Stanford gets another Friday-night spotlight this week, and the Cardinal will be back at home again when they host NC State at 7:30 p.m. PT. ESPN will carry the game, which gives Stanford its second Friday-night home matchup in 2026 - something the program hasn’t done since 2012.
The Cardinal are coming in with some momentum after handling Elon 34-7 on Oct. 17 during Reunion Homecoming weekend. That win moved Stanford to 3-1 at home this season and 8-3 at home since the start of 2024. The split has been stark: Stanford is scoring 27.3 points per game at Stanford Stadium over that stretch, while averaging just 14.4 on the road.
That Elon victory also came with a defensive statement. Stanford blanked the Phoenix in the first half, the first time the Cardinal had done that since Oct. 15, 2022, at Notre Dame. At home, it had been even longer - not since the 2019 season opener against Northwestern had Stanford held a team scoreless before halftime in its own stadium.
The Cardinal’s defense didn’t just start fast; it suffocated Elon through the air. Stanford allowed only 52 passing yards and held the Phoenix to a 29.2% completion percentage. Those numbers stand out in the program’s recent history: it was the fewest passing yards Stanford has allowed since Oct. 14, 2017, against Oregon, and the lowest opponent completion percentage at Stanford Stadium since Nov. 24, 2001, against Notre Dame.
On offense, Stanford had its biggest output of the season. The Cardinal rushed for 222 yards and finished with 515 total yards, both season highs. It was Stanford’s highest rushing total at home since 2018 against Oregon State, and its most total offense in a game since 2020.
Micah Ford was at the center of it all, and the ACC took notice. He was named ACC Running Back of the Week after a performance that set a new personal standard and added to Stanford history.
Ford rushed for 179 yards and caught passes for another 52, finishing with a career-best 231 scrimmage yards. He scored four rushing touchdowns, tying a Stanford single-game record last reached by Christian McCaffrey in 2015.
It was the 10th four-rushing-touchdown game by a Stanford running back.
Ford’s breakout also pushed his season total to eight rushing touchdowns, a career high and the most by a Stanford running back since Austin Jones in 2020. He is now tied with Duke’s Nate Sheppard for the ACC lead among running backs in rushing touchdowns.
And Stanford’s scoring against Elon came almost entirely from the ground game. All five Cardinal touchdowns were scored by running backs, the last time Stanford did that in a game with at least five touchdowns coming against California in the 118th Big Game.
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Stanford Finally Looked Like Itself Again At Home
After a rough stretch, Stanford finally settled back into the kind of game it wanted to play at home, rolling past Elon 34-7 to snap the skid and keep its home winning streak alive. The Cardinal leaned on a defense that controlled the line of scrimmage and a steady ground game, with junior linebacker Sam Mattingly leading the tackle chart and junior running back Micah Ford giving the offense the kind of finishing drives it had been missing.
Fords day on the ground stood out in a game that never really let Elon find much rhythm, while Stanfords defense kept the Phoenix from building anything sustainable once the matchup settled in. The second half was especially lopsided, and for a program looking for signs that it had found its footing again, this was the kind of response that matters even before the competition gets tougher. [Read more 🡒]