While Stanford has allowed 80 points over its last two games, coach Tavita Pritchard also sees the number 13 as a problem.
That’s the total number of points the Cardinal scored while being routed by Miami and Duke. Pritchard will be looking for improvement on both sides of the ball when Stanford hosts Georgia Tech in Atlantic Coast Conference play on Saturday night.
The Cardinal (1-2, 0-2 ACC) had just two field goals during a 45-6 home loss to Miami on Sept. 4, and found the end zone once in last Saturday’s 35-7 road loss to Duke.
“We’ve got to score,” Pritchard said on Tuesday. “You can’t go into an opponent’s territory and score seven points and think you’re going to walk away with a win.”
Davis Warren has thrown for 675 yards and two touchdowns. He also hasn’t been intercepted in 107 attempts. Another interception-free outing would mark the first time Stanford has gone without throwing a pick through the first four games of a season since 2020.
“You want to take chances and give your guys opportunities but you also have to take care of the football,” Warren said.
Stanford’s Micah Ford has rushed for 202 yards and three touchdowns. He could see a lot of action with Georgia Tech (1-2, 0-0) ranking 132nd nationally in rushing defense at 223.3 allowed per game.
The Yellow Jackets gave up 183 and 299 rushing yards in losses to Colorado and Tennessee, respectively, then 188 more in last weekend’s 44-11 rout of FCS program Mercer.
“We got to continue to improve that and do some things to help us out there,” Georgia Tech coach Brent Key said. “I don’t need to beat a dead horse because that horse is dead and in the ground and about 12 feet under right now as far as being able to stop the run. OK, we all know that.
“Teams are averaging over 5 yards of carry on us. I mean, they have not needed to throw the ball at all.”
Alberto Mendoza set career highs with 249 yards and three touchdown passes against Mercer and Justice Haynes rushed for 141 yards and two TDs and added a receiving score. Haynes has 286 yards and three scores on the ground.
Key is waiting on his team to start clicking.
“It’s a matter of everything coming together, finding out really what the identity is,” Key said. “We’ve still got to be able to hang our hat on something as an identity. I’m not there yet at all.”
Georgia Tech is 2-0 all-time against the Cardinal. Those meetings came in the 1991 Aloha Bowl and 2001 Seattle Bowl.