[CTcard]

...  Our offense committed more unforced errors than they have since the the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends last year--penalties, sacks allowed, the interception

Apparently you didn't see the Northwestern game.

[Though on a strict counting of those three types of errors I guess this game was worse than Northwestern by a score of 8-6.]

I watch safeties carefully, of course, and I don't see what some others see.  The defense is yielding more this year, but the difference--which seems to show up vividly in the statistics, are largely two things: far fewer sacks, and the three of exceedingly large proportions plays that skew our passing and total defense numbers: the 70 yard bomb against UCLA, Schuster's of exceedingly large proportions play for Under Stanford Control, and the bomb to Villiamin--three 40+ pass plays in just seven games, compared to just two in 13 games last year.

Giving up big plays matters - a lot. And to a large extent the safeties' job is to avoid giving up big plays.

The UCLA bomb was most directly attributed to Whitfield messing up his assignment, and apparently he heard about it afterwards from Akina.
JuJu's long catch involved messing up our coverage (Martinez was on Schuster, an impossible mismatch) and was followed by lots of bad angles and tackling, with Lloyd key amongst those.
On the bomb by OSU, Lloyd was playing center field, presumably providing help over the top, and didn't get over on time. Not exactly "on him" but in fact he didn't help.

And of course the hit by Gaskin on Lloyd sticks in people's mind.

I wouldn't call the safeties the Achille's Heel of the defense, but I can see some issues there.

The curious stat is yards allowed per completion.  Last year, teams penny-and-nickled us to death with the pass, averaging just 9.4 yards per completion--the second fewest in the country.  This year, the hell-with-challenging the edges, go deep approach of our opponent's has trampolined that number to 12.1 per completion. 

I like "penny-and-nickeled", but last year nobody managed to put us to death that way.

Last year they attacked the edges because they were trying to get rid of the ball quickly to avoid being killed. This year, our opponents have a lot more time to run downfield routes.

What I don't see evidence of, on the games I've rewatched and in the numbers, evidence that our safeties' tackling is a major culprit.  We actually are allowing one less completion per game over ten yards, which suggests we're wrapping up well. 

I think that mostly suggests our opponents have had bad/rookie qbs.
That is an interesting stat combined with the higher yds/completion. Not intuitive.

The challenge I see is the mentioned decline in our pass rush, a few more cases of our linebackers--even Blake twice against Washington--getting taken out, or taking themselves out, and a susceptibility to the very big ball, especually to the deep left against Holder or Murphy, who I feel confident will be very good Dbs very soon. 

This I agree with.

Next year I think we'll see a good secondary. Worry a bit about the front seven, but miles to go before we can really evaluate that.

[CTcard]

...  Our offense committed more unforced errors than they have since the the University of Dead Fake Girlfriends last year--penalties, sacks allowed, the interception

Apparently you didn't see the Northwestern game.

[Though on a strict counting of those three types of errors I guess this game was worse than Northwestern by a score of 8-6.]

I watch safeties carefully, of course, and I don't see what some others see.  The defense is yielding more this year, but the difference--which seems to show up vividly in the statistics, are largely two things: far fewer sacks, and the three of exceedingly large proportions plays that skew our passing and total defense numbers: the 70 yard bomb against UCLA, Schuster's of exceedingly large proportions play for Under Stanford Control, and the bomb to Villiamin--three 40+ pass plays in just seven games, compared to just two in 13 games last year.

Giving up big plays matters - a lot. And to a large extent the safeties' job is to avoid giving up big plays.

The UCLA bomb was most directly attributed to Whitfield messing up his assignment, and apparently he heard about it afterwards from Akina.
JuJu's long catch involved messing up our coverage (Martinez was on Schuster, an impossible mismatch) and was followed by lots of bad angles and tackling, with Lloyd key amongst those.
On the bomb by OSU, Lloyd was playing center field, presumably providing help over the top, and didn't get over on time. Not exactly "on him" but in fact he didn't help.

And of course the hit by Gaskin on Lloyd sticks in people's mind.

I wouldn't call the safeties the Achille's Heel of the defense, but I can see some issues there.

The curious stat is yards allowed per completion.  Last year, teams penny-and-nickled us to death with the pass, averaging just 9.4 yards per completion--the second fewest in the country.  This year, the hell-with-challenging the edges, go deep approach of our opponent's has trampolined that number to 12.1 per completion. 

I like "penny-and-nickeled", but last year nobody managed to put us to death that way.

Last year they attacked the edges because they were trying to get rid of the ball quickly to avoid being killed. This year, our opponents have a lot more time to run downfield routes.

What I don't see evidence of, on the games I've rewatched and in the numbers, evidence that our safeties' tackling is a major culprit.  We actually are allowing one less completion per game over ten yards, which suggests we're wrapping up well. 

I think that mostly suggests our opponents have had bad/rookie qbs.
That is an interesting stat combined with the higher yds/completion. Not intuitive.

The challenge I see is the mentioned decline in our pass rush, a few more cases of our linebackers--even Blake twice against Washington--getting taken out, or taking themselves out, and a susceptibility to the very big ball, especually to the deep left against Holder or Murphy, who I feel confident will be very good Dbs very soon. 

This I agree with.

Next year I think we'll see a good secondary. Worry a bit about the front seven, but miles to go before we can really evaluate that.