Over the past five weeks, Stanford made three trips to the Eastern time zone and played three games against ranked opponents.

The results weren’t pretty. After winning their first-ever ACC game on a field goal as time expired at Syracuse, the Cardinal (2-5, 1-3 ACC) have lost their past four games by a combined score of 160-38. The closest game during the losing streak against No. 9 Clemson, No. 12 Notre Dame, No. 22 SMU and Virginia Tech was 24 points.

Stanford’s schedule is now more manageable — four of its last five games are in the Bay Area, and all are against unranked opponents, starting Saturday at home against Wake Forest (3-4, 1-2). But can the Cardinal take advantage?At quarterback, coach Troy Taylor is choosing between a freshman (Elijah Brown) with no career starts and a junior (Ashton Daniels) with 506 yards passing total and six interceptions in five starts against FBS competition.

Brown took over for Daniels last week after SMU took a 21-0 first-quarter lead. He finished 16 of 32 for 153 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions.

“It was not an easy situation,” Taylor said. “I thought he made good decisions. I thought he was really resilient after taking some hits and keeping his eyes downfield and he made some nice throws.”

Taylor said both Brown and Daniels are taking reps with the first team at practice this week, and he would not be announcing a starter.

Though Brown is inexperienced, he may provide more upside for an offense that ranks 122nd in the FBS at 166.9 passing yards a game, and he is expected to improve after his first action against an FBS opponent.

“The experience that you get, there’s no replacement for it,” Taylor said. “Anytime you’re getting live snaps out on the field and adjusting to the game and the coverages and getting hit and seeing the speed of the game, it’s going to make you a better player. Obviously, he wishes he made a couple of throws and I wish we protected him a little bit better, but he’s going to grow from it and continue to get experience and continue to improve as a player.”

Meanwhile, the defense also ranks 122nd in the FBS in passing yards allowed per game (274.6). It allowed an 87-yard touchdown on the first play from scrimmage last week in a 40-10 loss to SMU.

“We started off rough,” safeties coach Bob Gregory said. “They exploded a few plays on us, exposed a couple of our young guys and I’m sure there’s a little bit of performance anxiety with all of our young kids in the secondary. They settled down and played much better in the second half. All that was a great learning experience for our young kids. We can grow from it.”