[CTcard]

I certainly agree KJ made a big difference. I don't agree that West was not "functional". UCLA beat our line badly. They stayed in their aggressive defense all night. 



If West was facing a more passive Arizona defense, I think he would have been fine. ...


What this all means is that I think we have a long way to go. UCLA showed how to beat us (UCF did the same, but most of us blocked that out of our minds). Arizona didn't have the personnel to do it. Colorado doesn't either, probably. Note that this refers only to their defense, not their offense. WSU DOES have the personnel to do it, so if we expect to beat them, we have to fix this problem. 

I am sure that I will not be able to convince you of anything, but it seems to me we watched different games.

I didn't see anything functional out of West in the UCLA game. He threw outlet passes that only made it halfway, sailed balls over and around receivers, but mostly got to the point where he was shell shocked and simply couldn't pull the trigger. Your example above is a good case - Costello had about the same time to throw and hit a big play whereas West simply pulled the ball down and got crushed. As it became clear that West couldn't hit receivers and was getting flustered, UCLA brought more bodies up because ... why not? So, it snowballed. All of this by a defense that isn't particularly good (#120 in the country in yards per play).
[And UCLA is ranked behind Arizona in defensive FEI and S&P+, at least before the results of last weekend are added.]
[The Pac 12 team that is surprisingly aggressive for how good it is: OSU - first in sacks/game and TFL/game.]

That's not necessarily a long term indictment for West, but he wasn't ready for his first college game. I don't get what you have seen that gives positive evidence that the West we saw vs UCLA would be fine versus any Pac 12 defense.  

The team certainly has a long way to go, and it's not at all hard to come up with a list of problem areas. But at least for the 3.5 games it's had decent QB play the offense has been able to move the ball ... and sometimes score.

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I also am not sure UCLA showed any particular way to beat Stanford more than U$C, UCF, and Oregon did.

Of the defenses remaining on our schedule:
- und may have the defensive personnel to collapse our line without bringing extra bodies, which is the worst possible scenario, though I haven't watched them enough to really know.
- Last year's cal defense could have done the same, but they appear somewhat diminished. They're still a better than average Pac 12 defense and we'll be counting upon incompetency from their offense.
- Last year's WSU defense was very aggressive and quite good, but they've been rather poor this year (>500 yards allowed in 4 of 5 conference games). That includes dropping from the very top of the conference to the bottom half in both sacks and tackles for loss. It's not clear they still have the personnel to be highly aggressive with success.
- Colorado's defense hasn't stopped anyone, and I haven't noticed any particular thing they are good at. I'll be quite disappointed if Stanford puts up another circa 200 yard effort in that game, even if there is a blizzard.

[CTcard]

I certainly agree KJ made a big difference. I don't agree that West was not "functional". UCLA beat our line badly. They stayed in their aggressive defense all night. 



If West was facing a more passive Arizona defense, I think he would have been fine. ...


What this all means is that I think we have a long way to go. UCLA showed how to beat us (UCF did the same, but most of us blocked that out of our minds). Arizona didn't have the personnel to do it. Colorado doesn't either, probably. Note that this refers only to their defense, not their offense. WSU DOES have the personnel to do it, so if we expect to beat them, we have to fix this problem. 

I am sure that I will not be able to convince you of anything, but it seems to me we watched different games.

I didn't see anything functional out of West in the UCLA game. He threw outlet passes that only made it halfway, sailed balls over and around receivers, but mostly got to the point where he was shell shocked and simply couldn't pull the trigger. Your example above is a good case - Costello had about the same time to throw and hit a big play whereas West simply pulled the ball down and got crushed. As it became clear that West couldn't hit receivers and was getting flustered, UCLA brought more bodies up because ... why not? So, it snowballed. All of this by a defense that isn't particularly good (#120 in the country in yards per play).
[And UCLA is ranked behind Arizona in defensive FEI and S&P+, at least before the results of last weekend are added.]
[The Pac 12 team that is surprisingly aggressive for how good it is: OSU - first in sacks/game and TFL/game.]

That's not necessarily a long term indictment for West, but he wasn't ready for his first college game. I don't get what you have seen that gives positive evidence that the West we saw vs UCLA would be fine versus any Pac 12 defense.  

The team certainly has a long way to go, and it's not at all hard to come up with a list of problem areas. But at least for the 3.5 games it's had decent QB play the offense has been able to move the ball ... and sometimes score.

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I also am not sure UCLA showed any particular way to beat Stanford more than U$C, UCF, and Oregon did.

Of the defenses remaining on our schedule:
- und may have the defensive personnel to collapse our line without bringing extra bodies, which is the worst possible scenario, though I haven't watched them enough to really know.
- Last year's cal defense could have done the same, but they appear somewhat diminished. They're still a better than average Pac 12 defense and we'll be counting upon incompetency from their offense.
- Last year's WSU defense was very aggressive and quite good, but they've been rather poor this year (>500 yards allowed in 4 of 5 conference games). That includes dropping from the very top of the conference to the bottom half in both sacks and tackles for loss. It's not clear they still have the personnel to be highly aggressive with success.
- Colorado's defense hasn't stopped anyone, and I haven't noticed any particular thing they are good at. I'll be quite disappointed if Stanford puts up another circa 200 yard effort in that game, even if there is a blizzard.