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Stanford builds respect with upset of Oregon

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Updated Nov 8, 2009 1:57 AM ET
     
 
CFN's Instant Analysis of Stanford's 51-42 upset of Oregon:

Not a huge deal

Basically, Oregon is in the same boat as the team it might play in Pasadena — Iowa. The loss doesn't matter. Oregon wasn't going to play for the national title anyway, and if it wants to win the Pac-10 title and go to the Rose Bowl, then all it has to do is go out and win three games. If you're good enough to win the championship and you're good enough to play in the league's big game, then beat Arizona State at home, beat Arizona and win the Civil War over Oregon State. Though the loss means there's no longer any margin for error, the play of Jeremiah Masoli, with 334 passing yards and three scores, is a major plus. Good luck defending the Ducks' running game now with the safeties needing to worry about the deep ball. But this game was on the defense, not the offense, and Stanford had a lot to do with that. If he were eligible, Stanford QB Andrew Luck might be a first-round draft pick next year on speculation alone. He's as talented a quarterback as any in America, and his life is being made far easier thanks to the play of Toby Gerhart, who might not be in the Heisman chase as many will assume he is, but will be in the hunt for All-America honors with his 223-yard, three-score day. Oregon lost a Pac-10 firefight. That's all. No one's stopping this offense the rest of the way, so if the defense can show up and not be awful, all the goals will be achieved. — Pete Fiutak

Cardinal building respect

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Stanford has officially turned the corner under third-year coach Jim Harbaugh. How big was the 51-42 upset of No. 7 Oregon to the program? Bigger than the shocker over USC a couple of years ago. That was a novelty. This is for real. The Cardinal is now bowl-eligible for the first time since 2001, a huge step for Harbaugh as he continues to build the program back to respectability. Although the score was close, Stanford was in control throughout the afternoon. Yup, against the same Oregon squad that looked borderline invincible during its seven-game winning streak, particularly on defense. Every time the Ducks scored, the Cardinal had an answer from either running back Toby Gerhart or QB Andrew Luck. Gerhart bulled his way to 222 yards and three touchdowns and has to start being considered for the Heisman and other national honors. Luck now leads the Pac-10 in passing efficiency and just keeps getting better in his debut season, parlaying just 12 completions into 251 yards and two touchdowns. Even after being put through the thresher on the Farm, Oregon remains the favorite to play either Ohio State or Iowa in the Rose Bowl. However, Stanford has narrowed the gap and is poised to make more noise in coming high-profile games with USC, Cal and Notre Dame. — Richard Cirminiello

Tough conference

1. Welcome, Oregon, to the world USC has been living in for the past seven seasons. If you establish yourself as the team to beat in the Pac-10, one week's win will be followed by the best shot from another fiercely determined opponent. Maybe the rest of America should realize that all those USC losses to Oregon State really aren't as bad as they've been perceived over time. (USC's loss to 41-point underdog Stanford in 2007? That was different, but the exception and not the rule.) The Pac-10 doesn't have lots of elite teams, but there are very few easy outs in the conference. Moreover, the poor work of former commissioner Tom Hansen had a lot to do with the league's failing to get more at-large BCS bowl bids in the BCS era. This is a legitimately tough conference the SEC would have a hard time standing up to. 2. Ringing up half-a-hundred points on a generally reliable Oregon defense shows how far Stanford has come under Jim Harbaugh. This win represents a sweet scalp for the Cardinal, and it just might have catapulted Toby Gerhart to New York on the evening of Dec. 12. Those two realities are enough to make the home folks quite giddy on the Farm, but the biggest element of Saturday's win is simply this: Stanford will go bowling. Three cheers for a football family that has put in a lot of hard work to get to this point and now seems ready for bigger accomplishments in the years ahead. — Matt Zemek

Duck trap

If there is a person in the country who can forecast what's going to happen week-to-week in the Pac-10, I want his number in order to get his stock picks. This was considered a "trap" game for the Ducks, but nobody expected the Cardinal to hang 51 on the team that dominated USC last week. Give credit to the Stanford offensive front, which was able to control the game and pave the way for 259 rushing yards and a staggering 21:54 time-of-possession advantage. Yes, the Duck offense hung up 580 total yards and scored 42 points, but it couldn't get the Stanford offense off the field and was worn down in the end. And is it finally time to start the Toby-Gerhart-for-Heisman talk? Hell, yes! The Cardinal back has rushed for 1,217 yards and scored a whopping 16 times. He has three games left, including a season-ender against the generous Notre Dame defense, which seems to consider allowing other schools to pile up stats some form of community service. Stanford is one victory away from its first winning season in eight years and is now bowl-eligible. That's a testament to coach Jim Harbaugh's ability to build the program from the bottom up. Saturday against the Ducks, his Cardinal survived a shootout and helped the Pac-10 live up to its loony reputation. — Michael Bradley
Tagged: Stanford, Iowa, USC, Oregon, Ohio State, Purdue, Notre Dame, Arizona, Arizona State, Oregon State

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