At the midpoint of Stanford football’s 2015 campaign, the Cardinal are riding high with their toughest road game of the season already out of the way, marquee wins over three tough Pac-12 South opponents, a top-10 national ranking in hand and a bona fide Heisman Trophy candidate in Christian McCaffrey.

But in typical Stanford style, the players and coaches refuse to let the past — good or bad — dictate how they approach their future.

“We’re just going to take it week by week,” said fifth-year senior cornerback Ronnie Harris. “If we don’t come out and we don’t take care of business, who knows where we’re going to be? So we’re just going to take it week by week and try to get the W every single week.”

“Most of you guys know how I feel about rankings,” added head coach David Shaw. “The one ranking that matters happens when everybody’s done playing football.”

They’re right: There’s a lot of season still left to go for Stanford to fulfill its hopes of a third Pac-12 title in four years and an appearance in the College Football Playoff. And even the elite teams of 2012 and 2013 weren’t immune to “trap game” losses to Washington and Utah.

With that in mind, one of the overarching themes for the team for the rest of the season will be consistency: making sure that it ignores outside influences and displays consistency week in and week out — and when that can’t be done, making sure it still finds a way to win.

Saturday will prove a tough test for the team’s consistency on Homecoming Weekend, as the No. 10 Cardinal (5-1, 4-0 Pac-12) will match up against a cohesive, battle-tested Washington (3-3, 1-2) defense that very well might be the best unit that Stanford will face all season.

“There’s some variety in their scheme, but the biggest thing that comes off when you watch it is that it’s very, very sound,” Shaw said.

In many ways, this year’s Washington team is oddly reminiscent of Stanford’s 2012 team: play ridiculous defense, get barely enough offense to keep games close.

“It’s not unlike what we’ve had to do here multiple years with losing a lot of really good players on defense,” Shaw said. “You get them to come back, get them to play hard, get them to play sound, you get them to play together. That’s what you see [with Washington] when you put the film on.”

The Huskies have held powerful Cal and Oregon offenses to fewer than 30 points apiece and limited USC’s ridiculous talent on offense to just 12 points in a monumental upset of the Trojans in Los Angeles two weeks ago. All that is despite the Huskies having lost three first-round picks and a second-round pick on defense in last year’s NFL Draft.

Washington’s defense isn’t studded with elite playmakers all over the place — much like the Cardinal, it’s a disciplined, cohesive effort that affords the Huskies the success that they have.

In fact, 10 different Huskies are over 20 tackles for the season, led by sophomores Azeem Victor and Keishawn Bierria, who have anchored the linebacking corps for head coach Chris Petersen’s defense this season.

And really, the results are there, too: The Huskies have not allowed any of their opponents to average over 5 yards per carry and they held Oregon’s vaunted rushing attack to just 3.3 yards per carry in a 26-20 loss last week. In contrast, Stanford’s opponents have gone over 5 yards per carry twice this season.

“They’re going to put together a structure where their players can be successful,” Shaw said. “[Petersen is] the kind of guy that gets the young people to buy into what they’re trying to do and they can see the results of their work.”

Although Stanford running back sensation Christian McCaffrey has averaged 253 all-purpose yards per game and 141 rushing yards per game this season, he and the Cardinal’s elite offensive line will face their first true test in a long time on Saturday.

With Washington allowing just 3.1 yards per carry on the season but Stanford averaging well over 6 yards per carry over its last three games, something’s got to give.

Whoever wins the battle in the trenches will have a significant leg up in winning the game, because Stanford is within its comfort zone only when the running game is successful — the Cardinal still haven’t won a game in which quarterback Kevin Hogan has attempted more than 30 passes.

Stanford will need as much help from its running game as possible because for as good as Washington’s front seven has been in stopping the run, the secondary very well might be even better.

The Huskies have only allowed 4 touchdown passes total this season while intercepting 7 passes — and they’ve already faced Jared Goff and Cody Kessler, two of the best quarterbacks in the conference. Junior Kevin King and sophomore Darren Gardenhire have combined for 5 of those picks, and, in general, Washington’s defensive backs have great closing speed as well, severely limiting opponents’ yards after catch.

“You don’t see a lot of bombs going for touchdowns,” Shaw said. “You see guys where they’re supposed to be. When someone does catch the ball, you see him tackled by multiple people, not just by one guy.”

Only two teams — Cal and Oregon — have averaged over 6 yards per passing attempt on the Huskies. In order for Hogan to continue his efficient play, he’ll need the running backs to keep Washington’s safeties off-balance in order to have passing lanes into which to throw.

The battle between the Stanford offense and Washington’s defense will be the key matchup, because there won’t be many fireworks when Washington’s offense is on the field.

The Huskies rank near the bottom of the conference in almost every meaningful offensive statistic, partly due to the fact that they are starting freshmen at quarterback, running back, left tackle and right guard. It’s an offense that’s set up to be great in future years, but not now.

“I think you just have to prepare for everything we’ve seen on film for them schematically,” Shaw said.

Washington ranks last in first downs and second-to-last in running plays and pass attempts, which means that the Huskies just haven’t been able to move the chains and have struggled mightily to stay on the field. Given that Stanford ranks near the top of the conference in nearly every meaningful defensive statistic, if the Cardinal are able to execute their gameplan, there’s very little that the Huskies should be able to do on offense.

In another blow to Washington’s hopes, the Huskies will potentially be without starting quarterback Jake Browning, who is questionable for Saturday’s game after injuring his throwing shoulder against Oregon.

Whether it’s Browning or backup K.J. Carta-Samuels that takes the field, Stanford should be expecting a run-heavy attack through freshman running back Myles Gaskin on Saturday. With that in mind, Stanford really isn’t focusing on stopping either of the individual quarterbacks.

“We try really hard not to prepare for individual people because I think that gets our players’ eyes on the wrong spot and concentrating on the wrong things,” Shaw said.

With the battle likely to be decided on the other side of the ball, though, such matters will likely not play a large part in determining who wins on Saturday. And if Stanford’s offense can continue to execute at an elite level against a good defense, then Cardinal fans should be confident in Stanford’s chances not just on Saturday, but throughout the rest of the season.

Stanford and Washington will kick off at 7:30 p.m. at Stanford Stadium, with the game being carried by ESPN.

 

Contact Do-Hyoung Park at dhpark ‘at’ stanford.edu.