After USC put a blowtorch to Lance Anderson’s defense in the Coliseum, a number of peculiar things happened. First, USC hasn’t come close to matching the four quarter performance it put on the Cardinal that night in the Coliseum. More importantly to Stanford fans, the Cardinal defense set about climbing out of the crater in which the Trojans left them in and set to improving.

Have they?

Stanford allowed 42 points to the Trojans. Two weeks later, the Chosen Rosen helped put 34 on the Cardinal at Stanford Stadium. In the three ensuing games, Stanford allowed 24, 20, and seven points to Arizona State, Utah, and Oregon. Those teams ranked ninth, eighth, and tenth respectively in scoring coming into play today. That being said, Stanford has definitely shown some improvement, and in many ways it’s kind of impressive they’ve done so without moving the needle on any of their major stats.

In conference play, Stanford is sixth in the league in points allowed per game. This is happening while Stanford is ninth in yards per carry allowed and tenth in yards per attempt allowed. Teams have been able to throw and run on the Cardinal, and yet Stanford refuses to yield on the scoreboard. What is that phrase, with bending, but not the breaking, something, something….

Stanford has allowed 18 trips into the Red Zone. That’s tied with two other teams for sixth in the Pac-12. However, Stanford has played an extra game compared to those two teams. So on a per-game basis, they’ve allowed 3.6 RZ trips per game. They 10th in Red Zone touchdown percentage allowed and teams have scored on 16 of their 18 trips inside the Red Zone.

When you expand the category to points per trips inside the Stanford 40, Stanford is allowing 3.95 points, which is 39th nationally. The other thing they are doing is limiting big plays. CFB Study Hall’s explosiveness factor tracks IsoPPP and Stanford ranks 40th in that category as well. I asked Lance Anderson about how a team could allow 221 rushing yards in a half and yet surrender only seven points?

“Turnovers are a great deodorant,” he said calmly yet with his trademark smile. Turnovers indeed. The Cardinal is a conference-best +9 in turnover margin, and they way in which they’ve done it is as important as the fact that they’ve done it. Stanford has ten interceptions. They are break-even on fumbles (three lost, three gained) and that matters because fumble recovery has proven to be a matter of luck statistically. Interceptions are far less susceptible to fortune.

Those interceptions are doing more than anything else to keep Stanford above water on defense. The Cardinal is not a good third down defense. They are not good at creating havoc beyond the interceptions.

They are essentially good at three things. They do not give up big scoring plays via the run or the pass. They get enough turnovers to make up for the ease with which offenses move the ball on them on a per-play basis. Finally, they undergo a stunning transition after halftime. In quarters one and two, Stanford ranks 87th and 80th in per play efficiency. In the third quarter, Stanford is an astounding 12th in the country on defense.

That is staggering.

In terms of overall defenses, that’s a team going into the locker room as Arkansas State and coming out as Notre Dame. Ok, technically Northern Illinois is 12th in defense and Notre Dame is 13th, but I fudged it for effect. But you get the point here. It started at Media Day with Harrison Phillips, but from Justin Reid to Curtis Robinson players have talked about Anderson’s ability to adapt and adjust to what’s happening in a game.

So there you have it. It seems unlikely that Stanford will graduate to a categorically good defense this year, but if they can stay healthy it also seems unlikely they’ll stop improving under Anderson’s guidance. In a year where he’s been left with a razor thin margin of error personnel-wise, we may be watching one of The Emperor’s most impressive seasons yet.

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R.J. Abeytia has been contributing to The Bootleg since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter at @RJ_Abeytia and follow The Bootleg @TheBootleg for up to the moment Cardinal news and analysis.

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