09-08-2018, 11:11 PM
Good thoughts Mick.
It was another beautiful afternoon at Stanford stadium. Weather in the mid-70's at kick-off with a light breeze. Perfect day for football.
Great overall game by the defense, and what's crazy is it could have been even more dominant. It still had a few too many missed tackles, and, especially in the first half, too many 5, 8, and 12 yard runs. But we made an adjustment, and after the half, SC was only getting 2, 3, and 4 yard runs, which put a lot of pressure on their freshman QB. And then we did a nice job getting to him -- four sacks (should have been five but Daniels had a Houdini play on one to scramble for a first down), and of course the two interceptions to seal the game.
The big thing about the defense is that unlike last year where we had a handful of stars (Phillips, Reid, and Meeks), this year we are getting production from across the board. Both of our inside linebackers had 10 tackles. WE got great plays in the secondary from Adebo, Buncom, and the interceptions by Antoine. We heard Swann and Jackson's names called a lot. We got sacks from Alifieri, Barton, Toohill and Fox. Eight different guys had at least one pass defense. And more importantly, they came up big when it counted. Fourth down with about a minute left in the half was a brobdingnagian turning point. What could have conceivably been a tie game heading to the locker room, was turned into one last possession for Stanford, and then we took advantage and made it a two touchdown game. USC got to the Stanford 40 six times by my count and got three points out of it (shades of 2014 when we lost 13-10 in a game where we just could not close the deal despite multiple red zone trips). We rarely got a three and out, but USC got very few big gains until desperation time at the end - the one exception being the absolutely gorgeous ball he threw to Pittman in the first drive of the third quarter), and we tightened up as soon as USC threatened.
On offense, another very efficient game by Costello, especially the first half. At one point he was something like 16/18. And unlike last week where it was the KJ to JJ show, this week he spread it around: Smith, JJ, Irwin, and Parkinson all had contributions as receivers (though notably St. Brown and Weddington were nowhere). Love had a super quiet 100 yard game. We are so used to him putting up video game numbers that a 22 carry, 136 yard game seems somehow disappointing. Could have been more, but JJ blocked the defender into him on the long run. In any case, he played well enough, though I still think we are missing Marx. I think we are going to need to go wide more often (the big play went off a formation where we ran three tight ends on the strong side plus Arcega Whiteside, and they took out the linebackers to give Love just enough of a crease so that the next time SC saw him, he was 50 yards downfield.
I think the big problem, that Reiss and Husak touched on, is that we are really having trouble on first down and way too many third and longs, which led to too low a third down efficiency (4/13) to really have a dominant offensive game. In contrast, USC was 8/17, a better percentage (but of course, when your denominator is that big, you have to be near perfect to keep the drives going, and of course our defense held just enough).
I think you called it out in game, but you are right that the refs were letting a lot go in the defensive backfield. The play against Arcega Whiteside, where he was pushed out of bounds and then tackled was particularly egregious, but on our side there is a fine line between a great pass break-up and a pass interference, and there was at least one play where Adebo didn't turn his head and could have been called for a PI. OF course the refs followed up that blatant missed PI with a missed block in the back on the ensuing punt return, and then a blatant hold on USC's first play from scrimmage. All's well that ends well, and I thought we were lucky ref-wise against SDSU, but still that was one ugly sequence by the zebras.
Punting was phenomenal. At one point, Bailey kicked a 50-yard, unreturned kick and it brought down his average. He was a touch shakier later, as SC was bringing in the pressure, but still he had 8 punts for a 44 yard average, with only 1 touchback (on the 65 yard punt) and one return for 4 yards. Two punts were dropped in the 20, including a sixty-one yarder from our own 29. Kick-offs weren't just touchbacks, they were going out the back of the end zone. Bailey has got a leg. The only special teams slip ups I noted was that we chose to try to return it twice from our own end zone, both times coming well short of the 20. Would have been easier just to take a knee and get it on the 25.
Anyway, any week you can beat SC is a good one, especially one in which you hold them to just three points. We are now going on 7 consecutive quarters without the opponent scoring a touchdown. And yet, we could have been even better (which I guess is a good thing, and a sentiment Shaw apparently shared).
And now, some good news:
He still shouldn't have been in the game with 3 minutes left and up two TD's.
Last thought: the bacon wrapped hot dogs on the way out were phenomenal.
BC
It was another beautiful afternoon at Stanford stadium. Weather in the mid-70's at kick-off with a light breeze. Perfect day for football.
