[Mick]

Is it hard to avoid absolutely pathetic displays on offense (whether you win or lose)?  [Sea Hang, where art thou?]

Is it hard to recognize horrific (not just bad, but horrific) QB play and make a change?

Coach Shaw may be the luckiest head coach in college football - he certainly was last night (I mean, the fourth down completion on Stanford's last drive was so lucky, it's ridiculous) - and that has allowed the defenders to point to W/L record, which is certainly important.  But just as you can have Ls where coaches do well and you just lose to a superior team (which I suspect we'll see against at least UW), you can also have Ws where the coaches do poorly and you beat an inferior team.  Is there any doubt where last night's game fell on the spectrum?

And this isn't about Shaw as head man - he has done well, especially on defensive side, and he "gets" Stanford and "represents" better than any coach I've seen.  It's about Shaw as OC.

P.S.  Of all the optimistic posts we've seen on Stanford boards this season, the most silly ones were those implying that Chryst has QB skills comparable to Andrew Luck.  The 2 amazing balls Chryst dropped into a covered JJAW against Oregon were so clearly the outliers - as made painfully clear last night. 

Invoking Andrew Luck when talking about Chryst . . . talk about fan overreaction.

Eleven of Shaw's 19 losses have been by 7 points or fewer.  I don't know that I'm prepared to say he's the luckiest head coach on earth.

[Mick]

Is it hard to avoid absolutely pathetic displays on offense (whether you win or lose)?  [Sea Hang, where art thou?]

Is it hard to recognize horrific (not just bad, but horrific) QB play and make a change?

Coach Shaw may be the luckiest head coach in college football - he certainly was last night (I mean, the fourth down completion on Stanford's last drive was so lucky, it's ridiculous) - and that has allowed the defenders to point to W/L record, which is certainly important.  But just as you can have Ls where coaches do well and you just lose to a superior team (which I suspect we'll see against at least UW), you can also have Ws where the coaches do poorly and you beat an inferior team.  Is there any doubt where last night's game fell on the spectrum?

And this isn't about Shaw as head man - he has done well, especially on defensive side, and he "gets" Stanford and "represents" better than any coach I've seen.  It's about Shaw as OC.

P.S.  Of all the optimistic posts we've seen on Stanford boards this season, the most silly ones were those implying that Chryst has QB skills comparable to Andrew Luck.  The 2 amazing balls Chryst dropped into a covered JJAW against Oregon were so clearly the outliers - as made painfully clear last night. 

Invoking Andrew Luck when talking about Chryst . . . talk about fan overreaction.

Eleven of Shaw's 19 losses have been by 7 points or fewer.  I don't know that I'm prepared to say he's the luckiest head coach on earth.