[BostonCard]

I don’t know that relative strength is all that relevant here.  The question is whether we think the OSU defense will be able to stop Stanford’s offense.  The answer is that there is no a priori reason to expect that will be the case.  Oregon is a much better run defense than OSU (second in conference against the run, 3.3 ypc, 116 ypg), and we didn’t have much trouble running against them (248 yards and 6.1 ypc) despite running our second, third, and fourth string running backs for most of the second half, and losing two offensive linemen.  We also ran well against Utah, who also has a much better run defense than OSU.

OSU’s run defense is closer to ASU’s than to Oregon or Utah’s, and Love of course ran wild over the Sun Devils.

On defense for us, while their strength is rushing, they are still a middle of the road PAC-12 team (6th in ypc).  OSU is statistically more similar to UCLA running the football, without Rosen of course.

Basically, I think our success against Oregon is reassuring.  OSU is like Oregon (better rush offense than pass offense and better rush defense than pass defense) but lower overall quality.  And our defense has Phillips and Kalambayi for the whole game.

I’m not saying that there’s no way OSU can beat us, but that there is no a priori reason to expect it, or even to fret about it.  Notwithstanding last week end, I worry more about UW, UND, WSU, and Cal (in that order) as teams that are most able to exploit our weaknesses.

BC

[BostonCard]

I don’t know that relative strength is all that relevant here.  The question is whether we think the OSU defense will be able to stop Stanford’s offense.  The answer is that there is no a priori reason to expect that will be the case.  Oregon is a much better run defense than OSU (second in conference against the run, 3.3 ypc, 116 ypg), and we didn’t have much trouble running against them (248 yards and 6.1 ypc) despite running our second, third, and fourth string running backs for most of the second half, and losing two offensive linemen.  We also ran well against Utah, who also has a much better run defense than OSU.

OSU’s run defense is closer to ASU’s than to Oregon or Utah’s, and Love of course ran wild over the Sun Devils.

On defense for us, while their strength is rushing, they are still a middle of the road PAC-12 team (6th in ypc).  OSU is statistically more similar to UCLA running the football, without Rosen of course.

Basically, I think our success against Oregon is reassuring.  OSU is like Oregon (better rush offense than pass offense and better rush defense than pass defense) but lower overall quality.  And our defense has Phillips and Kalambayi for the whole game.

I’m not saying that there’s no way OSU can beat us, but that there is no a priori reason to expect it, or even to fret about it.  Notwithstanding last week end, I worry more about UW, UND, WSU, and Cal (in that order) as teams that are most able to exploit our weaknesses.

BC