Stanford is searching for a jolt on offense, and the timing could hardly be more urgent.
After getting outscored 80-13 across its last two games, the Cardinal will try to reset Saturday night when it hosts Georgia Tech in Atlantic Coast Conference play. Stanford has taken the lumps in a pair of ugly defeats - 45-6 at home against Miami on Sept. 4 and 35-7 at Duke last Saturday - and coach Tavita Pritchard made it clear where the concern starts.
"We've got to score," Pritchard said on Tuesday. "You can't go into an opponent's territory and score seven points and think you're going to walk away with a win."
Stanford is 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the ACC, and the numbers on offense have been shaky even beyond the scoreboard. Davis Warren has thrown for 675 yards and two touchdowns without an interception in 107 attempts, and another clean game through the air would put Stanford in position to do something it has not done since 2020: go through the first four games of a season without a pick.
"You want to take chances and give your guys opportunities but you also have to take care of the football," Warren said.
The Cardinal may also have a clear path to production on the ground. Micah Ford has run for 202 yards and three touchdowns, and he could be in line for plenty of work against a Georgia Tech defense that has struggled badly against the run. The Yellow Jackets are allowing 223.3 rushing yards per game, which ranks 132nd nationally.
Georgia Tech has already been gashed on the ground in each of its first three games. Colorado ran for 183 yards against the Yellow Jackets, Tennessee piled up 299, and Mercer added 188 more in last weekend’s 44-11 loss.
"We got to continue to improve that and do some things to help us out there," Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. "I don't need to beat a dead horse because that horse is dead and in the ground and about 12 feet under right now as far as being able to stop the run. OK, we all know that.
"Teams are averaging over 5 yards of carry on us. I mean, they have not needed to throw the ball at all."
There was at least some offensive life for Georgia Tech against Mercer. Alberto Mendoza delivered career highs with 249 passing yards and three touchdown passes, while Justice Haynes ran for 141 yards and two scores and also caught a touchdown. Haynes now has 286 rushing yards and three touchdowns.
Still, Key said the bigger issue is getting the entire operation to settle into place.
"It's a matter of everything coming together, finding out really what the identity is," Key said. "We've still got to be able to hang our hat on something as an identity. I'm not there yet at all."
Georgia Tech is 2-0 all-time against Stanford, with those wins coming in the 1991 Aloha Bowl and the 2001 Seattle Bowl.
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