Good times can sure escape quickly in this volatile college football world.
Last December, David Shaw beamed as he walked alongside Kevin Hogan down the Sun Devil Stadium tunnel, bouquet of roses in hand. His Stanford team had just delivered a virtuoso offensive performance, beating Arizona State 38-14 to secure the Pac-12 championship. Pasadena would be the Cardinal's next stop.
After 10 short months, the Cardinal returned to the spot of their greatest 2013 glory on Saturday. But their power rushing game had disappeared, and offensive stability had vanished with it. So, at the very place where exhilarating victory once smiled, crushing defeat waited instead. The Sun Devils' 26-10 win administered payback, and the same Tempe location that had seen Stanford Rose Bowl dreams realized less than a year prior saw them extinguished Saturday.
At 4-3 overall, the Cardinal have been eliminated from contention for the inaugural College Football Playoff. The autopsy of those hopes begins now: I'll revisit the pregame questions of emphasis below.
Does Stanford still have offensive ownership over ASU?
No, it appears as if Stanford no longer has offensive ownership over anybody. The Cardinal's attack, which has sputtered on-and-off ever since quarterback Andrew Luck's departure after 2011, has fallen from grace. One wonders if this is rock bottom for the unit, or if matters can get worse. Arizona State, after all, was ranked in the bottom tier of Pac-12 defenses entering Saturday's game. But during the loss, the Cardinal managed only 10 points, 288 yards of total offense, and 4.7 yards per play.
All of those numbers paled in comparison to what Weber State, New Mexico, and Colorado accomplished against ASU this season. The Sun Devils had given up more than 200 rushing yards in four consecutive contests, but Stanford -- a program very recently known for a vaunted power running game -- managed only 76 yards on the ground.
ASU played fearless, aggressive defense. The Cardinal were missing wide receiver Devon Cajuste, so ASU coach Todd Graham challenged Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan to beat his team through the air. Again, Stanford's inability to create any sort of leverage on the ground meant Hogan was never able to find his playmaking comfort zone. In fact, he didn't see a designed run -- one of his primary strengths -- until the second half. At that point, it was too late: Hogan was already well on his way to a shaky 19-for-39 performance. ASU sensed a vulnerable, discombobulated Stanford offense, and it pounced.
Can ASU move the ball against the Cardinal?
It was still a grind for the Sun Devils, but they did find cracks in Stanford's excellent defensive armor -- though a critical Cardinal turnover and injuries along the defensive front certainly helped ASU's effort.
This was a brutal week for Stanford. Days before departing to Tempe, versatile defensive lineman Aziz Shittu was likely lost for the season because of a non-contact injury suffered in practice. That loss thinned out the defensive line. Then, David Parry -- the unit's anchor -- didn't play at all in the second half of Saturday's game because of an undisclosed issue. The Cardinal resorted to reserve Nate Lohn along the front, and they were also forced to burn the redshirt of true freshman Harrison Phillips.
The situation was eerily reminiscent of 2013, when injuries decimated Stanford's defensive line and rocked the foundation of the team's 3-4 scheme.
The Cardinal's defense still clawed to keep Saturday's game respectable, but the lack of offensive support doomed that cause. ASU's excellent, balanced offensive game plan utilized D.J. Foster and powerful receiver Jaelen Strong to ball-control perfection: The Sun Devils ate up more than 35 minutes of possession against Stanford, a team that usually likes to hog the clock for itself.
Will the special teams difference come into play?
Yes, but in the opposite way of how the Cardinal expected it to come into play.
Stanford entered the game leading the conference with more than 21 yards per punt return, while ASU was last averaging 0.9 yards per return. Advantage, Ty Montgomery, right?
Note so fast. Perhaps feeling extra pressure to make something happen since Stanford's offense was so stagnant, Montgomery made one of the worst decisions of his career in the second quarter. He tried to catch a punt that was sailing over his head, only to muff it. The Sun Devils recovered deep in Cardinal territory, and they punched in what proved to be the winning touchdown.
Moving forward
There is no way to beat around the bush: Saturday's loss was a devastating gut punch in all facets of the game for Stanford. With plenty more difficult games looming (hello, Autzen Stadium in two weeks), the Cardinal will have to scratch and claw beyond this disappointment to salvage 2014. I'll further examine those efforts later this week.