We hand out game grades for Washington State's 34-17 loss at Stanford, after the jump.

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Quarterback: To be fair to Connor Halliday, he was under more duress against Stanford than in any previous two games this season combined. Considering the numbers Halliday has put up this season, 292 passing yards feels like a miniscule number, even if it's almost three times what the Cardinal had allowed per game entering last weekend. Halliday made a few big plays but what really stands out is 4.2 yards per attempt. Not a bad game from the senior quarterback, but not a particularly good one, either. Grade: B

Running back: Stanford shuts down the run against almost every team, and tackles extremely well on passes out of the backfield, so the expectation was that the WSU running backs weren't going to get a lot of work in this one. Jamal Morrow did have one nice run but he also had a false start in the red zone that could have been costly. Overall, this unit didn't seem to make much of an impact. Grade: -

Wide receiver: Part of the reason for Halliday's low yards-per-attempt number is that the receivers weren't able to get the yards after the catch they normally do. Stanford's defense closed space in a hurry and wrapped up pass-catchers immediately. The officials allowed the receivers and defensive backs to be physical and the Stanford secondary won that matchup. Grade: C

Offensive line: Yes the offensive line was up against arguably its toughest test of the season, but this unit played well enough in the previous Pac-12 games to show that it could have held up better against the Cardinal. Halliday took four sacks, eight hits and was limping by the end of the game as the hits accumulated. The Cougars weren't able to use the entire field because the receivers often didn't have enough time to run deep routes and that's a death blow to an offense that's all about creating space. Grade: C-

Defensive line: The defensive line did get some occasional pressure on Stanford quarterback Kevin Hogan, but not enough to throw him off his rhythm. More importantly, the unit was completely unable to set the line of scrimmage against the big Stanford offensive line and the top two Cardinal running backs combined to average eight yards per carry. Grade: C

Linebackers: Barry Sanders and Remound Wright were able to get to 10-yards untouched seemingly at will because the linebackers had a hard time getting away from blockers who were pushing them downfield and out of the play. Grade: C-

Secondary: Stanford's first touchdown came when tight end Eric Cotton streaked down the middle of the field uncovered and its next two came when tight end Greg Taboada simply out-jumped smaller defenders in the end zone. WSU's defensive backs did an admirable job of matching Stanford's physicality, but weren't able to disrupt enough passes to prevent Hogan from having one of his best days. Grade: C

Special Teams: Punter Jordan Dascalo finished with a respectable 42.0 average yards per punt, but it still felt like a bad day for the normally steady freshman. He didn't pin the Cardinal inside the 20 once in eight attempts and his punts of 27 and 34 yards gave Stanford great field position. The field goal coverage team was fine but the Cougars were unable to stop Ty Montgomery from making an impact as a punt returner. Quentin Breshears made a 46-yard field goal that looked like it would have been good from 50+. Grade: C+

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