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There are two types of defensive philosophies:Â Read and Force.
Read requires defenders to react based on what they see first. Force requires the defense to attack and then react to what it sees.Â
If Stanford's DL lines up further back, it's to give the DL a chance to see what the OL are doing before committing. You tend not to give up many long plays in a read and react defense, and it's difficult for college offenses to string together 12 play drives to score TDs.Â
If the defense attacks first, it has a greater likelihood of yielding brobdingnagian plays, because when defenders are out of position, (vacating areas the offense is attacking) that's what happens.
I don't have a problem with Stanford playing read and react because I don't like giving up big plays. But, if the defense is giving up big plays while playing read and react, it might as well switch to a force scheme because at least that way it can force the offense into more mistakes.
Given Stanford's offensive approach, "death by 1,000 cuts" is preferred to quick death.