[socalstanfan1]

At the risk of sounding polly-anna-ish in the face of foreboding comments (Shaw's reference to the QBs not playing good enough to win a football game), I'm going to keep the faith that the offense will eventually be pretty good this year.  Obviously the D has a big advantage right now, if only because of the continuity of a very high-quality front 7.  On offense, while the QBs are still learning, they also did not have their top few RBs, and the OL is also in flux (which may be part of the reason for the pressure on the QBs, not only that they are taking too long on their reads, or are not reading the blitzes coming at them).  Even in the areas where the D is transitioning (ie, the defensive backfield), the D has lots of guys who got lots of playing time over the last couple of years (Carrington, Brown, Browning, etc), whereas the backups for Luck, DeCastro and Martin essentially never left the sidelines.  So it will take more time for the new starters on offense to get up to speed, I think.  When everyone does so (and when Taylor returns to the backfield) there will be less pressure on whoever is the starting QB, while he himself learns on the job.  Finally, what better way for the offense to come together than by having to face one of the top defensive front-7s in the nation.  If the OL can handle Thomas, Murphy, Debniak, Gardner, et al, they will surely be ready to face just about any defensive front they will face during the season. 

By all accounts, it looked bad today for the O.  But I think this was just a very public display of growing pains. 

[socalstanfan1]

At the risk of sounding polly-anna-ish in the face of foreboding comments (Shaw's reference to the QBs not playing good enough to win a football game), I'm going to keep the faith that the offense will eventually be pretty good this year.  Obviously the D has a big advantage right now, if only because of the continuity of a very high-quality front 7.  On offense, while the QBs are still learning, they also did not have their top few RBs, and the OL is also in flux (which may be part of the reason for the pressure on the QBs, not only that they are taking too long on their reads, or are not reading the blitzes coming at them).  Even in the areas where the D is transitioning (ie, the defensive backfield), the D has lots of guys who got lots of playing time over the last couple of years (Carrington, Brown, Browning, etc), whereas the backups for Luck, DeCastro and Martin essentially never left the sidelines.  So it will take more time for the new starters on offense to get up to speed, I think.  When everyone does so (and when Taylor returns to the backfield) there will be less pressure on whoever is the starting QB, while he himself learns on the job.  Finally, what better way for the offense to come together than by having to face one of the top defensive front-7s in the nation.  If the OL can handle Thomas, Murphy, Debniak, Gardner, et al, they will surely be ready to face just about any defensive front they will face during the season. 

By all accounts, it looked bad today for the O.  But I think this was just a very public display of growing pains.