[Austroturf]

I just saw the highlights but I thought the defense played reasonably well. The offense gave the game away in the fourth quarter with the fumble return for a TD and the near pick six. 
Going into the season I thought the offense would be the strength of the team. Sure didn't turn out that way.

I finally had the stomach to watch the second half highlights (didn't need to revisit the first half), and I concur with your assessment.  Offensive ineptitude gave the game away in the final 20 minutes.  Fourteen points can be directly attributable to mishaps on offense.  Take those off the board, and we prevail.  

Cal also did their level best to hand us the game, but we weren't taking it.  Two end-zone picks on errant throws by Plummer saved between 6 and 14 points, so credit the defense.    

During the best years of Harshaw (2009-2015), what really distinguished those teams was their discipline.  As the saying goes, they weren't "beating themselves".  Today, it is the other way around.  Stanford currently ranks 125th (out of 131 teams) in turnover margin.  And it should be noted that, in yesterday's game, we nearly lost the ball two other times due to special teams mishaps in the first half.  In one area, we still rank towards the top: fewest penalty yards (#10).  We used to let other teams beat themselves; and Cal tried yesterday; but we were not to be outdone.

[Austroturf]

I just saw the highlights but I thought the defense played reasonably well. The offense gave the game away in the fourth quarter with the fumble return for a TD and the near pick six. 
Going into the season I thought the offense would be the strength of the team. Sure didn't turn out that way.

I finally had the stomach to watch the second half highlights (didn't need to revisit the first half), and I concur with your assessment.  Offensive ineptitude gave the game away in the final 20 minutes.  Fourteen points can be directly attributable to mishaps on offense.  Take those off the board, and we prevail.  

Cal also did their level best to hand us the game, but we weren't taking it.  Two end-zone picks on errant throws by Plummer saved between 6 and 14 points, so credit the defense.    

During the best years of Harshaw (2009-2015), what really distinguished those teams was their discipline.  As the saying goes, they weren't "beating themselves".  Today, it is the other way around.  Stanford currently ranks 125th (out of 131 teams) in turnover margin.  And it should be noted that, in yesterday's game, we nearly lost the ball two other times due to special teams mishaps in the first half.  In one area, we still rank towards the top: fewest penalty yards (#10).  We used to let other teams beat themselves; and Cal tried yesterday; but we were not to be outdone.