2019 Stanford Football Recreation: Cardinal host Washington in Week 6

So here’s how things have unfolded over the past few weeks for the Stanford Cardinal in our 2019 recreated football simulation.

It’s Week 6 and Stanford sits at 2-2 (0-2), dead last in the Pac-12 North. There has been no answer at quarterback between K.J. Costello and Davis Mills, though Costello has gotten the most of the snaps.

After a bye week in Week 1, Stanford easily cruised past San Jose State, 52-24, but in Week 3, the Cardinal needed a late touchdown to defeat Army’s triple-option attack, 31-24.

Week 4 started what has now led to a two-game losing streak after dropping a closely contested game against Arizona State and true freshman Jayden Daniels at quarterback. Here’s the recap, to refresh your memory.

A Brandon Aiyuk touchdown in the fourth quarter became the game-winning score for the Sun Devils, who impressively are sitting at 3-0 and knocked off Stanford despite an injury to QB Jayden Daniels in the third quarter. K.J. Costello played the entire game for Stanford with no Davis Mills sighting, however, after being unable to move the chains during their second-to-last offensive drive in the fourth quarter, Mills was seen warming up, but never got in.

Stat leaders (Stanford)
Passing: K.J. Costello, 19-29, 314 yards, 1 TD, 1 sack
Rushing: Cameron Scarlett, 27 carries, 149 yards, 0 TD
Receiving: Michael Wilson, 4 catches, 145 yards, 1 TD, 69 YAC
Defense: Jordan Fox, 10 tackles, 6 solo, 4 TFL, 2 sack

And then there was the Week 5 debacle, in the rain, against Washington State.

In what was perhaps the biggest shocker of Week 5, the Washington State Cougars put up just seven points. Yeah, that’s right, seven points. Stanford did everything they could in the rain to stop the high-flying attack of the Cougars but their own offense was thwarted by the weather as well. Washington State handed the Cardinal their second conference loss, early in 2019.

Costello finished 5-13 for 58 yards and an interception while Mills finished 5-16 for 43 yards. It was an utter disgusting football game that saw over four inches of rain come down in Pullman.

So that leads us to their 2-2 record and the undefeated Washington Huskies coming to town. Jacob Eason has shown flashes this season and has 936 passing yards with eight touchdowns but his boom-or-bust nature has also seen him throw six interceptions. Their defense is among the best in the country, obviously, as they’ve surprisingly stopped the run better than normal.

That, of course, does not bode well for Stanford, who currently has the nation’s 72nd-ranked rushing attack and most of their passing yards have come against San Jose State in Week 1.

The weather should be much better for this meeting, and you’d have to expect we see both quarterbacks until Mills proves he can step past Costello.

Here’s hoping they can get both the rushing and passing attack figured out, and avoid a 0-3 start to conference play.

Reminder, this is a fictional take on our recreation of the 2019 NCAA football season using last year’s updated rosters and playing the games in NCAA Football 14 on a Playstation3. For more information, check out our intro story.