[Goose]

I think that poor execution in blocking caused plays to get stuffed rather than poor play calling.

Certainly that was true some of the time. However, there were many cases where the defense guessed right and beat us to the spot. You can't block a guy that is already past you. We had that problem against WSU, where the defense would move to an alignment we couldn't block or would run blitz into the point of attack and we would be one man short. Sometimes the issue was that we didn't properly identify our blocking assignments, and sometimes it was just more of them than there were of us. On some plays, a guy is unblocked by design, because we think we can get by him before he can matter. If that guy guesses right, that may not happen and he makes the tackle. The USC game with Scarlett comes to mind there. Not 1st down, but same issue.
The problems against WSU are potentially serious, in that it would seem we got beat by scheme, not just execution. We didn't look real good on the OL during that game, especially compared to say the UW game. Maybe we just didn't play well, but maybe they have got something figured out. Hopefully next year they can't execute it with their losses to the NFL.

[Goose]

I think that poor execution in blocking caused plays to get stuffed rather than poor play calling.

Certainly that was true some of the time. However, there were many cases where the defense guessed right and beat us to the spot. You can't block a guy that is already past you. We had that problem against WSU, where the defense would move to an alignment we couldn't block or would run blitz into the point of attack and we would be one man short. Sometimes the issue was that we didn't properly identify our blocking assignments, and sometimes it was just more of them than there were of us. On some plays, a guy is unblocked by design, because we think we can get by him before he can matter. If that guy guesses right, that may not happen and he makes the tackle. The USC game with Scarlett comes to mind there. Not 1st down, but same issue.
The problems against WSU are potentially serious, in that it would seem we got beat by scheme, not just execution. We didn't look real good on the OL during that game, especially compared to say the UW game. Maybe we just didn't play well, but maybe they have got something figured out. Hopefully next year they can't execute it with their losses to the NFL.