Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Printable Version
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Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Snorlax94 - 12-08-2020
Lex24 brought up the fact that it's been quiet since that fantastic game. I know for me the pandemic has played a role -- I just feel out of sync with a lot of tasks.
But WOW, I mean come on, that first half was amazing. My jaw was dropped. It felt to me like somehow the Stanford Super Team -- including the coaching -- which had seemingly disappeared since 2015 had been taken out of frozen storage and was BACK.
1. It's hard to pick a favorite from the game, but I'd have to pick the offensive line play. The one fact that encapsulates the line's dominance -- Stanford gets ball back and with a few minutes left, and runs out the clock executing run play, after run play, after run play. Everybody knows you're going to run, and they get the first down anyway. When was the last time we saw that?
2. We've been talking about Austin Jones. This season, he has been the master of finding the seam, driving and falling forward. Like *Every* time he touches the ball, he falls forward for an extra 3 yards. During the Cal game, sometimes he was hit behind the line and he'd fall forward, turning a -1 into a +2. But against Washington he was waltzing through brobdingnagian holes, sometimes not getting hit for 5 yards, but then finding that one crack, and falling forward for an extra 3-5 yards for 7-10 yards. *If* he continues to improve at this pace, I could see him drafting very high. A dream running back fit for Stanford is a Toby Gerhart with more homerun speed potential and I could see Austin Jones becoming that. And if Nathaniel Peat keeps getting better, he could add the Lightning to Austin's Thunder. Add in youngsters like EJ Smith who aspire to carve up opponents like Swiss Army Knife McCaffrey.
3. My third favorite thing oddly is the play-calling particularly in the first half. It drives me nuts (and I think everyone nuts) when Stanford is predictable and when they run for 3-4 yards, run/pass for 3-4 yards, then predictably run on third down. They might convert once or twice on a drive. But being so predictable, needing to convert SO MANY third downs over and over again. Eventually, driving a cross the field, a defense can guess right and end the drive. And that's even without any delay of game penalties (and I can't recall any the last two games). During the first half, Stanford made Washington's defense look completely off-balance and rarely even got into a 3rd down situation. That's what a great offense is supposed to do. I can't think of a half like that since the Iowa Rose Bowl.
Go Mighty Card! Please don't let us down with the classic "losing a game you're favored to win after the monster great game". I can't imagine how hard things are training in high schools and parks (!). But can they find a way again this week?
Whack those Beavers!
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - murky - 12-08-2020
The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Brickcity - 12-08-2020
(12-08-2020, 08:55 PM)Snorlax94 Wrote: Lex24 brought up the fact that it's been quiet since that fantastic game. I know for me the pandemic has played a role -- I just feel out of sync with a lot of tasks.
But WOW, I mean come on, that first half was amazing. My jaw was dropped. It felt to me like somehow the Stanford Super Team -- including the coaching -- which had seemingly disappeared since 2015 had been taken out of frozen storage and was BACK.
1. It's hard to pick a favorite from the game, but I'd have to pick the offensive line play. The one fact that encapsulates the line's dominance -- Stanford gets ball back and with a few minutes left, and runs out the clock executing run play, after run play, after run play. Everybody knows you're going to run, and they get the first down anyway. When was the last time we saw that?
2. We've been talking about Austin Jones. This season, he has been the master of finding the seam, driving and falling forward. Like *Every* time he touches the ball, he falls forward for an extra 3 yards. During the Cal game, sometimes he was hit behind the line and he'd fall forward, turning a -1 into a +2. But against Washington he was waltzing through of immense proportions holes, sometimes not getting hit for 5 yards, but then finding that one crack, and falling forward for an extra 3-5 yards for 7-10 yards. *If* he continues to improve at this pace, I could see him drafting very high. A dream running back fit for Stanford is a Toby Gerhart with more homerun speed potential and I could see Austin Jones becoming that. And if Nathaniel Peat keeps getting better, he could add the Lightning to Austin's Thunder. Add in youngsters like EJ Smith who aspire to carve up opponents like Swiss Army Knife McCaffrey.
3. My third favorite thing oddly is the play-calling particularly in the first half. It drives me nuts (and I think everyone nuts) when Stanford is predictable and when they run for 3-4 yards, run/pass for 3-4 yards, then predictably run on third down. They might convert once or twice on a drive. But being so predictable, needing to convert SO MANY third downs over and over again. Eventually, driving a cross the field, a defense can guess right and end the drive. And that's even without any delay of game penalties (and I can't recall any the last two games). During the first half, Stanford made Washington's defense look completely off-balance and rarely even got into a 3rd down situation. That's what a great offense is supposed to do. I can't think of a half like that since the Iowa Rose Bowl.
Go Mighty Card! Please don't let us down with the classic "losing a game you're favored to win after the monster great game". I can't imagine how hard things are training in high schools and parks (!). But can they find a way again this week?
