4 hours ago
Seems like remarkable consistency of views across CardBoarders early in the Pritchard era. I'm sure that will change in this important next stretch against three opponents we could beat but won't be favored against.
A few comments from my seat in the stadium (have not watched any replays, so my impressions could be off):
1. Biggest upside surprise was the crowd! Announced crowd of 37,000 was 1.5x last week's, and in true attendance I believe the difference was higher. For the first time in a while, outside of the Big Game, I was not embarrassed by our attendance. This is not the goal, but encouraging to see.
Miami fans turned out in more numbers than Hawaii, but that was a small part of the difference. E-40 attracted some fans for sure, hard to know how many. And who cares anyway? Credit to Stanford if that got more butts in seats.
2. Someone asked about the E-40 performance. It was in the south end zone and we were a long way from that. A small minority was very into it and singing along. Most were casually dancing, and another strong contingent was bewildered.
3. Offense: Overall results obviously quite poor with just two field goals. Continue to be impressed by how our receivers are able to get open, and depressed by the drops. So great to have Caden High back who seems to be the only one who can both get open and catch. He was pumped to be there!
4. I was REALLY impressed with Warren and thought he better this game than against Hawaii.
5. It is so important to show current and future Stanford QBs that you can come here and show what you have. Nobody good will come here if he is going to be under pressure every snap. Against one of the best teams in the country, Warren was able to do that to a degree. I think he will be able to showcase his skills this year. Couldn't see any of the holding penalties from the stands, but I assume a few were in lieu of sacks.
6. Glad to see msqueri's relative optimism on our run game - seems it wasn't as bad as I thought. Run blocking still seems like our offensive weakness, along with dropped passes.
7. Really like our offensive scheme. We are putting our players in position to make plays. Now our players just need to be better. Coaching obviously contributes to that as well, but we can't attribute player performance to talent vs. coaching at this point (maybe ever).
8. Defensive overall result could not have been much worse, as msqueri highlighted. Not good. BUT, it is really great to see we were able to contain the run. I would rather stop the run and get torched on the pass than vice versa. If you can't stop the run, you have no hope. If you can stop the run, a missed pass or two can get you a stop. That obviously didn't happen today with their QB going 27-30, but forcing teams to go to the air may serve us very well going forward. With NC State, Duke, and Georgia Tech putting up anemic offensive numbers in Week 1, we may have some chances to shut offenses down and get a win with our offense scoring in the 20s.
Now the crucial three-game streak begins. We need to get at least one win out of this, or we will (very likely) be 1-5 after the ND game. One win puts us in decent position to beat Vegas' 3.5 over/under wins and at least avoid sliding back in the win column in 2026. if we can steal two out of three, an Elon win would put us at 4-3 and dreaming of a bowl game. I think this is unlikely with two of the three games on the road, but pulling it off would breathe some real life into this program comeback.
A few comments from my seat in the stadium (have not watched any replays, so my impressions could be off):
1. Biggest upside surprise was the crowd! Announced crowd of 37,000 was 1.5x last week's, and in true attendance I believe the difference was higher. For the first time in a while, outside of the Big Game, I was not embarrassed by our attendance. This is not the goal, but encouraging to see.
Miami fans turned out in more numbers than Hawaii, but that was a small part of the difference. E-40 attracted some fans for sure, hard to know how many. And who cares anyway? Credit to Stanford if that got more butts in seats.
2. Someone asked about the E-40 performance. It was in the south end zone and we were a long way from that. A small minority was very into it and singing along. Most were casually dancing, and another strong contingent was bewildered.
3. Offense: Overall results obviously quite poor with just two field goals. Continue to be impressed by how our receivers are able to get open, and depressed by the drops. So great to have Caden High back who seems to be the only one who can both get open and catch. He was pumped to be there!
4. I was REALLY impressed with Warren and thought he better this game than against Hawaii.
5. It is so important to show current and future Stanford QBs that you can come here and show what you have. Nobody good will come here if he is going to be under pressure every snap. Against one of the best teams in the country, Warren was able to do that to a degree. I think he will be able to showcase his skills this year. Couldn't see any of the holding penalties from the stands, but I assume a few were in lieu of sacks.
6. Glad to see msqueri's relative optimism on our run game - seems it wasn't as bad as I thought. Run blocking still seems like our offensive weakness, along with dropped passes.
7. Really like our offensive scheme. We are putting our players in position to make plays. Now our players just need to be better. Coaching obviously contributes to that as well, but we can't attribute player performance to talent vs. coaching at this point (maybe ever).
8. Defensive overall result could not have been much worse, as msqueri highlighted. Not good. BUT, it is really great to see we were able to contain the run. I would rather stop the run and get torched on the pass than vice versa. If you can't stop the run, you have no hope. If you can stop the run, a missed pass or two can get you a stop. That obviously didn't happen today with their QB going 27-30, but forcing teams to go to the air may serve us very well going forward. With NC State, Duke, and Georgia Tech putting up anemic offensive numbers in Week 1, we may have some chances to shut offenses down and get a win with our offense scoring in the 20s.
Now the crucial three-game streak begins. We need to get at least one win out of this, or we will (very likely) be 1-5 after the ND game. One win puts us in decent position to beat Vegas' 3.5 over/under wins and at least avoid sliding back in the win column in 2026. if we can steal two out of three, an Elon win would put us at 4-3 and dreaming of a bowl game. I think this is unlikely with two of the three games on the road, but pulling it off would breathe some real life into this program comeback.