their own nightmarish Big Game streak. The Cardinal look nothing like the Rose Bowl teams of the early 2010s. For the second consecutive season, Stanford has one of the worst rushing offenses in college football. The Cardinal defense is below average even in the mediocre Pac-12. Rather than fighting for a Pac-12 Championship and possible Rose Bowl berth, Stanford was merely scrapping for bowl eligibility in the Big Game.



Saturday’s devastating loss condemned the Axe to exile in Berkeley for the first time since 2009 and secured Stanford’s first losing season since 2008. This has easily been the worst year of head coach David Shaw’s tenure, but a win over Cal could have eased the suffering of Nerd Nation. With that chance gone, 2019 is now a truly lostpercentage, yards per attempt and passer rating have all declined, and yet his total attempts have gone up.



Book is being asked to do more but is actually doing less in 2019. When teams have managed to shut down the Notre Dame rushing attack and forced Book to beat them with his right arm, the Irish offense has stalled. Just ask Michigan, which saved its season by shellacking Notre Dame 45-14 in the Big House. In that game, Book was held to 73 yards on 25 attempts.



Stanford’s pass defense is slogging through a horrendous season, sitting at 118th nationally with 281.7 yards per game allowed through the air. Junior cornerback Paulson Adebo and senior safety Malik Antoine, Stanford’s two best defensive backs, will both miss the game. But the