Whack those Beavers!
Good stuff, but with one quibble: Austin Jones, though a good back who has a chance IMHO of being very good, will never reach Toby Gerhart heights. Nothing wrong with that. If he gets anywhere near the level that Stephan Taylor was at his senior year, that would be fantastic news. Gerhart, however, was the best running back in the country his senior year. I don't think Jones has that kind of talent. But again, he doesn't need to for Stanford to have a great running game.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - pefloresjr - 12-09-2020
(12-08-2020, 08:55 PM)Snorlax94 Wrote: Lex24 brought up the fact that it's been quiet since that fantastic game. I know for me the pandemic has played a role -- I just feel out of sync with a lot of tasks.
But WOW, I mean come on, that first half was amazing. My jaw was dropped. It felt to me like somehow the Stanford Super Team -- including the coaching -- which had seemingly disappeared since 2015 had been taken out of frozen storage and was BACK.
1. It's hard to pick a favorite from the game, but I'd have to pick the offensive line play. The one fact that encapsulates the line's dominance -- Stanford gets ball back and with a few minutes left, and runs out the clock executing run play, after run play, after run play. Everybody knows you're going to run, and they get the first down anyway. When was the last time we saw that?
2. We've been talking about Austin Jones. This season, he has been the master of finding the seam, driving and falling forward. Like *Every* time he touches the ball, he falls forward for an extra 3 yards. During the Cal game, sometimes he was hit behind the line and he'd fall forward, turning a -1 into a +2. But against Washington he was waltzing through of immense proportions holes, sometimes not getting hit for 5 yards, but then finding that one crack, and falling forward for an extra 3-5 yards for 7-10 yards. *If* he continues to improve at this pace, I could see him drafting very high. A dream running back fit for Stanford is a Toby Gerhart with more homerun speed potential and I could see Austin Jones becoming that. And if Nathaniel Peat keeps getting better, he could add the Lightning to Austin's Thunder. Add in youngsters like EJ Smith who aspire to carve up opponents like Swiss Army Knife McCaffrey.
3. My third favorite thing oddly is the play-calling particularly in the first half. It drives me nuts (and I think everyone nuts) when Stanford is predictable and when they run for 3-4 yards, run/pass for 3-4 yards, then predictably run on third down. They might convert once or twice on a drive. But being so predictable, needing to convert SO MANY third downs over and over again. Eventually, driving a cross the field, a defense can guess right and end the drive. And that's even without any delay of game penalties (and I can't recall any the last two games). During the first half, Stanford made Washington's defense look completely off-balance and rarely even got into a 3rd down situation. That's what a great offense is supposed to do. I can't think of a half like that since the Iowa Rose Bowl.
Go Mighty Card! Please don't let us down with the classic "losing a game you're favored to win after the monster great game". I can't imagine how hard things are training in high schools and parks (!). But can they find a way again this week?
Whack those Beavers!
I was so pleased and, frankly, surprised by our team's performance in this game that my cussing chased the pets out of the room for good reasons. When we converted tough 3rd downs and especially when the offensive line imposed its will, I kept yelling "F*** yeah!!" And the pets would scramble. Good times.
Cheers,
Pete F.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - BostonCard - 12-09-2020
(12-08-2020, 09:51 PM)murky Wrote: The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
I wonder if some of this is just random variation. WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
BC
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Goose - 12-09-2020
(12-09-2020, 11:03 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-08-2020, 09:51 PM)murky Wrote: The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
I wonder if some of this is just random variation. WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
BC
FWIW, I think it was a bit of both. Particularly in the last drive, some of our third down conversions were long enough that they were not high probability events. Luck played a role there, and we were "due" some luck because of our historically low rate in the first two games. It is also true that Mills was "on" in the UW game and got the ball where it needed to be. Washington's defense also was tired and had not had a good game in general, so that helped as well. We also didn't drop the ball, which in earlier games we had. The stars aligned and we played better. Both helped.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Langdude - 12-09-2020
(12-09-2020, 11:25 AM)Goose Wrote:(12-09-2020, 11:03 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-08-2020, 09:51 PM)murky Wrote: The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
I wonder if some of this is just random variation. WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
BC
FWIW, I think it was a bit of both. Particularly in the last drive, some of our third down conversions were long enough that they were not high probability events. Luck played a role there, and we were "due" some luck because of our historically low rate in the first two games. It is also true that Mills was "on" in the UW game and got the ball where it needed to be. Washington's defense also was tired and had not had a good game in general, so that helped as well. We also didn't drop the ball, which in earlier games we had. The stars aligned and we played better. Both helped.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Mills had a full week to prepare for the game, too. In other words, I think this is a closer-to-accurate picture of Mills' talent WRT precision.
