[Goose]

I think it is important to consider Oregon's preparation for this game. All summer long the Oregon press was talking about Stanford. Not Washington, but rather Stanford. Oregon played three relatively easy games before they played us. They didn't show much, and didn't appear to play outstandingly. I suspect that the coaches were really working on preparing to play us, not Bowling Green, Portland State and SJSU. The players were quoted all summer talking about Stanford. The point here is that they were really well prepared to play us, knew what they were going to do on both offense and defense, had confidence, and played just about as well as they can play. In fact, for 58 minutes they played at 150% of how good they actually are, IMHO.

We were not as well prepared, and we didn't play as well as they did, for sure initially and probably most of the game.  We were fortunate to win, to say the least. What our team did well was to continue to compete. KJ stepped up.We learned our guys are competitors, don't give up, don't panic, and have some skills. We can throw the ball when the other team knows we intend to throw it. If this were a "normal" game, Stanford would have won it without all the drama. But it was not a normal game.

Herbert is good, but not 92% good. Oregon was sky high but also well prepared and determined. It will be interesting to see what happens to Oregon the rest of the year, I don't expect that they can play at this level every week. If they can, they probably will beat UW. This weeks game will give them an understanding of what they need to do in terms of limiting mistakes. I don't think they will fall apart, but there will be a regression to the mean. If Oregon takes the Stanford game as a positive, not as a disaster, cleans up some of their simpler problems, they will be a good, but not top 10 quality, team. Can they be better than that? I am not sure, but I don't think so.

How about Stanford going forward? We are right now in the top 10. Do we belong there? Hard to say. We are 4-0, and have played three "good" teams, which is more than anybody else, I think. However, this last game is hard to give us lots of credit for. We also have for certain serious OL issues that threaten our identity as a "running team". We next play a Notre Dame team that is similarly in the top 10 but has played only one good team. They just changed QBs (maybe). They are where they are because of their name, not because of who they have defeated. Cal has a resume that is as good. Whichever team loses this next game will be labeled a "pretender". While a loss in this game doesn't change our situation in the PAC-12, it would impact our reputation much more than it should. Paradoxically, a victory doesn't help us as much as one might expect because it would be ND that is the pretender and beating them was no big deal.

For whatever reason, I feel we are hanging on to our position by our fingernails. That isn't really fair, because our defense has shown much better than expected, particularly up front. Our passing game has been positively lethal, which I think nobody expected. Improved yes, but this good, I didn't expect. The OL problem generates this anxiety. The idea that BL can't reach 150+ yards basically at will was not expected. Next week is important, because we will either get better or we will get worse. I don't see us hanging around the top of the North and the top 10 without solidifying the OL more than they are now. If they don't get better, defenses will start concentrating more on our passing game, and that will undoubtedly affect our production.

[Goose]

I think it is important to consider Oregon's preparation for this game. All summer long the Oregon press was talking about Stanford. Not Washington, but rather Stanford. Oregon played three relatively easy games before they played us. They didn't show much, and didn't appear to play outstandingly. I suspect that the coaches were really working on preparing to play us, not Bowling Green, Portland State and SJSU. The players were quoted all summer talking about Stanford. The point here is that they were really well prepared to play us, knew what they were going to do on both offense and defense, had confidence, and played just about as well as they can play. In fact, for 58 minutes they played at 150% of how good they actually are, IMHO.

We were not as well prepared, and we didn't play as well as they did, for sure initially and probably most of the game.  We were fortunate to win, to say the least. What our team did well was to continue to compete. KJ stepped up.We learned our guys are competitors, don't give up, don't panic, and have some skills. We can throw the ball when the other team knows we intend to throw it. If this were a "normal" game, Stanford would have won it without all the drama. But it was not a normal game.

Herbert is good, but not 92% good. Oregon was sky high but also well prepared and determined. It will be interesting to see what happens to Oregon the rest of the year, I don't expect that they can play at this level every week. If they can, they probably will beat UW. This weeks game will give them an understanding of what they need to do in terms of limiting mistakes. I don't think they will fall apart, but there will be a regression to the mean. If Oregon takes the Stanford game as a positive, not as a disaster, cleans up some of their simpler problems, they will be a good, but not top 10 quality, team. Can they be better than that? I am not sure, but I don't think so.

How about Stanford going forward? We are right now in the top 10. Do we belong there? Hard to say. We are 4-0, and have played three "good" teams, which is more than anybody else, I think. However, this last game is hard to give us lots of credit for. We also have for certain serious OL issues that threaten our identity as a "running team". We next play a Notre Dame team that is similarly in the top 10 but has played only one good team. They just changed QBs (maybe). They are where they are because of their name, not because of who they have defeated. Cal has a resume that is as good. Whichever team loses this next game will be labeled a "pretender". While a loss in this game doesn't change our situation in the PAC-12, it would impact our reputation much more than it should. Paradoxically, a victory doesn't help us as much as one might expect because it would be ND that is the pretender and beating them was no big deal.

For whatever reason, I feel we are hanging on to our position by our fingernails. That isn't really fair, because our defense has shown much better than expected, particularly up front. Our passing game has been positively lethal, which I think nobody expected. Improved yes, but this good, I didn't expect. The OL problem generates this anxiety. The idea that BL can't reach 150+ yards basically at will was not expected. Next week is important, because we will either get better or we will get worse. I don't see us hanging around the top of the North and the top 10 without solidifying the OL more than they are now. If they don't get better, defenses will start concentrating more on our passing game, and that will undoubtedly affect our production.