[Papa John]

IMO, through its first four games, Stanford's four greatest weaknesses are:
1. Red zone inefficiency
2. Turnover margin
3. FG kicking
4. Drive-killing (on offense) and drive-sustaining (on defense) penalties.

At UW, Stanford's strengths--which numerous CARDBoarders have already discussed--outweighed its weaknesses and the good guys won. Will that happen in South Bend? UND is the best team that Stanford has faced, but Stanford has been improving every week and is light-years better than:
Rice, 1-3, including a loss at home to Old Dominion
UM, 2-3, including double-digit losses at home to Utah and Minnesota
Purdue, 2-3, including a loss at home to Central Michigan
Syracuse, 2-2, including a near-loss at home to Villanova

So yeah, Golson and the WRs have looked great against mediocre competition and, yeah, Stanford fans still envision the Golson who struggled two years ago. I'm sure that Golson is a better player now than then, but the Stanford team that you'll see on Saturday will also be better than the team that gave away the U*S*C game.

I'm predicting Stanford 17, ND 13.

[Papa John]

IMO, through its first four games, Stanford's four greatest weaknesses are:
1. Red zone inefficiency
2. Turnover margin
3. FG kicking
4. Drive-killing (on offense) and drive-sustaining (on defense) penalties.

At UW, Stanford's strengths--which numerous CARDBoarders have already discussed--outweighed its weaknesses and the good guys won. Will that happen in South Bend? UND is the best team that Stanford has faced, but Stanford has been improving every week and is light-years better than:
Rice, 1-3, including a loss at home to Old Dominion
UM, 2-3, including double-digit losses at home to Utah and Minnesota
Purdue, 2-3, including a loss at home to Central Michigan
Syracuse, 2-2, including a near-loss at home to Villanova

So yeah, Golson and the WRs have looked great against mediocre competition and, yeah, Stanford fans still envision the Golson who struggled two years ago. I'm sure that Golson is a better player now than then, but the Stanford team that you'll see on Saturday will also be better than the team that gave away the U*S*C game.

I'm predicting Stanford 17, ND 13.