-m.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - CTcard - 12-09-2020
(12-09-2020, 11:03 AM)BostonCard Wrote: WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
Game #1, QB out (last minute) 4-13, 31%
Game #2, QB in but no prep 5-16, 31%
Game #3, QB week+game prep 8-17, 47%
Game #4, QB 2 weeks+2 games 10-13, 77%
In the UW game ...
Of the 10 conversions, 8 pass, 2 run.
The non-conversions were 2 pass, 1 run.
The runs were x2 for TDs, and second last play of the game.
Outside of the two notable plays on the last drive, every third down with more than 3 yds to go had an incomplete pass on first or second down.
Mills was 8-10, 133 yards on third down.
lex24 - lex24 - 12-09-2020
(12-09-2020, 11:45 AM)Langdude Wrote:(12-09-2020, 11:25 AM)Goose Wrote:(12-09-2020, 11:03 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-08-2020, 09:51 PM)murky Wrote: The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
I wonder if some of this is just random variation. WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
BC
FWIW, I think it was a bit of both. Particularly in the last drive, some of our third down conversions were long enough that they were not high probability events. Luck played a role there, and we were "due" some luck because of our historically low rate in the first two games. It is also true that Mills was "on" in the UW game and got the ball where it needed to be. Washington's defense also was tired and had not had a good game in general, so that helped as well. We also didn't drop the ball, which in earlier games we had. The stars aligned and we played better. Both helped.
I don't think it is a coincidence that Mills had a full week to prepare for the game, too. In other words, I think this is a closer-to-accurate picture of Mills' talent WRT precision.
-m.
Bingo.
RE: lex24 - donkey687 - 12-09-2020
So what would the comments of this board have looked like if Fehoko hadn't made his circus one handed grab on 3rd and 11 in the last drive and UW would have gotten the ball back and scored?
I think the tenor of the board and all our smugness about the offensive line, running game etc would be gone even though Fehoko's grab had nothing to do with our offensive line and running game. Borrowing from one of my favorite lines from Spinal Tap, "there is a fine line between clever and stupid"
We give Shaw a lot of crap for when he blames execution in losses, but last week was a clear example of the team executing. A dropped pass on third down versus Colorado that killed a drive versus a one handed grab that did happen vs UW can often be the difference between winning or losing. One kid making a play or not leads us fans to feel good or not about coaching, gameplan and health of the program. It can be a fickle sport.
RE: lex24 - Goose - 12-09-2020
(12-09-2020, 08:44 PM)donkey687 Wrote: So what would the comments of this board have looked like if Fehoko hadn't made his circus one handed grab on 3rd and 11 in the last drive and UW would have gotten the ball back and scored?We would have accepted the PI penalty and had a first down. Catch was a bonus.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - winflop - 12-10-2020
(12-09-2020, 11:03 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-08-2020, 09:51 PM)murky Wrote: The big difference in that game was 3rd down.
We made numerous plays for 7 or more yards on 3rd down, converting an outlandish number of those - especially compared to our previous games.
I wonder if some of this is just random variation. WE were downright awful in third down conversions in our first two games (like, historically awful). Did something change, or were the first two games really unlucky, and the fourth game lucky?
BC
I don't have a clue, but I do know that you can't rely on converting 3rd & long to win games with any kind of consistency.
The team played great, but they have to find a way to be in these situations far less often. It's not a winning formula.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - martyup - 12-10-2020
We were 11 point dogs to the Dawgs in their house. This was an amazing win. It brought this fan joy in a year of despair.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - JohnR34231 - 12-10-2020
(12-10-2020, 07:11 AM)martyup Wrote: We were 11 point dogs to the Dawgs in their house. This was an amazing win. It brought this fan joy in a year of despair.
Yeah, hopefully this won't be like the Wiggin era when a big upset win over Washington was followed by us losing 13 of our next 14 games.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - Nan3cy - 12-10-2020
(12-10-2020, 07:55 AM)JohnR34231 Wrote:(12-10-2020, 07:11 AM)martyup Wrote: We were 11 point dogs to the Dawgs in their house. This was an amazing win. It brought this fan joy in a year of despair.
Yeah, hopefully this won't be like the Wiggin era when a big upset win over Washington was followed by us losing 13 of our next 14 games.
Ouch. What a thought.
RE: Favorite Things I *Loved* From the Stanford-Washington Game - SamuelMcF - 12-10-2020
(12-10-2020, 07:55 AM)JohnR34231 Wrote:(12-10-2020, 07:11 AM)martyup Wrote: We were 11 point dogs to the Dawgs in their house. This was an amazing win. It brought this fan joy in a year of despair.
Yeah, hopefully this won't be like the Wiggin era when a big upset win over Washington was followed by us losing 13 of our next 14 games.
Friendly reminder that last year's big upset win over Washington was followed by a 6-game losing streak.