After Week 1's deflating 16-6 loss at Northwestern, the Stanford Cardinal were written off by many college football experts as an also-ran. Three wins later, including a monumental 41-31 road upset of USC, and Stanford is back in the Pac-12 title and College Football Playoff discussions. With that being said, here's 3 Steps Stanford Needs To Take To Make The College Football Playoff.
1. Re-Establish The Defense
Stanford has gone full shootout mode in the past two games, but lost in the team's two conference wins is the fact that they allowed 55 combined points to USC and Oregon State. The offense isn't going to operate at Arena Football-like capacity all season long. The Cardinal need to tighten their defense scheme adherance, especially on the back end, if the team is going to be able to push themselves back into the CFP discussion.
2. Keep The Kevin Hogan Train Going
The Stanford QB has flipped a complete 180 since the team's opening week debacle at Northwestern, tossing seven touchdowns against just one pick and torching USC's defense at a 78.3 percent completion rate. This is the Kevin Hogan Stanford fans have been clamoring for. If he can stay consistent from here on out, the Cardinal will be back in the playoff race by November.
3. Take Care Of Business At Home
Stanford's only remaining road games are at Colorado and Washington State -- two of the most winnable road games a Pac-12 can draw. Six of the team's eight remaining regular season contests are at home, including massive home dates with current CFP darlings UCLA and Notre Dame, along with a game against an Oregon squad that should be composed and ready to rock once November 14th. Those three games stand as a wall right now between the Cardinal and a playoff berth. Get past those and win out and Stanford will set themselves up for a "win and you're in" Pac-12 title game.
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