The bye week comes at a good time for Stanford
After their huge win over #3 Oregon at home, Stanford football hit the road to Arizona State and Washington State and came away empty handed. The game in Tempe was never really in question as the Sun Devils beat Stanford like a gong 28-10. As for the game in Pullman, Washington State escaped with a 34-31 victory in a game that Stanford would have won had their defense not folded like cheap tents. Stanford should have gotten a road split and entered the bye week 4-3 overall and 3-2 in the Pac-12. But alas, they did not.
The one thing that Stanford has going for them right now is the fact that the bye week is this week and also the fact that when they return from their bye week, they’ll get four of their final five games at home:
Vs. Washington (Oct. 30)
Vs. Utah (Nov. 5)
At Oregon State (Nov. 13)
Vs. Cal (Nov. 20)
Vs. Notre Dame (Nov. 27).
The reason why the bye week comes at a good time is the fact that Stanford has been hurt by two key things: Injury and road fatigue.
On the injury front, Stanford lost wide receiver Brycen Tremayne for what appears to be the season, running back E.J. Smith hasn’t played since the Week 3 game at Vanderbilt, wide receiver John Humphreys missed the last game at Washington State, cornerback Ethan Bonner hasn’t played since the opener against Kansas State, and both Casey Filkins and Austin Jones have missed some time as well, leaving Nathaniel Peat all alone in the back field. On top of that, wide receiver Michael Wilson is yet to play a game this year (fingers crossed for Washington) and both Salim Turner-Muhammad and Jonathan McGill in the secondary haven’t played a game all season and are both unlikely to see any action this year.
Stanford has even seen one of their kickers go down with freshman Emmet Kenney crumpling to the ground like a crushed soda can while attempting an extra point. Injuries have taken their toll and Stanford should benefit from getting this week to get some of those guys healthy.
On the schedule front, Stanford has only played two games on The Farm this year. In contrast, Cal will play their fourth home game this Saturday against Colorado; Oregon has played four home games; Oregon State will play their fourth home game against Utah this week; Washington State will play their sixth home game against BYU this week; Washington has played four home games; UCLA will play their fifth home game this week against Oregon; USC has played four home games; Colorado has played four home games; Utah has played three home games; Arizona State has played four home games and has a bye this week; and Arizona will play their fourth home game this week against Washington.
Stanford is obviously way behind everyone else except for Utah in terms of home games played and on top of that, they’ve had a very challenging schedule. It’s not like they’ve been going on the road to play powder puff teams. They’ve been playing good teams away from home and that starts to wear on you after a while.
While it is true that the comforts of home and getting a week off won’t solve all of Stanford’s problems, it certainly should help. And to quote LeVar Burton of Reading Rainbow, you don’t have to take my word for it.
“Well that’s number one, is combination of getting some guys healthy, but also getting a lot of guys a break,” head coach David Shaw said of the bye week. “It’s been one hell of a schedule. Really has. A lot of traveling, played seven games and five teams at one point in time were in the top 25. I don’t know if anybody’s played that this entire year. But it’s a hell of a stretch and our guys need a break. We get off our feet, get a couple guys get back healthy, and see if we can finish this season on the kind of run that we’re capable of.”
“Yeah, I think so,” senior defensive end Thomas Booker added when asked if the bye week is coming at a good time. “I think we got some guys banged up, most teams do in the mid-season, so I think it’s a great time for us to be able to get some of these bodies back and just key in on the details and have some extra time to prepare for our next opponent. So yeah, I think it’s a good thing. I think the team really needs to do some introspection. Look at what went wrong, what we can do better so we can come out in our next opportunity and kill it.”
At this point, it really is all about what both Shaw and Booker said. Getting healthy, perhaps getting a little time away from football, doing some reflection, and then coming back amped up for the home stretch. If Stanford is able to do that effectively, they could finish the season strong and possibly come out on top of a very messy, still wide-open Pac-12 North.