Showdown time finally arrives for No. 10 Washington

Colorado and OR are next on the power rankings with both teams having some early season success.

Washington leads the all-time series against Stanford 41-40-4. USC started the 4th quarter with a 43 yard field goal to push their lead to 10. The Cardinal fell behind early in the first set and was unable to overcome its errors.

He certainly has the Huskies moving in the right direction, as their 4-0 start indicates. Their running game had 352 yards and three touchdowns last week, so they should rely on the run again this week. Stanford has a lot of big targets on the outside and their usual fleet of giant Tight Ends, but the quarterback position is far from solid. His first two games had given him the luxury of playing in the friendly confines of home. Stanford is a bit more battle tested with a pair of conference games under their belt and a non-conference game against Kansas State, a power five conference opponent. The defense played great. Unfortunately, we did give up one in man coverage the other day to lose the game.

Although Stanford ended up recovering enough from all those aforementioned losses to win the Pac-12 championship, the Cardinal can relish the fact that they benefited from the best of both worlds this time: The UCLA win allows them to reap the rewards of experience from that gut-check of a drive while not sustaining a resume-damaging loss.

STANFORD: The Cardinal is off to a flawless 3-0 start both against the spread and straight up. “(Stanford) played really good on defense and shut us down. Burns would finish the night throwing for just 137 yards.

Stanford spent most of the game struggling with its passing. Ryan Burns is completing 61.4 percent of his passes for 395 yards, three touchdowns and two interceptions. I think there’s also a chance they’re an eight-win team masquerading as a playoff contender. Join the Golden Gate Sports team!

People are calling this the game of the year in the Pac-12, and it’s hard to quibble right now. Stanford wants to wear you down with their rushing attack and big bodies. No. 7 Stanford: UW’s defense, with its stout D-line and stacked secondary, is built for a matchup like this.

Much can be said about the offensive performance by the Cardinal. Burns was 1 of 5 for 8 yards in the second half before the go-ahead 70-yard drive.

If the Bruins want to keep up with the rest of the conference, the run game needs to take a step up and fast.

At Monday’s press conference, coach Jim Mora said he would tighten his running back and receiver rotations to give starters more repetitions. Rosen said he should not have thrown across his body on a third-quarter pass to Ishmael Adams that was dropped, suggesting he could have run for a first down.

The Cardinal is like the old chess player of the Pac-12; they’re methodical, true-to-their-values, and play at a slow pace. Guys stepped up. Jayon talked to his guys, Connor and I talked to our guys.

Washington’s game against Stanford this week likely will go a long way toward determining the Pac-12 North champion, but keep an eye on Pullman, where Washington State hosts an OR team trying to avoid its first three-game losing streak since 2007. The Huskies are now ranked inside the top-10 and just seem to find ways to win football games. Browning missed last year’s matchup against Stanford due to injury, so this will be his first look at the rugged Cardinal defense. After Week 5, that train will either come to a halt or barrel full steam ahead down the Pac-12 track. If the Huskies can prove this weekend that they’re the best the league has to offer, the nation will have no choice but to check Washington out for themselves at some point over the next two months.