I re-watched the 2017 debacle to refresh my memory and I had had the following observations.
1) Rashaad Penny was a very special running back. Although their o tackles did sometimes get a ridiculous amount of push on our D line, especially our ends, Penny was a monster. Another playmaker was Mikah Holder. They are both gone. We actually got a lot of sacks on them. It’s the most sacks I recall D getting in 2017. And supposedly, they’re going to be much better this year. On the flipside, horrible Harry is gone. So I could see it being pretty close to the same amount of points as last year. Maybe 14 to 17 points for San Diego, assuming the lights don’t go out during a timeout call.
2) Watching our offense, it was so incredibly painful to watch. This must’ve been Chryst at his absolute worst. He threw 45%, under 100 yards, two interceptions. When he wasn’t getting sacked, he was throwing it to the opposing team, or into the dirt, while missing his reads. San Diego prepared some well-timed tricks, especially with blitzing, but sometimes we just screwed up. Even Love missed a fair number of blocks, that lead to sacks. Presumably, his pass blocking will be NFL-ready this year. And anyway, we shouldn’t need to pass during this game anyway. I think the offense should be much more successful earlier this year. I think there’s a difference when you’re discovering a player like Bryce Love, and you’ve already discovered him and you know what you want to do with him. Even 2015, with McCaffrey, started slow. And that was a monster offense by mid season. In 2016, the offense started pretty fast, even though we had a new quarterback and O line. McCaffrey did well against Kansas State. And USC. I think part of it is having a superstar that you know, and he was ready at an elite level on day one of the season. So I think love opens the season the way McCaffrey was dominant from day one of the 2016 season except in 2018 we have a monster returning line and future nfl returning receivers, monster returning tight ends, and a better quarterback with some experience. I think we start fast. Assuming people are healthy, it’s a rare game this offense doesn’t score 30+ points. This shouldn’t be one of them.
Stanford, 31-17
1) Rashaad Penny was a very special running back. Although their o tackles did sometimes get a ridiculous amount of push on our D line, especially our ends, Penny was a monster. Another playmaker was Mikah Holder. They are both gone. We actually got a lot of sacks on them. It’s the most sacks I recall D getting in 2017. And supposedly, they’re going to be much better this year. On the flipside, horrible Harry is gone. So I could see it being pretty close to the same amount of points as last year. Maybe 14 to 17 points for San Diego, assuming the lights don’t go out during a timeout call.
2) Watching our offense, it was so incredibly painful to watch. This must’ve been Chryst at his absolute worst. He threw 45%, under 100 yards, two interceptions. When he wasn’t getting sacked, he was throwing it to the opposing team, or into the dirt, while missing his reads. San Diego prepared some well-timed tricks, especially with blitzing, but sometimes we just screwed up. Even Love missed a fair number of blocks, that lead to sacks. Presumably, his pass blocking will be NFL-ready this year. And anyway, we shouldn’t need to pass during this game anyway. I think the offense should be much more successful earlier this year. I think there’s a difference when you’re discovering a player like Bryce Love, and you’ve already discovered him and you know what you want to do with him. Even 2015, with McCaffrey, started slow. And that was a monster offense by mid season. In 2016, the offense started pretty fast, even though we had a new quarterback and O line. McCaffrey did well against Kansas State. And USC. I think part of it is having a superstar that you know, and he was ready at an elite level on day one of the season. So I think love opens the season the way McCaffrey was dominant from day one of the 2016 season except in 2018 we have a monster returning line and future nfl returning receivers, monster returning tight ends, and a better quarterback with some experience. I think we start fast. Assuming people are healthy, it’s a rare game this offense doesn’t score 30+ points. This shouldn’t be one of them.
Stanford, 31-17