Stanford's Defense Is Running Out of Healthy Bodies

Stanford's defense didn't just have a bad week. It left the Cardinal with plenty of questions moving forward. Part of the reason for the struggles on Saturday stemmed from injuries.

Cornerback Brandon Nicholson, already ruled out for an extended period with a non-contact leg injury, was one of six defensive backs unavailable against Wake Forest, joined by Jason Hill Jr., Zaiden McDonald, Chris Garland, Breylan Thompson and Jack Duckworth.

At linebacker, the group that had carried Stanford's defense through its best moments this season was gutted too — Matt Rose, fresh off an ACC Linebacker of the Week honor, was held out, and Jahsiah Galvan didn't suit up either.

It's hard to overstate how much not having those two available mattered. Rose had been one of Stanford's most important defensive players through four games, serving as the leader of the defense and ranking second in the ACC with 38 tackles, while Galvan had just delivered a 10-tackle performance against Georgia Tech.

Losing both at once left Stanford without two of its most experienced linebackers against a Wake Forest offense that finished with 519 total yards and converted 10 of 13 third downs.

The secondary situation is the more alarming piece of this, if only because of the sheer numbers involved. Nicholson's absence was expected and already accounted for.

Being without five more defensive backs on the same weekend, though, left the Cardinal with limited healthy depth at the position heading into a stretch of the schedule that isn't getting much easier. The lack of available bodies meant Stanford had little margin for error once Wake Forest started finding weaknesses in the secondary.

What happens next depends largely on timelines that haven't been made public. Rose's status was never fully explained before the Wake Forest game, as he wasn't listed on the initial injury report at all. On Saturday he was suddenly ruled out. 

If this is a short-term situation — the kind of multi-player availability problem that happens to teams over the course of a long season — Stanford's defense could look like a completely different unit within a couple of weeks.

If it's a long-term issue for Stanford to figure out, the Cardinal are staring down a defense that has to replace two of its most important linebackers while also dealing with major losses in the secondary.

That's a difficult combination to overcome in the ACC, especially after Wake Forest exposed just how thin Stanford's defensive depth can become when several key players are unavailable at once.