[msqueri]

6. On February 6, 2024, when I posted my four dimensional analysis of Bear Bachmeier, I posited that, based on my extensive study of both, Elijah Brown presented as a cool, calm, and collected game manager who can be accurate and distribute the football and Bachmeier presented as a more dynamic off-platform improvisor. My ultimate conclusion was "Personally my gut feeling is that Brown is who you want if you have a well-oiled machine and supporting cast but Bachmeier may have a shot of being what we will need in a gritty, tortuous rebuild." Unfortunately, it may be the story of this moment in Stanford football if I was right about that. Brown, like Gulbranson, utterly lacks the ability to avoid sacks. That's a rough trait to have when you play in an offense that can't block. I don't know how many more words we need to describe the Stanford offense when that's the case. What makes this not just pathetic but somewhat tragic for Brown is that he may have the skill set to be the QB some other offense needs. As highlighted above, our pure passing in this game was far more effective than some seem to be suggesting. Brown was dead last 106th in the nation this week in the sacks dimension of Total QBR and even still mustered an overall mark of 74th of 106 quarterbacks nationally in Total QBR. He was able to do that because strictly on the passing dimension he was good - 34th in the nation this week, even with the interception. A case can be made that Brown could be effective with competent line play. But of course we don't have competent line play. With the team he actually has to play with this year, Brown has been consistent - consistently bad, but consistent, and not abysmal. Among 12 Gulbranson or Brown games this year, Brown's games have been the fifth, sixth, and seventh best performances this year, and five and six (Florida State and yesterday against North Carolina) were tightly bunched around Brown's season average. In other words, what we saw yesterday was the typical level of play for Brown and for our QB room this season. He has yet to show either Gulbranson's peaks or valleys this season. I think we have what we have with Brown and it's not a workable skill set for one of the worst blocking teams in the nation. If we can overhaul the line next year I am open to the idea Brown could have a role, but my instinct is that we need somebody with some elusiveness.

7. We have an underrated complement of skill position players. I mentioned earlier the startling stat that PFF has Ford and Tabb among the top 16 ACC backs despite playing in the worst run game. I mentioned last week that Williams is a top 10 receiver in the ACC and Roush is pacing conference tight ends, and both are maintaining that pace after yesterday (gorgeous connection between Mater Dei buddies in the endzone yesterday, by the way). High's game yesterday was his second hundred yard game of the season and double his Stanford high in catches. I am a little but surprised he is only fourth on our team in receiving but, with Williams, Roush, and Farrell gone in three weeks, High could be the guy next year (along with potential wild cards Pantelis and Hall and anything via the portal)....if he doesn't continue his pattern of transferring to a higher level every season. I don't want to be the Gloomy Gus about all the potential body blows we could face in the transfer portal, but we have not put forward a great football argument for why guys like Ford, Tabb, and High should be at Stanford. Hopefully we can keep them along with the other key retention priorities among upperclass linemen and second level defenders. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: High (6), Ford (6), Williams (4, also drew a pass interference), Tabb (2), Blackburn, Marcus Brown, Roush, Farrell] Not so much underrated is our offensive line. Sheesh. We have had a parade of first and second year linemen this year that should simply be viewed as unplayable. We can't let this happen in future years if we are going to have pretenses of competing. I am indignant about Ugorji being a 17 year old this fall and having his college future crapped on by pointlessly wasting a redshirt year just so he can have his confidence battered serving as a turnstile. So far Williams seems to be holding up a lot better. I worry about tempting fate with that as I have seen young linemen get beat up and lose confidence too many times to get overly cocky about what Williams is doing, but it should be noted that so far he has not failed to the same extent as his fellow youngsters. One random positive about the offense yesterday: we had a great third and fourth down conversion game, with 56 percent conversions on third down and getting our only fourth down attempt. I did not have looking like Ohio State or Indiana on high leverage situations on my bingo card, though North Carolina being bad in those situations played a role.

8. A full dozen guys on the defense showed up positively multiple times in the box score: Tafiti, Rose, Galvan, Staples, Green, Eckhardt, Patterson, Franklin, Barth, Wright, Marceau-Olayinkia, Dubre. It frustrates me that it doesn't happen more often, but this was the second time this season Tafiti has had a stud game. He especially made a mark with his tackle for loss and hurry on the series after the strip sack to keep the damage to a field goal and he also had a third down stop to force a punt, red zone sack, and several other good plays. Difference-maker for us yesterday. Rose would have contended for the game ball as he also directly led to the ball changing hands (especially the strip sack to force a brobdingnagian turnover but also a third down hurry to force a punt) and also made several other good plays, but the second touchdown was on him and that was a big play in the game. I thought watching the game that Galvan (my new favorite player?) was quieter than we've gotten used to....and then in the box score I see a tackle before the sticks to force a punt, two tackles for loss one of which forced a punt, another stop to force a punt, and several other good plays. Staples has been an inconsistent player for us but I'm intrigued, and with our massive amount of old man eligibility expiring at DL we will be leaning on him next year. I am not sure Patterson is quite as good as PFF thinks he is but I do think he is an object lesson in the power of very old guys in the trenches; we're on 80+ PFF gade watch for him, a rare distinction in recent years of Stanford football. In the final analysis this was a subpar game for Wright, though the very significant pass interference called against him seemed like a tough call.

