Auburndawg
New Fish
Stanford is a very good football team. But the past two years we have played them dead even. Stanford is not dramatically better than UW. Why can they handle Oregon and we can't?
I just re-watched last night's game. Three things were apparent:
1. Stanford was lucky. Oregon underthrew a wide open TD. They had two fumbles. Failed on 4th and goal. A very close PI call negated an Oregon pick and led to a Stanford TD. That game could have easily been tied at halftime, and that would’ve changed everything.
2. Stanford blitzed far more than we did. Especially in the second half. Mariotta is completely different when he is under pressure. Stanford chose to be aggressive on defense. We chose to be passive.
3. Stanford ran the ball and the clock. Stanford only threw the ball 13 times. They weren’t “balanced,” THEY RAN THE BALL. By doing so they limited Oregon to only 8 offensive possessions. We ran the hurry up. We threw 32 passes. We moved the ball and scored some points, but Oregon got 12 possessions against us – four more chances to score. We tried to beat them at their game, playing their tempo.
Bottom line: Stanford, was lucky, and had the right game plan. Really truly commit to the run. Slow the game down. Run clock. And blitz.
Coaching.
I almost find myself rooting for a catastrophe tomorrow night.
I just re-watched last night's game. Three things were apparent:
1. Stanford was lucky. Oregon underthrew a wide open TD. They had two fumbles. Failed on 4th and goal. A very close PI call negated an Oregon pick and led to a Stanford TD. That game could have easily been tied at halftime, and that would’ve changed everything.
2. Stanford blitzed far more than we did. Especially in the second half. Mariotta is completely different when he is under pressure. Stanford chose to be aggressive on defense. We chose to be passive.
3. Stanford ran the ball and the clock. Stanford only threw the ball 13 times. They weren’t “balanced,” THEY RAN THE BALL. By doing so they limited Oregon to only 8 offensive possessions. We ran the hurry up. We threw 32 passes. We moved the ball and scored some points, but Oregon got 12 possessions against us – four more chances to score. We tried to beat them at their game, playing their tempo.
Bottom line: Stanford, was lucky, and had the right game plan. Really truly commit to the run. Slow the game down. Run clock. And blitz.
Coaching.
I almost find myself rooting for a catastrophe tomorrow night.