Great overall game by the defense, and what's crazy is it could have been even more dominant. It still had a few too many missed tackles, and, especially in the first half, too many 5, 8, and 12 yard runs. But we made an adjustment, and after the half, SC was only getting 2, 3, and 4 yard runs, which put a lot of pressure on their freshman QB. And then we did a nice job getting to him -- four sacks (should have been five but Daniels had a Houdini play on one to scramble for a first down), and of course the two interceptions to seal the game.
The big thing about the defense is that unlike last year where we had a handful of stars (Phillips, Reid, and Meeks), this year we are getting production from across the board. Both of our inside linebackers had 10 tackles. WE got great plays in the secondary from Adebo, Buncom, and the interceptions by Antoine. We heard Swann and Jackson's names called a lot. We got sacks from Alifieri, Barton, Toohill and Fox. Eight different guys had at least one pass defense. And more importantly, they came up big when it counted. Fourth down with about a minute left in the half was a brobdingnagian turning point. What could have conceivably been a tie game heading to the locker room, was turned into one last possession for Stanford, and then we took advantage and made it a two touchdown game. USC got to the Stanford 40 six times by my count and got three points out of it (shades of 2014 when we lost 13-10 in a game where we just could not close the deal despite multiple red zone trips). We rarely got a three and out, but USC got very few big gains until desperation time at the end - the one exception being the absolutely gorgeous ball he threw to Pittman in the first drive of the third quarter), and we tightened up as soon as USC threatened.
On offense, another very efficient game by Costello, especially the first half. At one point he was something like 16/18. And unlike last week where it was the KJ to JJ show, this week he spread it around: Smith, JJ, Irwin, and Parkinson all had contributions as receivers (though notably St. Brown and Weddington were nowhere). Love had a super quiet 100 yard game. We are so used to him putting up video game numbers that a 22 carry, 136 yard game seems somehow disappointing. Could have been more, but JJ blocked the defender into him on the long run. In any case, he played well enough, though I still think we are missing Marx. I think we are going to need to go wide more often (the big play went off a formation where we ran three tight ends on the strong side plus Arcega Whiteside, and they took out the linebackers to give Love just enough of a crease so that the next time SC saw him, he was 50 yards downfield.
I think the big problem, that Reiss and Husak touched on, is that we are really having trouble on first down and way too many third and longs, which led to too low a third down efficiency (4/13) to really have a dominant offensive game. In contrast, USC was 8/17, a better percentage (but of course, when your denominator is that big, you have to be near perfect to keep the drives going, and of course our defense held just enough).
I think you called it out in game, but you are right that the refs were letting a lot go in the defensive backfield. The play against Arcega Whiteside, where he was pushed out of bounds and then tackled was particularly egregious, but on our side there is a fine line between a great pass break-up and a pass interference, and there was at least one play where Adebo didn't turn his head and could have been called for a PI. OF course the refs followed up that blatant missed PI with a missed block in the back on the ensuing punt return, and then a blatant hold on USC's first play from scrimmage. All's well that ends well, and I thought we were lucky ref-wise against SDSU, but still that was one ugly sequence by the zebras.
Punting was phenomenal. At one point, Bailey kicked a 50-yard, unreturned kick and it brought down his average. He was a touch shakier later, as SC was bringing in the pressure, but still he had 8 punts for a 44 yard average, with only 1 touchback (on the 65 yard punt) and one return for 4 yards. Two punts were dropped in the 20, including a sixty-one yarder from our own 29. Kick-offs weren't just touchbacks, they were going out the back of the end zone. Bailey has got a leg. The only special teams slip ups I noted was that we chose to try to return it twice from our own end zone, both times coming well short of the 20. Would have been easier just to take a knee and get it on the 25.
Anyway, any week you can beat SC is a good one, especially one in which you hold them to just three points. We are now going on 7 consecutive quarters without the opponent scoring a touchdown. And yet, we could have been even better (which I guess is a good thing, and a sentiment Shaw apparently shared).
And now, some good news:
Quote:Edward Aschoff
ESPN Staff Writer
I asked Stanford coach David Shaw why Bryce Love came off the field and went into the locker room late in the fourth quarter of Stanford's 17-3 win over USC and he said that after you carry the ball 22 times you start to "feel every one of those." Shaw said he was sent off the field as a precaution because the game was in hand and Love wasn't going back in but that if they needed Love to come back in he could have. I then asked if Love was OK and Shaw said he was. Love was not made available to the media after the game.
He still shouldn't have been in the game with 3 minutes left and up two TD's.
Last thought: the bacon wrapped hot dogs on the way out were phenomenal.
BC