[msqueri]

6. On February 6, 2024, when I posted my four dimensional analysis of Bear Bachmeier, I posited that, based on my extensive study of both, Elijah Brown presented as a cool, calm, and collected game manager who can be accurate and distribute the football and Bachmeier presented as a more dynamic off-platform improvisor. My ultimate conclusion was "Personally my gut feeling is that Brown is who you want if you have a well-oiled machine and supporting cast but Bachmeier may have a shot of being what we will need in a gritty, tortuous rebuild." Unfortunately, it may be the story of this moment in Stanford football if I was right about that. Brown, like Gulbranson, utterly lacks the ability to avoid sacks. That's a rough trait to have when you play in an offense that can't block. I don't know how many more words we need to describe the Stanford offense when that's the case. What makes this not just pathetic but somewhat tragic for Brown is that he may have the skill set to be the QB some other offense needs. As highlighted above, our pure passing in this game was far more effective than some seem to be suggesting. Brown was dead last 106th in the nation this week in the sacks dimension of Total QBR and even still mustered an overall mark of 74th of 106 quarterbacks nationally in Total QBR. He was able to do that because strictly on the passing dimension he was good - 34th in the nation this week, even with the interception. A case can be made that Brown could be effective with competent line play. But of course we don't have competent line play. With the team he actually has to play with this year, Brown has been consistent - consistently bad, but consistent, and not abysmal. Among 12 Gulbranson or Brown games this year, Brown's games have been the fifth, sixth, and seventh best performances this year, and five and six (Florida State and yesterday against North Carolina) were tightly bunched around Brown's season average. In other words, what we saw yesterday was the typical level of play for Brown and for our QB room this season. He has yet to show either Gulbranson's peaks or valleys this season. I think we have what we have with Brown and it's not a workable skill set for one of the worst blocking teams in the nation. If we can overhaul the line next year I am open to the idea Brown could have a role, but my instinct is that we need somebody with some elusiveness.

7. We have an underrated complement of skill position players. I mentioned earlier the startling stat that PFF has Ford and Tabb among the top 16 ACC backs despite playing in the worst run game. I mentioned last week that Williams is a top 10 receiver in the ACC and Roush is pacing conference tight ends, and both are maintaining that pace after yesterday (gorgeous connection between Mater Dei buddies in the endzone yesterday, by the way). High's game yesterday was his second hundred yard game of the season and double his Stanford high in catches. I am a little but surprised he is only fourth on our team in receiving but, with Williams, Roush, and Farrell gone in three weeks, High could be the guy next year (along with potential wild cards Pantelis and Hall and anything via the portal)....if he doesn't continue his pattern of transferring to a higher level every season. I don't want to be the Gloomy Gus about all the potential body blows we could face in the transfer portal, but we have not put forward a great football argument for why guys like Ford, Tabb, and High should be at Stanford. Hopefully we can keep them along with the other key retention priorities among upperclass linemen and second level defenders. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: High (6), Ford (6), Williams (4, also drew a pass interference), Tabb (2), Blackburn, Marcus Brown, Roush, Farrell] Not so much underrated is our offensive line. Sheesh. We have had a parade of first and second year linemen this year that should simply be viewed as unplayable. We can't let this happen in future years if we are going to have pretenses of competing. I am indignant about Ugorji being a 17 year old this fall and having his college future crapped on by pointlessly wasting a redshirt year just so he can have his confidence battered serving as a turnstile. So far Williams seems to be holding up a lot better. I worry about tempting fate with that as I have seen young linemen get beat up and lose confidence too many times to get overly cocky about what Williams is doing, but it should be noted that so far he has not failed to the same extent as his fellow youngsters. One random positive about the offense yesterday: we had a great third and fourth down conversion game, with 56 percent conversions on third down and getting our only fourth down attempt. I did not have looking like Ohio State or Indiana on high leverage situations on my bingo card, though North Carolina being bad in those situations played a role.

8. A full dozen guys on the defense showed up positively multiple times in the box score: Tafiti, Rose, Galvan, Staples, Green, Eckhardt, Patterson, Franklin, Barth, Wright, Marceau-Olayinkia, Dubre. It frustrates me that it doesn't happen more often, but this was the second time this season Tafiti has had a stud game. He especially made a mark with his tackle for loss and hurry on the series after the strip sack to keep the damage to a field goal and he also had a third down stop to force a punt, red zone sack, and several other good plays. Difference-maker for us yesterday. Rose would have contended for the game ball as he also directly led to the ball changing hands (especially the strip sack to force a brobdingnagian turnover but also a third down hurry to force a punt) and also made several other good plays, but the second touchdown was on him and that was a big play in the game. I thought watching the game that Galvan (my new favorite player?) was quieter than we've gotten used to....and then in the box score I see a tackle before the sticks to force a punt, two tackles for loss one of which forced a punt, another stop to force a punt, and several other good plays. Staples has been an inconsistent player for us but I'm intrigued, and with our massive amount of old man eligibility expiring at DL we will be leaning on him next year. I am not sure Patterson is quite as good as PFF thinks he is but I do think he is an object lesson in the power of very old guys in the trenches; we're on 80+ PFF gade watch for him, a rare distinction in recent years of Stanford football. In the final analysis this was a subpar game for Wright, though the very significant pass interference called against him seemed like a tough call.