09-18-2016, 07:27 PM
Beating USC never gets old. That is the third double-digit win against Trojans in the last 12 months. Makes me wish we played them more often.
The day started with my son and I eating sliders at the Slider Bar on University. It was better than Umami Burger a block away. Not phenomenal, but they were good.
We then went to go see the Anderson Collection next to the Museum (https://anderson.stanford.edu/). How many places can you see world class modern art on the same afternoon as world class football? If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. It is very manageable, and you can see the entire collection in an hour. Admission is free, and the building is lovely. Plus it has a very laid back vibe that you don't get in most museums.
After tailgating and practicing pass patterns in the afternoon, we arrived at the stadium about 10 min PTK. The lines were longer than they were against KSU, and gate 2 was no longer a quick entry. So we went around to gate 4, where the line was fairly short. We got in within 5 minutes, and got to see the end of the LSJUMB pre-game show. As I mentioned in the live thread, the theme of the show was "Make LSJUMB Great Again", which I thought was fairly clever.
The game itself seemed to drag a bit. You look at the score, and you think it was an easy win. And, in many ways, it was. We never trailed; we were up two TD's by halftime (ESPN's win probability meter pegged us at 91% at halftime) and three scores by the start of the fourth quarter (win probability 96%). It was a methodical beat down... and yet, it seemed like we were struggling. Early on, USC was ripping 5, 6, 9 yard runs through our defense. And it looked like we were struggling to establish any sort of rhythm on offense. We had two big plays (the 56 yard pass to McCaffrey and the 56 yard end-around by Rector), and not a ton else. Only one other drive scored a TD, and it too had a big play (a big run against a stacked box by McCaffrey, who after busting through the line basically had a bunch of daylight in front of him). But that's a lot more than you can say about USC, who really struggled on third down, probably reflecting their piss poor passing game. I don't think USC is really built to come back, and it showed. As others noted, we seem to have gotten better up front as the game wore on, and USC tired out. When USC failed to convert a 4th and 2 at our 18 yard line early in the fourth quarter, it was all over. When Ryan Burns threw his punterception, USC had 11 minutes to come back three scores. They punted 6 plays later and it was all over. The next time they touched the ball, there were 4 minutes left.
A few odds and ends...
* Attendance was pretty good at kickoff. Not full, but full enough.
* That being said, it was not especially loud, except at some key third downs.
* Wish we could claim credit for the false starts, but most of them seemed to come on first down, when it was actually kind of quiet.
* Weather was beautiful as usual. A tad warm at kickoff as we got the strong afternoon sun, but it cooled off quickly once the sun went down.
* We ran student body left... student body right, and I just busted out laughing. As I recall, we were reasonably successful, at least the first time.
* Shaw is really, really good at setting up for trick plays. According to him on post-game, we kept on running power/counter/power/power until USC started crashing its weak-side linebackers. Once they did, BLAM, an end-around to the spot vacated by Porter Gustin and 56 yards later, it's a TD.
* Ditto with McCaffrey's touchdown. I wondered aloud why he was so open, but if you look closely, he should have been covered by a safety (Tell) on the wheel route. But Tell bit on the fake to Love (this is why having Love back was such a key), and McCaffrey blew by him.
* I always have mixed feelings about lining up behind the jumbo formation as an every down play. Yeah, I love getting 6, 7, 8 yards even when the opponent knows what we are going to run, but I at least want to keep the theoretical option of play-faking it, which is hard to do when you have no wide receivers on the field (though of course, we could play fake to a running back or tight end, as we did last year against Colorado).
* LSJUMB's halftime show was another stab at the Trojan marching band. I almost feel sorry for them, because the very quality that LSJUMB makes fun of them for (their uptightness) makes it impossible for them to retort.
* Speaking of the Trojan band. Thank you for ruining another perfectly good song (David Guetta and Sia's Bang My Head). Who thought it was a good idea to make a "tribute to EDM"? By the end, I wanted to bang my head. Maybe they were trying to prove to LSJUMB that they really can play more than two songs (one of the jokes in the LSJUMB halftime show).
* Speaking of "two songs", on my way back to the car, I was humming Conquest (or maybe it was Tribute to Troy, I can never remember), and as I caught myself doing it, I smiled. Goes to show how far we've come, because I have now developed positive associations with USC's songs.
* I wish that the stadium would upgrade its wifi. I realize that it is tough to accomodate 50,000 people with smartphones on the system, but it is Stanford, they should find a way.
