Written by Max Meyer

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Three Things: Stanford vs Oregon

1. Both teams have great running backs

Oregon’s run game struggled against Cal last week, rushing for a season-low 180 rushing yards. Starting running back Kenjon Barner rushed for only 65 yards and 3.3 yards per carry, which is astonishing considering the fact that Barner is averaging 6.8 per carry on the season. However, Stanford can’t forget about Oregon’s other stud running back, De’Anthony Thomas. Thomas has world-class speed, and while he hasn’t been getting a lot of carries, he is still making an impact in games receiving and on special teams. Thomas hasn’t gotten more than five carries in a game since mid-October, but expect him to get a couple more carries if Barner struggles again.

On the other side, expect Stanford running back Stepfan Taylor to have a huge game. Three of Oregon’s starting defensive linemen aren’t expected to play, and this was the same defense that allowed 236 rushing yards to Cal. Taylor, who has the fourth-most rushing yards in the Pac-12, has six 100-yard rushing games this season. He will definitely need a seventh this weekend if Stanford has any chance of upsetting Oregon.

AccuScore projects Barner and Taylor to each have over 100 rushing yards, along with six carries and 41 yards for Thomas. Stanford’s rushing attack is a key to the game in terms of maximizing their time of possession and limiting the plays that the Oregon offense runs.

2. Both teams have hot quarterbacks as well

Johnny Football may be taking the country by storm, but there is another freshman quarterback worthy of Heisman talk in Oregon’s Marcus Mariota. He had a stellar game against Cal throwing for 377 yards and six touchdowns. Oh, and he’s also a threat to run, as he’s rushed for at least 40 yards in five of his past six games. Mariota’s passing numbers this season have been spectacular with 28 touchdowns compared to just five interceptions along with a completion percentage of 71.7. That would break Sam Bradford’s NCAA record for freshmen. In each of the last three games, Mariota has had a passer rating of over 200 and he’s completed over 80 percent of his throws.

Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan made the first start of his career against Oregon State last weekend. Against a stingy Beaver defense, Hogan threw for 254 yards and three touchdowns. He will have an even tougher challenge in his first road start, playing at the extremely loud Autzen Stadium. An advantage Hogan may have is that Oregon has limited tape on him so he could easily trip up their defense. AccuScore forecasts a steller game for Mariota, but just a good game for Hogan. Mariota is predicted to have close to 290 total yards along with almost three total touchdowns. Hogan is projected to have 240.9 yards with 1.5 touchdowns. The biggest difference however is their interception projections with Mariota averaging just 0.4 interceptions in the simulations with 1.2 for Hogan.

3. Can Stanford possibly stop Oregon’s offense?

The key match-up for this game is Oregon’s rushing attack versus Stanford’s run defense. Stanford will be watching the tape of Oregon’s last week game trying to figure out how Cal managed to slow down Oregon’s prolific ground game. However, Stanford may have an easier time stopping the run considering they have the best run defense in the nation. They are allowing fewer than 60 rushing yards per game and only two yards per carry. This will be their toughest match-up of the season, as Oregon is third in the country in rushing averaging almost 325 rushing yards per game.

The key player on Stanford’s defense is middle linebacker Shayne Skov. Coming off a knee injury from last season, Skov has accumulated 44 tackles and 2.5 sacks this year. He will have one of the toughest tasks in college football trying to contain Barner, Thomas, and Mariota. He will definitely need help up front because if Stanford can win the battle in the trenches, they will slow down Oregon’s offense.

Prediction: Oregon 49, Stanford 31

Oregon is currently favored by 20.5 points. AccuScore projects Oregon to beat Stanford 79.2 percent of the time while covering the spread at only a 42 percent clip. The key for Stanford is getting off to a really good start. Under Chip Kelly, Oregon is 36-0 in games when they are leading at halftime. Stanford will put up a fight, but they simply don’t have the same amount of offensive firepower as Oregon.