[FarmBoy]

Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that we've played only one game away from the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium.  Many mediocre teams play well at home.  the college near a BART station (for instance) was 5-1 at home last year and their closest win was by 15 points.    And that wasn't even their true "home". 

I didn't think we learned much last weekend... I think ND & the college near a BART station will be far more telling of the kind of team we have. 

This is actually the one thing I don't think we know about this team. Other than performance on the road, for which we only have the one data point, I think we have a pretty good handle on what this team is at home:
- a strong defense, especially the front 7, unless spread out and sped up
- the DBs are young and inexperienced and prone to lapses in performance
- a dependable running game that relies on the threat of a passing attack to have real impact
- a rookie QB who has a nice touch on the deep ball (but unfortunately not the reliable receivers to make this successful) but overthinks the short passes
- a team toughness at its core built on 3 strong seasons of big wins, Bowl games and national exposure, but may be softening up within the influence of Harbaugh

I'm not saying I can predict the outcome of our games, but I think at this point we have a handle on how our team is. 10-2 would be a brobdingnagian stretch (which is what I thought at the beginning) and 6-6 would be a disappointment.

[FarmBoy]

Adding to the uncertainty is the fact that we've played only one game away from the friendly confines of Stanford Stadium.  Many mediocre teams play well at home.  the college near a BART station (for instance) was 5-1 at home last year and their closest win was by 15 points.    And that wasn't even their true "home". 

I didn't think we learned much last weekend... I think ND & the college near a BART station will be far more telling of the kind of team we have. 

This is actually the one thing I don't think we know about this team. Other than performance on the road, for which we only have the one data point, I think we have a pretty good handle on what this team is at home:
- a strong defense, especially the front 7, unless spread out and sped up
- the DBs are young and inexperienced and prone to lapses in performance
- a dependable running game that relies on the threat of a passing attack to have real impact
- a rookie QB who has a nice touch on the deep ball (but unfortunately not the reliable receivers to make this successful) but overthinks the short passes
- a team toughness at its core built on 3 strong seasons of big wins, Bowl games and national exposure, but may be softening up within the influence of Harbaugh

I'm not saying I can predict the outcome of our games, but I think at this point we have a handle on how our team is. 10-2 would be a brobdingnagian stretch (which is what I thought at the beginning) and 6-6 would be a disappointment.