* Anyway, lovely Saturday afternoon/evening. I hope everyone else did too.
BC
The day started with my son and I eating sliders at the Slider Bar on University. It was better than Umami Burger a block away. Not phenomenal, but they were good.
We then went to go see the Anderson Collection next to the Museum (https://anderson.stanford.edu/). How many places can you see world class modern art on the same afternoon as world class football? If you haven't been, I highly recommend it. It is very manageable, and you can see the entire collection in an hour. Admission is free, and the building is lovely. Plus it has a very laid back vibe that you don't get in most museums.
After tailgating and practicing pass patterns in the afternoon, we arrived at the stadium about 10 min PTK. The lines were longer than they were against KSU, and gate 2 was no longer a quick entry. So we went around to gate 4, where the line was fairly short. We got in within 5 minutes, and got to see the end of the LSJUMB pre-game show. As I mentioned in the live thread, the theme of the show was "Make LSJUMB Great Again", which I thought was fairly clever.
The game itself seemed to drag a bit. You look at the score, and you think it was an easy win. And, in many ways, it was. We never trailed; we were up two TD's by halftime (ESPN's win probability meter pegged us at 91% at halftime) and three scores by the start of the fourth quarter (win probability 96%). It was a methodical beat down... and yet, it seemed like we were struggling. Early on, USC was ripping 5, 6, 9 yard runs through our defense. And it looked like we were struggling to establish any sort of rhythm on offense. We had two big plays (the 56 yard pass to McCaffrey and the 56 yard end-around by Rector), and not a ton else. Only one other drive scored a TD, and it too had a big play (a big run against a stacked box by McCaffrey, who after busting through the line basically had a bunch of daylight in front of him). But that's a lot more than you can say about USC, who really struggled on third down, probably reflecting their piss poor passing game. I don't think USC is really built to come back, and it showed. As others noted, we seem to have gotten better up front as the game wore on, and USC tired out. When USC failed to convert a 4th and 2 at our 18 yard line early in the fourth quarter, it was all over. When Ryan Burns threw his punterception, USC had 11 minutes to come back three scores. They punted 6 plays later and it was all over. The next time they touched the ball, there were 4 minutes left.
A few odds and ends...
* Attendance was pretty good at kickoff. Not full, but full enough.
* That being said, it was not especially loud, except at some key third downs.
* Wish we could claim credit for the false starts, but most of them seemed to come on first down, when it was actually kind of quiet.
* Weather was beautiful as usual. A tad warm at kickoff as we got the strong afternoon sun, but it cooled off quickly once the sun went down.
* We ran student body left... student body right, and I just busted out laughing. As I recall, we were reasonably successful, at least the first time.
* Shaw is really, really good at setting up for trick plays. According to him on post-game, we kept on running power/counter/power/power until USC started crashing its weak-side linebackers. Once they did, BLAM, an end-around to the spot vacated by Porter Gustin and 56 yards later, it's a TD.
* Ditto with McCaffrey's touchdown. I wondered aloud why he was so open, but if you look closely, he should have been covered by a safety (Tell) on the wheel route. But Tell bit on the fake to Love (this is why having Love back was such a key), and McCaffrey blew by him.
* I always have mixed feelings about lining up behind the jumbo formation as an every down play. Yeah, I love getting 6, 7, 8 yards even when the opponent knows what we are going to run, but I at least want to keep the theoretical option of play-faking it, which is hard to do when you have no wide receivers on the field (though of course, we could play fake to a running back or tight end, as we did last year against Colorado).
* LSJUMB's halftime show was another stab at the Trojan marching band. I almost feel sorry for them, because the very quality that LSJUMB makes fun of them for (their uptightness) makes it impossible for them to retort.
* Speaking of the Trojan band. Thank you for ruining another perfectly good song (David Guetta and Sia's Bang My Head). Who thought it was a good idea to make a "tribute to EDM"? By the end, I wanted to bang my head. Maybe they were trying to prove to LSJUMB that they really can play more than two songs (one of the jokes in the LSJUMB halftime show).
* Speaking of "two songs", on my way back to the car, I was humming Conquest (or maybe it was Tribute to Troy, I can never remember), and as I caught myself doing it, I smiled. Goes to show how far we've come, because I have now developed positive associations with USC's songs.
* I wish that the stadium would upgrade its wifi. I realize that it is tough to accomodate 50,000 people with smartphones on the system, but it is Stanford, they should find a way.
* Anyway, lovely Saturday afternoon/evening. I hope everyone else did too.
BC