With the announcement last week that fifth-year senior defensive end Ben Gardner would be out for the remainder of the season with a shoulder injury, Stanford’s already depleted defensive line appeared to be in dire straits as it began to prepare for the high-octane Oregon offense; however, head coach David Shaw announced during his press conference Monday morning that his defense will receive a much needed boost when it takes on the Ducks with the return of senior defensive end Henry Anderson.
“It looks like Henry’s going to play,” Shaw said. “I’m not sure whether or not he’s going to start, but he and [senior defensive end] Blake [Lueders] will play a significant amount assuming there’re no setbacks.”
Shaw added that Anderson has looked very strong in practice and is currently squatting the same weight that he did prior to injuring his leg during the Cardinal’s second game of the season against Army. While Shaw expects Anderson to contribute on Thursday, he does not expect the 6-foot-6, 290-pound senior to be able to play more than 60 snaps against the Ducks. Consequently, Lueders is expected to continue taking on a significant role on the defensive line.
Listed as an outside linebacker, Lueders has taken several snaps at defensive end in the past few games as the Cardinal was forced to MacGyver its way out of a lack of depth on the defensive line. Ultimately, Shaw said that he would ideally like to have a six-person rotation on the defensive line to stay fresh enough to keep up with the Oregon offense. In addition to Lueders, Shaw said that sophomore defensive ends Luke Kaumatule and Aziz Shittu might receive significant playing time while the Card will lean heavily on starters Josh Mauro and David Parry to play the majority of the snaps.
“Guys like Josh Mauro and David Parry have to give us everything they got,” Shaw said. “We’ll give them rest, but they need to get right back up and get in there.”
In other injury news, Shaw announced that junior wide receiver Devon Cajuste, who injured his knee against UCLA, is questionable to play on Thursday. Cajuste looked strong in his limited practice time on Sunday, and will continue to take on more as the week progresses.
Williamson has also been limited in practice, kicking on Sunday but held out on Monday as he continues to recover from a leg injury of his own. Shaw said he hopes to have Williamson available for at least field goals in the event that he is not ready to handle kickoffs.
While Monday’s press conference provided positive news on the injury front, the overall mood remained calm as Shaw took several minutes to praise the Ducks effusively, particularly quarterback Marcus Mariota and defensive coordinator Nick Aliotti.
Regarding Mariota, Shaw commended the quarterback’s composure and the fact that he has yet to throw an interception this season.
“The ball hardly ever goes into coverage. You can’t go through seven on seven and not throw an interception. He’s gone through [eight] games…and not thrown an interception,” Shaw noted. “He has such a calm about him even when he’s getting pressured…. He has such a great composure about him. He’s just a more mature version of the really good quarterback from last year.”
Shaw also added that it is impossible to replicate Oregon’s dynamic quarterback in practice, quipping that, “If you had a guy like him on the scout team, he would be starting.”
Moreover, Shaw called Aliotti the most underrated component of Oregon’s success in recent years.
“Nobody ever talks about Nick Aliotti,” Shaw said. “They talk about the offense and the points, but they can’t do what they do if the defense doesn’t play the way they do. … While [former Oregon head coach] Chip [Kelly] was the biggest change in Oregon football, I think the second biggest has been Nick’s adjustment to playing defense with this type of offense.”
However, Shaw’s most notable point of praise for Oregon came when he stated that he believed that the spread listing his team as 10 point underdogs was, in fact, too generous to the Card.
“I thought [the point spread] was going to be higher,” Shaw said. “They’ve played as well as anyone in the nation, and we haven’t.”
While Shaw did not shy away from heaping praise on the Ducks, senior safety Ed Reynolds said that the Cardinal players are still bringing a lot of confidence into their monumental showdown on Thursday. In particular, Reynolds echoed defensive coordinator Derek Mason’s message on the importance of taking the Ducks into “deep water.”
“You’re not going to be able to beat this team if you don’t take them into the fourth quarter.” Reynolds said. “For us as a defense it’s about giving the offense as many possessions as we can.”
Contact Vihan Lakshman at vihan ‘at’ stanford.edu.