Stanford, 24-20
I had a hard time predicting the score because Shaw often scores just enough to win. If Oregon had an experienced offense, Stanford might need to gamble and score 45 to win.
The question is, which will be worse, Stanford’s defense (which already will be missing key pieces), or Oregon’s qb with his first start with an all-new line and a question mark at tight end.
If Stanford had Adebo and Kelly and all its linebackers healthy, I see Stanford’s defense eating up a new offense and holding the Ducks to single digits. But I worry Stanford’s young defense will make more mistakes than the Duck’s young offense, enabling the Ducks to score 20 even with all those inexperienced players.
With all of Oregon’s talent, normally I could see a depleted Cardinal in trouble, but, as always, there are 3 phases to the game, and I expect Stanford to have a large advantage in every aspect of specialty teams (kickoff, punt, fgs and returns) in virtually every game. And they will need it.
I had a hard time predicting the score because Shaw often scores just enough to win. If Oregon had an experienced offense, Stanford might need to gamble and score 45 to win.
The question is, which will be worse, Stanford’s defense (which already will be missing key pieces), or Oregon’s qb with his first start with an all-new line and a question mark at tight end.
If Stanford had Adebo and Kelly and all its linebackers healthy, I see Stanford’s defense eating up a new offense and holding the Ducks to single digits. But I worry Stanford’s young defense will make more mistakes than the Duck’s young offense, enabling the Ducks to score 20 even with all those inexperienced players.
With all of Oregon’s talent, normally I could see a depleted Cardinal in trouble, but, as always, there are 3 phases to the game, and I expect Stanford to have a large advantage in every aspect of specialty teams (kickoff, punt, fgs and returns) in virtually every game. And they will need it.