[greenmachine]

Thanks for the info, guys. Sounds like it's going to be a really good game. Dennard is going to have his hands full with Montgomery - he's a beast!

How are your WRs/passing attack? Lots of downfield? More intermediate?

We don't really have just one WR who stands out. Cook likes to throw to whoever is open, and it really varies. Cook has been known to make some very bad decisions and throw into coverage - amazingly, he only has 5 picks. Unfortunately, he won't be able to get away with that versus Stanford. He's become much better at decision making and isn't afraid to get tackled when running the ball. The guy seems to dislike sliding, actually.  :-\

We love to use a variety of routes, but often sweeping up the middle for small/medium gains is how we work. We also aren't too bad at throwing to the edge. When the WRs catch, they have (surprisingly) pretty good feet. Occasionally we'll throw a long ball to get the defense out of sync (as was observed with OSU), and we like to revert to screens (which don't always work) when it comes to blitzes. We had a lot of TFLs from OSU because we seemed to enjoy throwing screens.

Our biggest vice is Cook under pressure. The guy either throws an absolute gem, or he decides to see if he can get lucky. He doesn't like to throw it out of bounds that much, but also doesn't like taking sacks. With the pressure your DL can give, I predict Cook having to move in the pocket quite a bit and even make throws on the run (which he either is good at or lays an egg).

While Cook can get flustered easily, he also is reliable on 3rd down. The guy can make the hardest throws into tight coverage in big moments. However, he can also make you think he is having some type of neurological issue and make the worst throws to wide open guys.

I'm going to be bold and say you guys will have the upperhand when it comes to our offenses being compared. Our OL is good this year, but yours is one of the best in the nation. However, I think our secondary gives our D a slight edge over yours.

@martyup -

I doubt we could. That was a phenomenal game your D had, but Oregon plays a different style of offense than Stanford and MSU. While it's much better than MSU's, we don't rely on speed so much as power. We're more of an offense that likes to pound a D, control time of possession, and take advantage of it in the 4th. As you saw with OSU, they were pretty tired when Langford broke out in the game-clinching run.

Also, we're not as great against the spread and duel threat QBs (Oregon). The teams who have scored the most points against us were duel threat and spread offenses. We've done pretty well containing pro-style offenses, but Stanford is better than any pro-style MSU has seen this year. That being said, we'll have our hands full with containing your RBs, but you may not do as well against our secondary.

[greenmachine]

Thanks for the info, guys. Sounds like it's going to be a really good game. Dennard is going to have his hands full with Montgomery - he's a beast!

How are your WRs/passing attack? Lots of downfield? More intermediate?

We don't really have just one WR who stands out. Cook likes to throw to whoever is open, and it really varies. Cook has been known to make some very bad decisions and throw into coverage - amazingly, he only has 5 picks. Unfortunately, he won't be able to get away with that versus Stanford. He's become much better at decision making and isn't afraid to get tackled when running the ball. The guy seems to dislike sliding, actually.  :-\

We love to use a variety of routes, but often sweeping up the middle for small/medium gains is how we work. We also aren't too bad at throwing to the edge. When the WRs catch, they have (surprisingly) pretty good feet. Occasionally we'll throw a long ball to get the defense out of sync (as was observed with OSU), and we like to revert to screens (which don't always work) when it comes to blitzes. We had a lot of TFLs from OSU because we seemed to enjoy throwing screens.

Our biggest vice is Cook under pressure. The guy either throws an absolute gem, or he decides to see if he can get lucky. He doesn't like to throw it out of bounds that much, but also doesn't like taking sacks. With the pressure your DL can give, I predict Cook having to move in the pocket quite a bit and even make throws on the run (which he either is good at or lays an egg).

While Cook can get flustered easily, he also is reliable on 3rd down. The guy can make the hardest throws into tight coverage in big moments. However, he can also make you think he is having some type of neurological issue and make the worst throws to wide open guys.

I'm going to be bold and say you guys will have the upperhand when it comes to our offenses being compared. Our OL is good this year, but yours is one of the best in the nation. However, I think our secondary gives our D a slight edge over yours.

@martyup -

I doubt we could. That was a phenomenal game your D had, but Oregon plays a different style of offense than Stanford and MSU. While it's much better than MSU's, we don't rely on speed so much as power. We're more of an offense that likes to pound a D, control time of possession, and take advantage of it in the 4th. As you saw with OSU, they were pretty tired when Langford broke out in the game-clinching run.

Also, we're not as great against the spread and duel threat QBs (Oregon). The teams who have scored the most points against us were duel threat and spread offenses. We've done pretty well containing pro-style offenses, but Stanford is better than any pro-style MSU has seen this year. That being said, we'll have our hands full with containing your RBs, but you may not do as well against our secondary.