The Stanford Cardinal escaped by the skin of their teeth with a 17-13 victory over the Arizona State Sun Devils last night in Tempe, Arizona. They showed a strong defense for the first time in a while, and got just enough from their offense to grab the victory. Here’s what folks are saying about the Cardinal victory:
ESPN’s Pac-10 Blog: Stanford’s defense has turned the corner: Stanford used to be seen as soft on defense. It stopped being that under Jim Harbaugh, but then it was slow. Now? Stanford looks pretty darn good. A week after holding Arizona to just 17 points, the Cardinal held Arizona State to 12 first downs and 268 total yards. When you look at one-loss teams, who looks better than Stanford? The answer: No one.
San Francisco Chronicle: Stanford got the fight it expected from Arizona State. After running roughshod over opponents most of the season, the Cardinal were trailing with less than six minutes left.
Then Andrew Luck’s brilliance and ASU’s penchant for penalties swung the game for the Cardinal. They escaped Sun Devil Stadium with a 17-13 win Saturday night in a game that, as Luck said, “tested our mettle.”
San Jose Mercury News: Midway through the fourth quarter, trailing by three and staring at third down, Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh reached deep into his bag of tricks — so deep he pulled out a play that, until then, did not exist.
Never run during a game, never seen on video by opposing coaches, the looping 13-yard pass from quarterback Andrew Luck to tight end Konrad Reuland kept the Cardinal’s winning (and perhaps Rose Bowl-saving) drive alive.
The Stanford Daily: The one bright spot for Stanford’s offense was the play of Wilkerson. The true freshman led the Cardinal in rushing, with 10 carries for 65 yards. Taylor, who had spearheaded Stanford’s running attack over the last several games, failed to make any headway against ASU, finishing with 16 carries for just 39 yards, a lowly 2.4 yards per carry. Overall, Stanford’s rushing attack tallied 3.0 yards per carry.