The entire Stanford football season has been building to this. Next Saturday, the Cardinal will be back on the road, taking on the Virginia Tech Hokies, in a game that may very well end up determining if they are bowl eligible when the season ends. 

Stanford comes into the matchup at 4-5 after staying with Louisville through the first half and even tying the game on its first possession after halftime, but the Cardinals flew away with the game in the second half. 

Still, it was a better showing than we'd seen from Stanford on the road previously with a final of 52-24. The Cardinal had been outscored 150-17 in its first three road matchups, so it was still giving up way too many points, but at least the offense came to play.

Virginia Tech had been receiving votes to be ranked in recent weeks, sitting at 6-2 entering the weekend, but they were just blown out by SMU 51-28 on Saturday and have also lost to a hot-and-cold Cal program this season. They have the wins to make a bowl game, but they don't have a season-defining win that is bigger than Stanford.

Tech's defense ranks 7th in the ACC in yards allowed per game (340) with a stingy 5th-ranked run defense (107.3 yards per game) and the 11th-ranked pass defense giving up 232.7 yards per game. Against SMU they surrendered 569 total yards, 350 passing yards and 219 rushing yards against their first ranked opponent. 

Stanford's losses have all come against teams that either are ranked (Miami, Wake Forest, Notre Dame) or have received votes to be ranked (Duke, Louisville). Virginia Tech's losses have been to Pittsburgh, Cal, and now SMU. 

Stanford allowed 549 total yards to Miami, 470 yards to Duke, 519 yards to Wake Forest, 598 yards to Notre Dame, and 545 yards against Louisville. While Virginia Tech's defense has graded out better than Stanford's, they also haven't walked the same path as the Cardinal. Given how Tech performed against SMU, these two defenses may be more similar in skill level than it would appear on paper. 

Those five losses have helped to skew Stanford's overall defensive numbers to allowing 454.1 yards per game, but in its four wins, that total has dropped to an average of 352.25 yards per game — much closer to the Hokies' 340 figure.

After the Hokies, Stanford will be facing Cal on the road in the 128th Big Game, and then SMU at home, a team that just squashed Virginia Tech and that Stanford has had plenty of trouble with since joining the ACC. For Stanford to make a bowl game, this week matters immensely. 

The stakes are there. Lose this game, and the program's shot at a bowl game goes down dramatically.

This week Stanford is coming off a bye, so even though they'll have to travel to Virginia, they will be well rested and should be prepared for this game. 

On top of that, the 4:30 (PT) kickoff time for this game is also perfect for the Cardinal. Part of the reason for the team's struggles on the road this season has been because of start times or back-to-backs, on top of facing some of the best programs in college football.

All four road games have started at or before 1 p.m. PT, with the Wake Forest game even beginning at 9:30 a.m.

This week there will be no excuses. Virginia Tech is a good team, but they appear to be beatable. It has one ranked loss, and that was to newly ranked No. 25 SMU on Saturday. With the Mustangs also looming on Stanford's schedule, winning this one on the road, with a beneficial start time, is the ideal way to get one win closer to bowl eligibility.

A loss would mean the Cardinal would need wins against both Cal and SMU to qualify.