[Crafter Artisan]

Been to a bunch of Big Game viewing parties in San Diego and Orange County.  This was my first one in the city of Seattle, and the first time this season I have actually seen our team play.  The ending of this game delivered a particularly vicious cut because Stanford gave it away at least as much as Cal won it, especially on the last series.

Second down, the receiver has the first down, runs backward and gets stopped short of the first down.

Third down, Mills could have run for the first down with ease and tried a fancy pass that led to nothing.

And I'm not even going to talk about fourth down.

When Garbers ran for the last TD of the game I snapped, and at this moment am making this post without a voice. Fortunately this got absorbed by the deafening ruckus from the 30 or so Cal fans that we were sharing Kell's with.

This evening can still have positive effects if it jolts Shaw awake and forces him to look at the operation of the team with critical rigor.  The degradation since the Iowa Rose Bowl has been undeniable as elite-level players and assistants have moved on.  Shaw's coaching in his first 8 years was varying degrees of good.  This year he has coached like WLAT.  There will be 70 or more teams this season going bowling, and there is really no good reason that Stanford shouldn't have been among them with the playmakers at hand on its roster. Meanwhile Wilcox has done a masterful job, getting to a bowl game with an OL that, to put it mildly, is not good.

Still something to play for in 2019:  defend the Farm for a sixth straight time from ND, and bump the Irish out of the NY6 pool.

[Crafter Artisan]

Been to a bunch of Big Game viewing parties in San Diego and Orange County.  This was my first one in the city of Seattle, and the first time this season I have actually seen our team play.  The ending of this game delivered a particularly vicious cut because Stanford gave it away at least as much as Cal won it, especially on the last series.

Second down, the receiver has the first down, runs backward and gets stopped short of the first down.

Third down, Mills could have run for the first down with ease and tried a fancy pass that led to nothing.

And I'm not even going to talk about fourth down.

When Garbers ran for the last TD of the game I snapped, and at this moment am making this post without a voice. Fortunately this got absorbed by the deafening ruckus from the 30 or so Cal fans that we were sharing Kell's with.

This evening can still have positive effects if it jolts Shaw awake and forces him to look at the operation of the team with critical rigor.  The degradation since the Iowa Rose Bowl has been undeniable as elite-level players and assistants have moved on.  Shaw's coaching in his first 8 years was varying degrees of good.  This year he has coached like WLAT.  There will be 70 or more teams this season going bowling, and there is really no good reason that Stanford shouldn't have been among them with the playmakers at hand on its roster. Meanwhile Wilcox has done a masterful job, getting to a bowl game with an OL that, to put it mildly, is not good.

Still something to play for in 2019:  defend the Farm for a sixth straight time from ND, and bump the Irish out of the NY6 pool.