Preview: Stanford welcomes Pittsburgh to The Farm
On Saturday at 12:30 PM PT on ACCN, Stanford football will welcome Pittsburgh to The Farm. Stanford comes in at 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the ACC while Pittsburgh comes in at 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the ACC.
Last time out: Stanford fell to No. 9 Miami last week on the road by a final score of 42-7. Stanford was able to go into halftime tied 7-7, but Miami pulled away for good in the second half.
RECAP: Stanford gets dominated in the second half at Miami
Injury report: For the latest injury report going into this game, check out the ACC availability report for this week’s action right here.
On Stanford: Stanford is having an up and down season, but the one consistent part has been where they are winning and where they are losing. They are 3-0 at home and 0-4 on the road. Quarterback Ben Gulbranson has thrown for 1585 yards while completing 57.0% of his passes. He has thrown eight touchdowns and seven interceptions. He has a 120.2 passer rating on the season.
On the ground, sophomore running back Micah Ford has rushed for 425 yards and three touchdowns on 99 carries while also having eight receptions for 77 yards. Redshirt freshman Cole Tabb has rushed for 376 yards and two touchdowns on 86 attempts while junior Sedrick Irvin Jr. has found the end zone once while rushing for 56 yards on 19 carries. After not having a running back score a single rushing touchdown last year, Stanford now has three running backs who have done so. Ford did not play last week and was limited in practice this week, being downgraded to out earlier today. So Stanford will have to soldier on without him once more.
The top receiver for the Cardinal is senior wide receiver CJ Williams, who has 40 receptions for 476 yards and two touchdowns. Number two is senior tight end Sam Roush, who has 29 receptions for 305 yards and two touchdowns.
On defense, the leading tackler is redshirt junior middle linebacker Matt Rose, who has 68 combined tackles (31 solo), 5.0 tackles for loss, and 1.0 sack. Number two in tackles is redshirt junior safety Scotty Edwards, who has 46 combined tackles (27 solo) to go along with 3.0 tackles for loss and 2.0 sacks. The only guy with an interception is redshirt junior cornerback Collin Wright, who had a 19 yard pick six in their win over Boston College. Wright also is out for this game, so Stanford will be without their star cornerback. Safety Jay Green, who has been a key cog in the defense is a game-time decision.
Fifth year kicker Emmet Kenney is 14-14 on his extra points and 10-12 on his field goals, so he’s been pretty dialed in all season long.
On Pittsburgh: The Panthers are having a strong season. After a 2-2 start, they’ve won four straight games over Boston College, Florida State, Syracuse, and NC State. A major reason for their 4-0 run has been making the switch to freshman quarterback Mason Heintschel, who has gone 95-146 for 423 yards, three touchdowns, and zero interceptions for a 153.0 passer rating. He’s really come alive.
The top receiver for the Panthers is junior wide receiver Kenny Johnson, who has 33 receptions for 502 yards and three touchdowns. Right behind him is senior wide receiver Raphael Williams, who has 32 receptions for 488 yards and five touchdowns. Both have been really helpful to Heintschel.
On the ground, the Panthers have a trio of sound running backs in Ja’Kyrian Turner, Desmond Reid, and Juelz Goff. Turner has rushed for 272 yards and six touchdowns on 66 attempts; Reid has rushed for 266 yards and two touchdowns on 55 attempts while also having 17 receptions for 254 yards and two touchdowns; Goff has rushed for 192 yards and four touchdowns on 54 attempts.
On defense, junior linebacker Rasheem Biles has 53 combined tackles (18 solo) while having a whopping 8.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks, and one interception, which was returned 75 yards for a touchdown ironically in a loss to Louisville. He does it all for this Panther defense. Junior linebacker Bryan Lovelace is also doing work with 51 total tackles (23 solo) to go along with 3.5 tackles for loss and one interception. The Panthers have totaled seven interceptions from seven different players, so they’ve done a good job of ball hawking across multiple spots.
The Panthers have a freshman kicker in Trey Butkowski, who has gone 35-35 on extra points and 19-21 on field goals, so they’re pretty solid in that department.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is run the ball. If they can rush for 150+ yards as a team and find the end zone at least once via the run game, that would be huge. When they run the ball well, they’re tough to stop. When they don’t, they struggle. Simple as that.
Secondly, Stanford needs to take care of the ball. Pitt has done a great job ball hawking all season long. If Gulbranson can avoid getting picked off that more than anything could make the difference.
Third, Stanford needs to stop Pitt’s running attack. The Panthers have a balanced attack that likes to get after it. If Stanford can stymy their run game, that would be huge.
Finally, Stanford needs to play the cleaner game. If they are the less penalized team, that would be huge as they look to win as the underdogs once more.
Prediction: Given that Stanford is undefeated at home, I’ll tip my cap to the Cardinal and pick them to win by a final score of 27-24. They’ve earned the right to be favored at home, in my opinion.
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