[Goose]

<snip>
It is incumbent upon us to play tight man coverage

I don't expect we are going to play much "tight man coverage". We are going to use multiple coverages depending on the situation. We want to make Darnold think we are in a certain scheme and actually be in another. Trust Akina.

and put pressure on Darnold.

Absolutely true. I personally think that we are going to try for quick pressure to make him decide to throw quickly. This means mostly blitz pressure, not line pressure, as I doubt we can defeat their 5 with our 3 quickly.

This can only be accomplished with a great line push up the middle and incessant blitzes from multiple directions to keep them off balance and guessing.  We certainly will not stop Darnold all day but if we make him pass under pressure and into our strength, the secondary, we will force some errant tosses.

I agree. Unlike some others, I am not so sure Darnold will keep cool under this pressure. A few bad throws, misreads,  and dropped passes due to the ball being early could create some cracks.

Of course, if Under Stanford Control (again) is able to run on us, we are in trouble.

This is my fear, that they will just run right at us until we prove we can stop them. If we can, great, but that is not a given.

  I have every hope that we are capable of forcing Darnold to have to pass to defeat us.  We just cannot give him all day to do it or we will become toast.

My hope is that Darnold and the coaching staff WANTS to pass and won't try to beat us on the ground. I think that plays into our strength. It is the running game that I fear the most, because that is where our DL depth could easily become an issue.

[Goose]

<snip>
It is incumbent upon us to play tight man coverage

I don't expect we are going to play much "tight man coverage". We are going to use multiple coverages depending on the situation. We want to make Darnold think we are in a certain scheme and actually be in another. Trust Akina.

and put pressure on Darnold.

Absolutely true. I personally think that we are going to try for quick pressure to make him decide to throw quickly. This means mostly blitz pressure, not line pressure, as I doubt we can defeat their 5 with our 3 quickly.

This can only be accomplished with a great line push up the middle and incessant blitzes from multiple directions to keep them off balance and guessing.  We certainly will not stop Darnold all day but if we make him pass under pressure and into our strength, the secondary, we will force some errant tosses.

I agree. Unlike some others, I am not so sure Darnold will keep cool under this pressure. A few bad throws, misreads,  and dropped passes due to the ball being early could create some cracks.

Of course, if Under Stanford Control (again) is able to run on us, we are in trouble.

This is my fear, that they will just run right at us until we prove we can stop them. If we can, great, but that is not a given.

  I have every hope that we are capable of forcing Darnold to have to pass to defeat us.  We just cannot give him all day to do it or we will become toast.

My hope is that Darnold and the coaching staff WANTS to pass and won't try to beat us on the ground. I think that plays into our strength. It is the running game that I fear the most, because that is where our DL depth could easily become an issue.