[SteveAztec]

OK, raise your hand... who thought that Bryce Love would have under 50 yards in the game, and that we would still win fairly comfortably in the end.  Certainly not me.  I honestly don't know how to feel after that game.  On the one hand, we won, and by a fairly comfortable margin.  We beat the spread (which was ~ -14).  We had a 300 yard passer and a 200 yard receiver.  At times, as in the two point conversion, we made SDSU look helpless.  And our "questionable" defense held them to 10 points came up h*ge when we needed it (the safety and the fourth down stop spring to mind) and were partying in the backfield in a way I haven't seen in several years.  Paulson Adebo is arguably already our best defensive back in his first game in a Stanford uniform.

On the other hand, there's the aforementioned complete lack of a running game.  There's taking a time out before the first friggin play of the game.  There's the four (yes, four) three and outs in the first half (which should have been five but for SDSU getting an unsportsmanlike call.  There's the fact that at one point in the second quarter, our best play of the game was a punt.  There was the fact that virtually our only offense that half came after a miraculous recovery of an interception that gave us a fresh set of downs.  The game was probably much closer than the score indicated, and we lucked out a few times (it seemed like every replay went our way on the night, and even the one that didn't actually wound up pushing SDSU back because there had been a penalty).  There's the fact that our defense, while having a good overnight, missed a lot of tackles and gave up 158 yards rushing to their back.  In other words, SDSU played Stanford's game better than Stanford; we just had a better passing game once Costello got comfortable in the pocket, and SDSU's defensive backs could not cover our wide receivers, especially 1-on-1.  It also helped that Chapman is just not a very good QB.

Anyways, I'm happy we righted the ship and took advantage of the breaks we got.  And SDSU is not a bad team.  But we will have to play better against USC.  Their defensive backs are better.  I assume their QB, though only a freshman, will be better.  They have better lines, better skill position athletes, and they will be hungry.

Odds and ends...

• The line to get in was very long, which surprised me considering how sparsely attended I expected the game to be (and was later proven correct).  They now have metal detectors at the entrances, so be forewarned and arrive early.
  
• Attendance was about what you would expect for a Friday 6 pm game before the students are back on campus.
  
• Adebo is the man.  Had a couple pass break ups, a couple sure tackles, and almost had an interception (with nothing but grass in front of him).  He may already be our top cornerback.
  
• Booker had a sack.
  
• #partyinthebackfield (5 of them, including one safety)
  
• We benefited tremendously from SDSU penalties.  They had 125 yards worth of penalties, including several on key third downs that gave us a first down.  We were only penalized 20.
  
• I thought the safety might have been reviewed as it looked like the QB fumbled before he was down
  
• I thought Shaw was bailed from a potentially disastrous decision when the replay ruled that the SDSU player made the line to gain and we turned down a 10 yard penalty.  While it would have been gutsy, a gutsy coach would have gone for it on fourth and inches and the way SDSU was running the ball, had a good chance to convert (though, of course, they didn't later in the game).  As it turned out, the review found the receiver made the yard-to-gain line, so we took the penalty and SDSU was looking at 3rd and 20ish instead of fourth and inches.  The resulting play got them about 10 yards, and at that point going for it was off the table.
  
• Jake Bailey had himself a day.  5 punts for a 49 yards average, including the one that went 63 yards and pinned SDSU back at the 1 yard line, leading to a safety three plays later.  In fact, I think he needs to dial it down a touch, as a couple of 40+ yarders were touchbacks.
  
• Toner missed a FG.  Yuck.
  
• If you are an undersized defensive back and have to defend a 2-pt conversion (or a play from within the 10 yard line), what can you do?  It is almost unfair to have to defend our receivers under those circumstances.  And we no longer even try a true fade.  We just send our receiver to the end zone, get him to establish position, and screen the poor DB out of the play.  At one point when we were struggling, I was thinking maybe we should run our "fade" on most pass plays, as it is virtually un-defendable, and more or less guaranteed to gain 5 - 10 yards.
  
• WE tried a few screens.  Love had two or three that didn't do much.  The box score says he had 3 catches for 18 yards, which is better than I remember.  We also tried a bunch of bubble screens that didn't net us much.
  

Overall, it was not a pretty game, but we got the win and hopefully teams prepping for us will now have to respect Costello, opening up the running game for Love.

BC

Great recap BostonCard.

The game was definitely the tale of 2 half's. I felt the Aztecs outplayed Stanford by far in the first half....Of course until the last 2 minutes with the sequence of the interception by the Aztecs, fumble by our DT, followed by a long TD pass by Stanford to end the half.  I feel that combo of plays changed the entire game.

Now, on the Chapman safety.  That was also a key play late in the first half, but it happened and whether it was good call or bad call by the refs means nothing to me.  Chapman got in trouble, isn't a good scrambler, and there was no excuse for him getting tackled in the end zone.  I don't give Chapman a break on that play but I will say I thought the play call by our OC on that play was horrible.  After all, our OC knows Chapman more than anybody.

Even though the Aztecs went into the locker at half trailing, I thought the game would go to the wire.  It just didn't happen.  Too many mistakes by the Aztecs and Stanford took advantage of the mistakes.  Kudos to Stanford, that is what teams do to win.

In looking back at the game I feel the Aztecs are very good.  Possibly better than people think today.  But I do think that Stanford was the better team and IMO they proved that on Friday night.  You do what you have to do to win.  Stanford did exactly that.

Best of luck the rest of the year.  I loved game day experience and the Stadium.  Stanford fans were top notch.  Good luck the rest of the season.

