12-02-2018, 08:03 AM
(This post was last modified: 12-02-2018, 08:04 AM by OutsiderFan.)
As David Shaw said, Stanford has been an enigma this season, kind of like Pat from SNL. Good team deserving of Top 25 or mediocre team not?
Oregon was a game most people thought Stanford was outplayed in and was lucky to win. Then they reinforced perceptions at Notre Dame when they were blown out in the second half. Utah they lost by even more than Notre Dame, at home. So three games in a row, three pretty terrible performances. Then, it didn't really matter that they almost knocked off UW and WSU, they still lost to be 6-4 at one point. The Utah game Stanford was actually pretty good minus the uncharacteristic turnovers, but that score lost Stanford all benefit of doubt moving forward. Hell, there were many people picking Cal yesterday, which I thought was crazy. I had predicted a 17 point Stanford win, and not for a meaningless TD drive with some lucky 4th down conversions, it would have been 17!
I saw Fresno and Boise last night, and am convinced Stanford is better than both of those teams. Northwestern is a question for me. I think they are better coached than Stanford, but Stanford has more talent. Then you have to think about NC State who doesn't have any top 25 win, and the ACC only plays 8 conference games.
The reality is all these teams can beat each other on a given day, so the rankings are REALLY hard to get right. I would probably put Stanford in the final CFP rankings, but can't get too worked up about it if they aren't.
Oregon was a game most people thought Stanford was outplayed in and was lucky to win. Then they reinforced perceptions at Notre Dame when they were blown out in the second half. Utah they lost by even more than Notre Dame, at home. So three games in a row, three pretty terrible performances. Then, it didn't really matter that they almost knocked off UW and WSU, they still lost to be 6-4 at one point. The Utah game Stanford was actually pretty good minus the uncharacteristic turnovers, but that score lost Stanford all benefit of doubt moving forward. Hell, there were many people picking Cal yesterday, which I thought was crazy. I had predicted a 17 point Stanford win, and not for a meaningless TD drive with some lucky 4th down conversions, it would have been 17!
I saw Fresno and Boise last night, and am convinced Stanford is better than both of those teams. Northwestern is a question for me. I think they are better coached than Stanford, but Stanford has more talent. Then you have to think about NC State who doesn't have any top 25 win, and the ACC only plays 8 conference games.
The reality is all these teams can beat each other on a given day, so the rankings are REALLY hard to get right. I would probably put Stanford in the final CFP rankings, but can't get too worked up about it if they aren't.