No. 25 Stanford looks to return to form vs. Duke

(AP Photo/Gerry Broome, File)

By ANTONIO GONZALEZ

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) David Shaw had to wait eight games last year before seeing his Stanford team truly tested, beating Southern California in a triple-overtime thriller.

Not this year.

Maybe never this year.

After a close 20-17 win over San Jose State in the season opener sent them tumbling four spots in the AP poll, the No. 25 Cardinal (1-0) will learn more about whether that was a fluke or a sign of things to come without Andrew Luck this season when they host a stronger Duke (1-0) team Saturday night.

"It's not like they played terribly, but they didn't play up to our standard," Shaw said. "You play like that for a length of time you're going to get beat."

Stanford won 41-14 at Duke last season behind Luck's second-half surge, and the Blue Devils haven't beaten a ranked opponent on the road since 1971, which just so happened to come at Stanford. As the first week showed, however, times might be changing this season for both of these historically academic universities.

Duke lost 23-21 to Football Championship Subdivision school Richmond in last season's debut. This year, they rolled to a 46-26 romp over Florida International, which has gone to a bowl game the last two seasons.

"From one year to the next," Duke coach David Cutcliffe said, "it's like daylight and dark."

At least so far, maybe nowhere more than on The Farm.

The Cardinal not only lost Luck, the NFL's No. 1 overall pick to the Indianapolis Colts, they had three others drafted in the top 42 picks - right guard David DeCastro, tight end Coby Fleener and left tackle Jonathan Martin - plus starting wide receivers Chris Owusu and Griff Whalen and starting safeties Delano Howell and Michael Thomas, among others.

Ten true freshmen played and 17 total made their collegiate debut again San Jose State.

Stanford still returned so many key contributors - notably back-to-back 1,000-yard rusher Stepfan Taylor and a defensive front seven that could have multiple NFL draft picks - to back new quarterback Josh Nunes that the program figured to stay quite strong, and it still might. Middle linebacker and leader Shayne Skov also returns this week after he tore ligaments in his left knee in the third game at Arizona and was sidelined for the rest of last season. He served a one-game suspension in last week's opener for a DUI arrest.

All the offensive line gaffs, a dropped deep pass by Ty Montgomery and little pressure on the opposing quarterback against San Jose State - a team the Cardinal routed 57-3 last year - still didn't offer much hope for stability, especially with a home matchup against No. 2 USC looming next week.

"It's the sign of mediocrity," Shaw said. He also added that "there was no panic" and learned that so many of his unproven players could take a punch and respond.

"We feel like we didn't necessarily play our best football last week," Nunes said. "So we're definitely excited to get after it this week."

The difference now is opponents know the Cardinal can't lean on Luck for big plays, and nobody else has shown they can make up for the two-time Heisman Trophy runner-up's absence.

Nunes, a redshirt junior, completed 16 of 26 passes for 125 yards and a touchdown. While he had no interceptions and no noticeable mix-ups, he wasn't asked to do much either.

The Spartans stuffed the line of scrimmage and held Stanford to just 37 yards rushing - averaging 1.9 yards per carry - in the second half. Senior center and co-captain Sam Schwartzstein "was sick to his stomach," Shaw said.

"Even when they had Luck, they were a run-first team, so we know that they don't try to hide what they (want) to do to us," said Duke cornerback Ross Cockrell, who returned a blocked field goal 75 yards for a touchdown last week. "They put eight linemen in the game, they put a lot of big boys in the game and they try to power run you. And so we're preparing for that, as well as the play-action passes."

Duke has quite a few reasons to believe its cross-country trip will end well.

The Cardinal had all sorts of problems with San Jose State swapping David Fales and wildcat quarterback Blake Jurich, and Duke has an even more electric and moveable piece in Brandon Connette. The redshirt sophomore runs short-yardage plays out of the wildcat formation, lines up at tight end, wide receiver, running back and plays on a couple of special teams, too. He threw for one touchdown and ran for another in the opener.

The Blue Devils also have a secret Bay Area resource.

San Jose State coach Mike MacIntyre was the defensive coordinator for Cutcliffe's first two years at Duke from 2008-09 and the two programs run many of the same schemes. With the way MacIntyre's overachieving bunch bullied Stanford on its home field, there's at least one coach who is sure the knowledge will be shared.

"Oh," Shaw said, "I think there have been multiple phone calls."

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AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary in Durham, N.C., contributed to this story.

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Follow Antonio Gonzalez at: www.twitter.com/agonzalezAP

Updated September 7, 2012