Oregon State Hosts Stanford To Kick Off Pac-12 Weekend

#21 Stanford (2-1, 1-0) at Oregon St. (2-1, 0-0) / Reser Stadium / 7 PM PDT / Fox Sports 1 / KEJO 1240 AM / KEX 1190 AM

Game Notes / Stanford Game Notes

Oregon State opens Stanford to start their Pac-12 campaign tonight, and the game kicks off the Pac-12 weekend.

The Beavers bounced back from their second week 35-7 loss at Michigan, and 3 different touchdown deficits, for 3 3rd quarter touchdowns, and a 35-21 win over San Jose State last Saturday evening, as Storm Barrs-Woods ran for 151 yards, and Seth Collins topped 100 yards on the ground, as well as running for 2 scores, and threw for another.

A little later, the Cardinal conducted a comeback of their own, coming from 11 points down to defeat then 6th ranked USC 41-31 in the LA Coliseum to kick off the Pac-12 Conference season. Stanford's last 3 scoring drives consumed over 19 minutes of the second half, thoroughly throttling the Trojans.

The Cardinal paid a physical price though, as quarterback Kevin Hogan sustained a high ankle sprain that he was able to finish the game with, but also put him on crutches post game. Hogan is questionable for tonight.

Also out is starting Stanford OLB Kevin Anderson. It will be the first game the 5th year senior has ever missed.

Oregon State will be without some of its regulars as well, most notably DE Jalen Grimble and RB Chris Brown.

It's been a flip of schedules, as Oregon State will be playing their 3rd home game of opening month, while Stanford is making their 3rd road trip of the month. One thing they do have in scheduling common are road losses at B1G Ten schools in which they scored in single digits, as Stanford lost their season opener 16-6 at Northwestern.

Stanford has run off 5 wins in a row over Oregon State, including a 38-14 rout last year down on the Farm, and a much closer 20-12 win in the Cardinal's last visit to Corvallis 2 years ago, when the Beavers were stopped 4 times around the goal line late in the game, after a rash or earlier errors.

Hogan also engineered a 27-23 comeback win, aided by Cody Vaz's unforced 4th quarter fumble in Oregon State territory that set up Stanford with a short field for the game winning score, as the 16th ranked Cardinal upset the 14th ranked Beavers back in 2012, in his first ever start.

As a result, Stanford has extended their edge in the series to 53-25-3, which will see the 82nd meeting in the series that goes back to 1919.

The Cardinal opened as 17 point favorites, but the injuries have closed the line down to just over 2 touchdowns.

Building The Dam will be at the game, and back afterwards, with complete coverage and analysis.

Andy_Wooldridge@yahoo.com