With the Fiesta Bowl right around the corner, you’ve probably heard a lot about how good Oklahoma State is. If not, you will.

 

Justin Blackmon is the best receiver in the country and could probably start for half the teams in the NFL this week. Brandon Weeden, besides being older than Aaron Rodgers, is also an incredibly accurate passer and one of the best quarterbacks in the country. Joseph Randle, often overlooked by the Cowboys’ potent passing game, is fourth in the country with 25 touchdowns on the season. Oklahoma State’s defense forced 42 turnovers in the regular season, six more than any other team in the nation and twice as many as Stanford. Heck, even the Cowboys’ kicker, Quinn Sharp, leads the nation in scoring by kickers.

 

The foe is definitely daunting, but Stanford fans should be more worried about their own team in this contest. Before you just dismiss this as ridiculous, think back to how Stanford has played this season. Not just the result, but how the team has looked.

 

Yes, the 2011 season was a banner one for Stanford football. A top-five finish is unbelievable for a team like Stanford, let alone a second consecutive top-five finish, and the 11-1 record speaks to the quality of this team. The Cardinal boasts a National Coach of the Year finalist, the Heisman runner-up and a truly complete team in all phases.

 

But if you really watched this team every week, you know that the results mask some major issues. Things looked so great after the Cardinal won its first seven games by at least 25 points and led wire-to-wire in every game. Stanford then looked shaky against USC before rallying for an impressive win, but then the team looked flat against Oregon State. In the last three games, all of which were in the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium, the Cardinal was actually outscored 95-89 and failed to score more than 31 points in any of them. Granted, this was against tougher competition (all three opponents made bowl games), but Oklahoma State certainly won’t be any easier.

 

Still, these are just the results. What’s more worrisome is the way the Cardinal looked in many instances. Andrew Luck, transcendent as he is, threw eight interceptions in the final eight games of the season and looked extremely uncomfortable against Oregon, when Stanford needed him most. The defense allowed mediocre quarterback Zach Maynard to put up big numbers in Big Game and almost bring Cal all the way back to win, not to mention the defensive debacle against the Ducks. The offensive line allowed more sacks against Oregon and Cal (five) than it did in the other 10 games combined (four) and struggled in both pass blocking and run blocking at various points. Stanford even developed kicking problems late in the season.

 

Of course, a huge factor in all of this is the impact of injuries. Stanford was hit hard—literally and figuratively—as players seemed to be dropping like flies, particularly near the end of the season. It was hard for the offense to function when two-thirds of its vaunted tight-end trio was injured, severely reducing the playbook. A couple members of the offensive line were banged up, and the Cardinal’s main deep threat missed the final three games. Two of Stanford’s top leaders on defense missed significant time while others played hurt, and the Cardinal had to rely on its backup kicker in crucial situations.

 

The time off should help this, but it will not cure everything. Shayne Skov and Chris Owusu are still out, but pretty much everyone else should be fit to go. Even if the rest are good to go health-wise, though, it all comes back to execution. Stanford has not been able to play four strong quarters on both sides of the ball. Even when the Cardinal was rolling over lesser opponents, there was still a strong sense that the team should be playing better, and the players have echoed that sentiment throughout the year. There’s been that little something extra missing from Stanford, and it might take that to beat Oklahoma State.

 

Of course, the games aren’t played on paper, and bowl games exemplify this unpredictability. Usually intangibles have a greater impact than normal in bowl games, and Stanford should be in a good place mentally for this game. The Cardinal has an experienced team that went to a BCS game just last year and has senior leaders all over the field. Stanford definitely wants to be there—it’s the team’s first ever Fiesta Bowl—and still has plenty to play for, namely a second-straight BCS bowl win and an improvement on last season’s No. 4 finish. It will be the first bowl game for David Shaw as head coach and the final game for Luck and the rest of the senior class, so that should provide a little extra incentive for the whole team. Meanwhile, the Cowboys haven’t played at a game of this magnitude, and many of the players still believe they should be playing a week later in the BCS National Championship Game instead.

 

So maybe Stanford will have that necessary boost. If it does, and the team plays to its full potential, I don’t know if any team in the country can beat the Cardinal. If, however, Stanford doesn’t correct some of its issues from the end of the season, 2012 will start out far from the successes of 2010 and 2011.

 

We’ll find out tonight.