get much easier the rest of the way, meaning Stanford needs to get used to facing high-octane offenses and figure out how to slow them down.

Virginia Tech and SMU in particular have good offenses, which will give the Cardinal trouble if they are not ready. How do you stop a high-octane offense? You play elite defense.

This group has allowed more than 50 points in each of its last three losses, all on the road. In Stanford's four wins, they have held their opponent to fewer than 30 points. That seems to be the key for the Cardinal moving forward, as they are 0-5 when they give up 30+ points. 

Run the Ball

It is not a coincidence that in the games Stanford has won, its rushing offense found a rhythm. Micah Ford has been the main ball carrier this season and has played well, totaling 156 carries for 751 yards and eight touchdowns through the first nine games.

He put together consecutive 150-yard games in the wins over Elon and NC State, carrying the ball 19 times for 179 yards and four touchdowns against Elon and 22 times for 150 yards against NC State.

But against Louisville he was slowed a bit, rushing for 72 yards and averaging 3.9 yards per carry. In each of the other losses (except for the Duke loss) he averaged less than 4.0 yards per carry, including averaging a meager 2.5 yards per carry in the 45-6 loss to Miami.

Cal's rushing defense ranks 15th in the ACC in rushing yards allowed (184.6 per game), while SMU ranks eighth (125.9 yards per game), and Virginia Tech ranks fourth (93.4 yards per game). This will create a big test for Ford and the Cardinal offensive line. 

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