October 20, 2004

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Palo Alto Online

Bowl picture just ducky for Cardinal

by Rick Eymer

The Stanford football team can start getting greedy again. That's what a conference win on the road in a tough place to play can do for a team's confidence.

"It's a great feeling to win on the road," Stanford senior Oshiomogho Atogwe said after the Cardinal's 23-17 win over Washington State on Saturday. "Now we're going home to play Oregon. We'll use this momentum we have, and the confidence we have, to continue our success." Atogwe was named Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Week for his efforts, which included nine tackles. With five Pac-10 games remaining, Stanford (2-1, 4-2) is clearly in position to gain its first bowl game appearance under coach Buddy Teevens. Saturday's 2 p.m. game against visiting Oregon becomes the most important game of the season. If the Cardinal take care of business at home, they would be bowl eligible. Stanford is one of five teams in the conference tied for second place, along with Oregon, UCLA, Arizona State and California. The Cardinal still have all four teams remaining to play. The Ducks (2-1, 3-3) will bring a familiar face with them in the form of sophomore free safety J.D. Nelson, the son of former Stanford great Darrin Nelson, who is now a Cardinal Senior Associate Athletic Director at Stanford. J.D. Nelson is third on the team with 32 tackles and is a former Mountain View High school teammate of Stanford safety Trevor Hooper. Darrin Nelson is Stanford's all-time leading rusher with 4,033 yards. Oregon has visited Stanford since 1997, when the teams combined for 107 points and 1,108 yards of offense in the highest scoring game in Stanford history. While the Cardinal can't expect to put up those kind of numbers this week, neither can the Ducks. Last year, Stanford gave up 29.5 points a game and scored at just a 16.9 clip. Those numbers have been reversed this season, thus accounting for much of Stanford's success. The Cardinal are scoring at a 28.8 pace and allowing just 16.2. "Our defense is the strength of this team," Stanford wide receiver Justin McCullum said. "They are making plays all over the place." McCullum made a few plays of his own against Washington State, catching a career-high seven passes for 64 yards. He also completed his first career pass, a 42-yarder to Mark Bradford. "We have been wanting to use that play," McCullum said. "After we got the turnover, we called it. They weren't expecting it. I didn't get nervous like I usually would with something new." McCullum may want to frame that 452.80 efficiently rating. The play led to J.R. Lemon's two-yard scoring run late in the first quarter that put Stanford up, 10-3, for good. Turnover margin has also improved this season. After coughing up the ball 26 times last year (2.36 a game), the Cardinal have turned it over just five times in six games. Senior cornerback Leigh Torrence intercepted two passes and Atogwe grabbed another against the Cougars. "It's not the cleanest game we've played but our guys stepped up when they needed to make plays," Teevens said. "It's a good feeling for the guys on a long trip. It's an exciting thing that they did something that hadn't been done before." Stanford won its first Pac-10 road game since 2001, and improved to 2-11 on the road under Teevens. One thing remains problematic for the Cardinal. While Stanford has an overwhelming scoring advantage in each of the first three quarters, opponents hold a 43-23 edge in the fourth quarter. As the Cougars marched back with two early fourth-quarter touchdowns to close within 20-17, the nightmarish visions of losing late leads to both USC and Notre Dame may have emerged. Thanks to a pair of goal line defensive stands, Stanford was able to avoid another frustrating loss. "We regrouped and started going back at them," Atogwe said. "They started hitting us where we are weak" Quarterback Trent Edwards threw a 67-yard touchdown pass to Evan Moore and Michael Sgroi kicked field goals of 39, 20 and a career-high 47 yards for Stanford. Edwards finished with 15-of-31 passing for 202 yards as the Cardinal ended a three-game losing streak to the Cougars. "This is going to be a catalyst for the rest of the season," Edwards said. "The offense made some critical errors and the defense was there to pick us up." Sgroi has made nine consecutive field goals after misfiring on his first three. He needs three field goals to move past Kevin Miller (27) and into seventh place on the all-time list. Redshirt freshman punter Jay Ottovegio is averaging 40.9 yards a punt and is attempting to become the first freshman in school history to average more than 40 yards a punt. Lemon and fellow running back Kenneth Tolon have combined for 671 of Stanford's 756 rushing yards.

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