Stanford Football: 5 reasons the Cardinal defeats USC

Stanford football is gaining momentum after their huge 62-7 Week 1 victory vs. Rice. Can they ride that momentum to a win over USC? Yes. Here’s why.

One of the biggest games in Week 2 involves two of the best teams in the PAC-12. The Stanford Cardinal take on the USC Trojans to see which is the top team in the conference. With how the Washington Huskies looked last week against the Rutgers Scarlet Knights, the winner of this contest should be the PAC-12 front-runner.

USC had a rough going for most of the Western Michigan game. Quarterback Sam Darnold did throw a single touchdown pass and the Trojans took until later in the second half to pull ahead to the eventual 49-31 victory. Even though Western Michigan is a solid Group of Five team, USC should have dominated them.

Stanford, on the other hand, took care of their first game when they defeated the Rice Owls by a 55-point margin. These two squads were completely different from they were when they finished the 2016 campaign.

USC was the hottest team in the country at the end of the 2016 season, after the defeated the Penn State Nittany Lions in the Rose Bowl. Stanford finished with less than 11-wins in legendary running back Christian McCaffrey‘s final season in college.

The initial spread favors the Trojans by six points. Stanford could easily change their fortune if USC does not improve from last week. It’s hard to tell which USC team we’re going to get in Week 2 and if Stanford is for real or if Rice is just really bad.

Now, let’s take a look at five reasons the Stanford Cardinal defeat the USC Trojans in Week 2.