Stanford Football: Five takeaways from Stanford’s win over No. 22 Louisville

#1. Emmett Mosely is the real McCoy: Stanford freshman wide receiver Emmett Mosley balled out in this game with 13 receptions for 168 yards and three touchdowns. He was fantastic all game long and showed why Stanford was so excited about him at the beginning of the season. If redshirt sophomore wide receiver Elic Ayomanor leaves for the NFL after this season, Mosley appears poised to take on that role of being the top receiver on the team. He’s a special talent.

#2. Emmet Kenney is clutch: Both of Stanford’s ACC wins have come off game-winning field goals from Emmet Kenney. After waiting his turn behind Josh Karty, the senior has proven that he too is capable of making clutch kicks. On Saturday against Louisville, Kenney went 3-3 on his field goals with the game-winning kick being from 52 yards out. While Stanford doesn’t like to rely on the kicking game as much as they did in the David Shaw era, they still are benefiting from having a leg that they can trust.

#3. Stanford’s aggression paid off: An early hallmark of the Troy Taylor era has been aggression, especially on 4th downs. The biggest play of the game against Louisville was a touchdown pass from Justin Lamson to Emmett Mosely from 25 yards out on a 4th and 1. Louisville stacked the box expecting a run and Stanford went for the deep pass to tie up the game with under a minute to go. Being aggressive has both its upsides and downsides, but were it not for their aggression, Stanford wouldn’t have won either game they did in the ACC this season. This team is comfortable going for it under pressure and that’s something that should serve them well the rest of the season and beyond.

#4. Ashton Daniels has the ability to be quite good: While he is far from a perfect quarterback, junior Ashton Daniels has had some memorable moments during his Stanford career. He engineered a win at Colorado last season, he was instrumental in the win at Syracuse this season, and against Louisville on Saturday, he played well, going 22-33 for 298 yards, three touchdowns, and one interception. The interception he threw wasn’t even really his fault as it was ripped out of the hands of Elic Ayomanor. When he’s playing his best football, Stanford actually has a pretty solid quarterback in Daniels. Especially given his ability to run. It’ll be interesting to see if he can keep up his stellar play in the final two games of the season.

#5. Stanford’s defense isn’t perfect, but it is improved: Stanford’s defense has its issues for sure. The secondary is pretty young right now and they’re usually good to give up at least one 40+ yard gain per game if not more. That being said, they also are getting better at defending in the red zone and forcing turnovers as linebacker Gaethan Bernadel had a key interception against Louisville off a pass that was tipped by Zach Rowell. In the twilight years of the Shaw era, Stanford’s defense couldn’t be counted on at all. Now, you can have more confidence in them settling in after they give up a big play.

Saturday’s game was a good example of both Stanford’s growth and where they need to improve. Giving up 162 yards to Louisville on the ground wasn’t good, but when you take away the 68 yard gain that Duke Watson had, Stanford held Louisville to under 100 yards the rest of the way. If they can just eliminate the big play gains that usually happen once or twice a game, this defense, especially run defense is not easy to go up against.

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