Last year, Stanford’s defense seemed to lack that one star in its linebacker core. Coming off the departures of Martinez and Anderson, the Cardinal’s lack of experience occasionally reared its ugly head. And when thinking about the brutal losses to Washington and Washington State last year, although there was trouble for Stanford all over the field, an overwhelmed linebacker unit carried a share of the blame for the Cardinal’s inability to come up with stops.

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McCaffrey eclipsed his own career high with 284 yards rushing, adding three touchdowns as the No. 24 Stanford Cardinal (8-3, 6-3 Pac-12) defeated their rivals, the California Golden Bears (4-7, 2-6) 45-31, capturing their seventh straight victory in the Big Game.

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It may not have been the high-stakes Stanford-Oregon game that the Pac-12 has come to expect, but the offensive firepower was certainly there. At least for one side. In the first unranked matchup between the two teams since 2008, the Stanford Cardinal (7-3, 5-3 Pac-12) delivered an offensive beatdown to the ailing Oregon Ducks (3-7,…

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On Stanford's penultimate drive, senior quarterback Ryan Burns threw an interception with 1:37 remaining. After a Colorado safety, Stanford was unsuccessful in its final play, and the Cardinal (4-3, 3-2 Pac-12) fell to the Buffaloes (6-2, 4-1) by a 10-5 margin.

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Over the last five years, a matchup between the Cardinal and the Fighting Irish has been a marquee event — a game between two top-25 teams duking it out for the Legends Trophy in what has evolved into one of the more exciting rivalries in college football. This year, while the prize of the Legends Trophy is still in play, the stakes, at first glance, do not seem nearly as high.

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A week after suffering a blow out at the hands of the Washington Huskies, the Stanford Cardinal fell victim to the same fate against the other team from Washington. Despite returning back home, Stanford (3-2, 2-2 Pac-12) fell 42-16 against the Washington State Cougars (3-2, 2-0), marking the Cardinal’s first time losing back-to-back games since…

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During a weekend in which Stanford’s current football team wasn’t exactly highlight-reel-worthy, some alumni stepped up on Sunday to remind everyone that the Cardinal still have a heavy influence throughout the ranks in pro football.

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After getting obliterated by Christian McCaffrey in last year’s Pac-12 Championship, USC knew that it had to shut him down in order to take down Stanford. After keeping the junior running back relatively quiet early on, the wheels began to fall off after the Trojans committed the cardinal sin: leaving him wide open.

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No. 8 Stanford (1-0) pulled out a 26-13 win over Kansas State (0-1) on Friday night. The game featured a strong defensive performance from the Cardinal, as well as a solid beginning for the second iteration of Christian McCaffrey’s Heisman campaign. While Stanford certainly didn’t play its best football, it walked out of Week 1…

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The No. 8 Cardinal (1-0) pulled out a 26-13 win over the Kansas State Wildcats (0-1), holding off a pesky fourth-quarter comeback to win their season opener.

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In some ways, the game has the makings for an unfortunate déjà vu. Lofty expectations going into a season opener against a purple-and-white non-conference opponent named the Wildcats? Stanford found itself in this spot just a year ago, and if last year’s humbling opener taught the Cardinal anything, it’s that no game can be taken lightly.

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If you had to pick the Stanford position group getting the most hype in the preseason, it just might be the secondary.

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Head coach David Shaw announced Wednesday that senior Ryan Burns will start in the season opener next week. But the battle is far from over.

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Stanford saw its chance at victory, and perhaps at the back door of the NCAA Tournament, evaporate in just a seven-minute stretch. The Cardinal (15-13, 8-9 Pac-12) fell to the Arizona State Sun Devils (15-15, 5-12) by a 74-64 margin, and in turn fell back under .500 in conference play. With seven minutes left in…

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On Saturday night, Stanford (13-12, 6-8 Pac-12) fell 64-53 to the Washington Huskies (16-11, 8-7), who snapped a four-game losing streak behind a dazzling performance from freshman Dejounte Murray.

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When the Stanford men’s basketball team arrived back at Maples Pavilion on Monday for practice after losing three straight road games, they knew that there was work to be done. “We got after it,” senior center Grant Verhoeven said. “We needed to get a lot better defensively and get back to the basics.” Having lost…

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The Cardinal didn’t have the shooting night they expected. Neither did Colorado. Unfortunately for Stanford, it only worked in favor of the Buffs. Stanford (11-8, 4-4 Pac-12) fell to Colorado (16-5, 5-3) by a 91-75 margin, as the Buffs shot 49 percent from the field and made an astounding 13 of their 19 three-point attempts. Senior…

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Coming off one of the worst shooting performances of his career, Rosco Allen was determined to right the ship. The senior forward scored the game-winner on a drive to the hoop with 3.2 seconds remaining in the game, as Stanford (11-7, 4-3 Pac-12) narrowly edged out Arizona State (11-9, 1-6) by a 75-73 margin. Allen…

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“Your next game’s always your biggest game. Everyone is so good in this conference, it’s such a deep year, and you have to be prepared for everyone.” Depth has been the mantra in the Pac-12 this season, and Stanford head coach Johnny Dawkins recognizes it as much as anyone else. That’s what makes tonight’s matchup…

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A pair of 15-yard penalties to set up a game-winning field goal. A missed 27-yard game-winning field goal. The first playoff shutout since the 2005-2006 season. It was truly a wild weekend in the NFL, as four teams moved on to the divisional round of the playoffs. And the sizable cohort of Stanford alumni in the…

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No spot in the College Football Playoff? No Heisman for Christian McCaffrey? No problem. After almost a month of rest, the No. 6 Stanford Cardinal (12-2) played their best football of the season in the 102nd Rose Bowl Game, dominating the No. 5 Iowa Hawkeyes (12-2) by a score of 45-16. The win marks Stanford’s…

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“What they've shown on film all year is that they'll fight. That's kind of how we are too.”

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All week long, Stanford's offense has been saying that the Iowa defense is exceptional not in its complexity or its mental games, but in its remarkably sound execution of some relatively simple concepts.

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