[SteveAztec]

OK, raise your hand... who thought that Bryce Love would have under 50 yards in the game, and that we would still win fairly comfortably in the end.  Certainly not me.  I honestly don't know how to feel after that game.  On the one hand, we won, and by a fairly comfortable margin.  We beat the spread (which was ~ -14).  We had a 300 yard passer and a 200 yard receiver.  At times, as in the two point conversion, we made SDSU look helpless.  And our "questionable" defense held them to 10 points came up h*ge when we needed it (the safety and the fourth down stop spring to mind) and were partying in the backfield in a way I haven't seen in several years.  Paulson Adebo is arguably already our best defensive back in his first game in a Stanford uniform.

On the other hand, there's the aforementioned complete lack of a running game.  There's taking a time out before the first friggin play of the game.  There's the four (yes, four) three and outs in the first half (which should have been five but for SDSU getting an unsportsmanlike call.  There's the fact that at one point in the second quarter, our best play of the game was a punt.  There was the fact that virtually our only offense that half came after a miraculous recovery of an interception that gave us a fresh set of downs.  The game was probably much closer than the score indicated, and we lucked out a few times (it seemed like every replay went our way on the night, and even the one that didn't actually wound up pushing SDSU back because there had been a penalty).  There's the fact that our defense, while having a good overnight, missed a lot of tackles and gave up 158 yards rushing to their back.  In other words, SDSU played Stanford's game better than Stanford; we just had a better passing game once Costello got comfortable in the pocket, and SDSU's defensive backs could not cover our wide receivers, especially 1-on-1.  It also helped that Chapman is just not a very good QB.

Anyways, I'm happy we righted the ship and took advantage of the breaks we got.  And SDSU is not a bad team.  But we will have to play better against USC.  Their defensive backs are better.  I assume their QB, though only a freshman, will be better.  They have better lines, better skill position athletes, and they will be hungry.

Odds and ends...

• The line to get in was very long, which surprised me considering how sparsely attended I expected the game to be (and was later proven correct).  They now have metal detectors at the entrances, so be forewarned and arrive early.
  
• Attendance was about what you would expect for a Friday 6 pm game before the students are back on campus.
  
• Adebo is the man.  Had a couple pass break ups, a couple sure tackles, and almost had an interception (with nothing but grass in front of him).  He may already be our top cornerback.
  
• Booker had a sack.
  
• #partyinthebackfield (5 of them, including one safety)
  
• We benefited tremendously from SDSU penalties.  They had 125 yards worth of penalties, including several on key third downs that gave us a first down.  We were only penalized 20.
  
• I thought the safety might have been reviewed as it looked like the QB fumbled before he was down
  
• I thought Shaw was bailed from a potentially disastrous decision when the replay ruled that the SDSU player made the line to gain and we turned down a 10 yard penalty.  While it would have been gutsy, a gutsy coach would have gone for it on fourth and inches and the way SDSU was running the ball, had a good chance to convert (though, of course, they didn't later in the game).  As it turned out, the review found the receiver made the yard-to-gain line, so we took the penalty and SDSU was looking at 3rd and 20ish instead of fourth and inches.  The resulting play got them about 10 yards, and at that point going for it was off the table.
  
• Jake Bailey had himself a day.  5 punts for a 49 yards average, including the one that went 63 yards and pinned SDSU back at the 1 yard line, leading to a safety three plays later.  In fact, I think he needs to dial it down a touch, as a couple of 40+ yarders were touchbacks.
  
• Toner missed a FG.  Yuck.
  
• If you are an undersized defensive back and have to defend a 2-pt conversion (or a play from within the 10 yard line), what can you do?  It is almost unfair to have to defend our receivers under those circumstances.  And we no longer even try a true fade.  We just send our receiver to the end zone, get him to establish position, and screen the poor DB out of the play.  At one point when we were struggling, I was thinking maybe we should run our "fade" on most pass plays, as it is virtually un-defendable, and more or less guaranteed to gain 5 - 10 yards.
  
• WE tried a few screens.  Love had two or three that didn't do much.  The box score says he had 3 catches for 18 yards, which is better than I remember.  We also tried a bunch of bubble screens that didn't net us much.
  

Overall, it was not a pretty game, but we got the win and hopefully teams prepping for us will now have to respect Costello, opening up the running game for Love.

BC

Great recap BostonCard.

The game was definitely the tale of 2 half's. I felt the Aztecs outplayed Stanford by far in the first half....Of course until the last 2 minutes with the sequence of the interception by the Aztecs, fumble by our DT, followed by a long TD pass by Stanford to end the half.  I feel that combo of plays changed the entire game.

Now, on the Chapman safety.  That was also a key play late in the first half, but it happened and whether it was good call or bad call by the refs means nothing to me.  Chapman got in trouble, isn't a good scrambler, and there was no excuse for him getting tackled in the end zone.  I don't give Chapman a break on that play but I will say I thought the play call by our OC on that play was horrible.  After all, our OC knows Chapman more than anybody.

Even though the Aztecs went into the locker at half trailing, I thought the game would go to the wire.  It just didn't happen.  Too many mistakes by the Aztecs and Stanford took advantage of the mistakes.  Kudos to Stanford, that is what teams do to win.

In looking back at the game I feel the Aztecs are very good.  Possibly better than people think today.  But I do think that Stanford was the better team and IMO they proved that on Friday night.  You do what you have to do to win.  Stanford did exactly that.

Best of luck the rest of the year.  I loved game day experience and the Stadium.  Stanford fans were top notch.  Good luck the rest of the season.