Oreg. St. (9-4 in ‘07) @ Stanford (4-8 in ‘07), 6pm, Thursday ESPN2. Oreg. St. favored by 3.
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Tavita Pritchard (left) couldn’t do it. He threw for a somewhat respectable 189 yards, but it was on 32 attempts and he was sacked five times for -48 yards. So that’s 141 yards on 37 plays, or a 3.8 ypp average. Oof.
Stanford’s “leading” rusher had just 17 yards on 7 carries, the Cardinal had -8 yards rushing on the day with Pritchard’s sack total subtracted from their minimal gains.
This year, Stanford will feature two backs who didn’t play in that game last October: oft-injured all-around back Anthony Kimble (left) and power-runner Toby Gerhart.
Kimble’s a senior. He had two 100-yard games last year, against Oregon and TCU. He hurt his shoulder in that TCU game and missed five of the final six games.
Gerhart played in just one game last season, but it the was Cardinals’ best rushing game of the year. In a Corey-Dillon-lite performance, Gerhart had 140 yards rushing in three quarters against San Jose St., but he suffered a season-ending knee injury in that third quarter.
QB Tavita Pritchard (a Tacoma native) will get a second chance at the Beavers after winning the QB job in fall camp. Pritchard’s arm remains a question mark; after leading Stanford to the biggest upset in college football history against USC, he lost five of his next six games as a starter, finished with a 5/9 TD/INT ratio and ended up averaging just 5.9 yards per attempt. His passing average per game (123.8) and passer rating (97.5) were both last in the Pac-10. Point is, the guy hasn’t proven he’s a decent quarterback, and I’d assume Oregon State will force him to do so to beat them.
The strategy worked so well in their last game, I can’t imagine the Beavers will change it.
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