Athlon Sports predicts a losing season for Stanford

Another outlet that is not very high on the Cardinal in 2022

Stan Szeto-USA TODAY Sports

Stanford is in the midst of the worst stretch of seasons in the David Shaw era, that has seen the program go from one of the best in the country to a bottom feeder. 

Despite having a handful of legitimate NFL prospects at quarterback and skill positions, the team is flawed across both the offensive and defensive line, which as we saw last year was detrimental to the team leading to a 3-9 record, the worst since 2006. 

ESPN's FPI recently predicted the Cardinal to struggle again finishing with five wins, while giving them a 0.4% chance of winning the Pac-12. The computers aren't the only ones not confident in Stanford, as in Athlon Sports' season preview and prediction for Stanford they also called for another losing season.

While complimenting Tanner McKee and the arial attack, they identified the offensive line as the offense's biggest problem:

The question is whether the offensive line, which is experienced but has been ineffective, can provide McKee the two things he needs to be productive — protection and a running game. "That's one of the biggest jumps we have to make," Shaw says of his offensive line, which allowed 31 sacks last season.

Left tackle Walter Rouse (29 career starts) and left guard Barrett Miller (26 consecutive starts) are the best of an offensive line that returns all its starters. But that group has yet to show that it can run block effectively. The Cardinal ranked last in the conference and 126th out of 130 Division I teams in rushing yards per game in 2021 (86.9). Making matters worse, Stanford lost its top two running backs from last season. Austin Jones (transferred to USC) and Nathaniel Peat (transferred to Missouri) accounted for 782 of Stanford's 1,047 rushing yards in 2021. The Cardinal will rely on E.J. Smith, who is the son of Emmitt Smith and showed promise last season when he averaged 5.1 yards per carry, and Casey Filkins.

When it comes to the defense the best unit is the secondary, which  is headlined by Kyu Blue Kelly and Oklahoma transfer Patrick Fields, but Athlon thinks it will be hard to overcome a defensive line that amounts to one career start combined:

Much of the problem was in the front three, and the loss of its two best defensive linemen, second-team all-conference defensive end Thomas Booker and Dalyn Wade-Perry, will not help. Tobin Phillips, who started one game last season, is the only current defensive lineman who has started a college game, so the Cardinal will continue to be vulnerable in the middle of their defensive front.

Overall, the trenches is arguably the worst places to be ineffective at due to the fact most games, especially when you want to run the ball as much as Stanford does, are won in the trenches. 

Here is what their prediction for Stanford in 2022 is:

McKee should put up some big passing numbers for the Cardinal, but the absence of a reliable run game and shortcomings in the interior of the defensive line will put too much pressure on him to be perfect in every game. Stanford again will struggle to stop the run, and unless the offensive and defensive lines are better than expected, Shaw is looking at another losing season with little chance of contending in the Pac-12 North.