[OutsiderFan]

If they are going to toss the ball to Love and have him pick a hole in a zone running scheme, wider line splits would help.  The flip to that is the wider the splits, the less the OL can help each other in pass protection.

My take on this topic is that Stanford has developed such a reputation for wanting to run, that it will be near impossible to ever get back to being balanced on offense (being able to run and pass equally effectively) until Stanford goes through a phase where they pass much more frequently than they run, so defenses think pass first.

I have advocated game plans that start with play action passes off heavy run actions, for like 10 plays in a row, to start games. This doesn't mean going three wide, this means 22 personnel, a RB, a FB, and a TE, and throwing out of run blocking schemes. This sounds a little nuts I know, but when you have so tilted what you do to one side, and become ineffective as a result, you have to go as far the other way to balance things out. These stats make clear defenses aren't at all worried about passes, because they can sell out to stop the run and usually get a run to stop.

On college football broadcasts, everyone talks about the Safeties being 2-deep or single high, and how that suggests what an offense should be doing on a given play, but nobody focuses on the Linebackers. Play action passes are only effective if the Linebackers react to run. If they do, you can get receivers behind them and in front of Safeties, and maybe behind them is Safeties also react to run. Stanford calls far too many straight drop back passes that don't include run actions to take advantage of overly aggressive defenses expecting run.

Clearly Shaw & Pritchard know some things about offensive football, but I really believe Shaw needs to bring in an Offensive Coordinator with some different perspective who can infuse some new thinking into Stanford's approach.  I honestly thought this year would be Stanford's best offense since 2010.  All the pieces seemed to be in place.  We've seen glimpses, but not enough consistency, possibly due to being too predictable and not making defenses pay enough for their assumptions. It seems quite evident Stanford is way underperforming its talent level on offense. I mean being ranked in the 100s in so many categories, with the OL this team returned, should not happen.

[OutsiderFan]

If they are going to toss the ball to Love and have him pick a hole in a zone running scheme, wider line splits would help.  The flip to that is the wider the splits, the less the OL can help each other in pass protection.

My take on this topic is that Stanford has developed such a reputation for wanting to run, that it will be near impossible to ever get back to being balanced on offense (being able to run and pass equally effectively) until Stanford goes through a phase where they pass much more frequently than they run, so defenses think pass first.

I have advocated game plans that start with play action passes off heavy run actions, for like 10 plays in a row, to start games. This doesn't mean going three wide, this means 22 personnel, a RB, a FB, and a TE, and throwing out of run blocking schemes. This sounds a little nuts I know, but when you have so tilted what you do to one side, and become ineffective as a result, you have to go as far the other way to balance things out. These stats make clear defenses aren't at all worried about passes, because they can sell out to stop the run and usually get a run to stop.

On college football broadcasts, everyone talks about the Safeties being 2-deep or single high, and how that suggests what an offense should be doing on a given play, but nobody focuses on the Linebackers. Play action passes are only effective if the Linebackers react to run. If they do, you can get receivers behind them and in front of Safeties, and maybe behind them is Safeties also react to run. Stanford calls far too many straight drop back passes that don't include run actions to take advantage of overly aggressive defenses expecting run.

Clearly Shaw & Pritchard know some things about offensive football, but I really believe Shaw needs to bring in an Offensive Coordinator with some different perspective who can infuse some new thinking into Stanford's approach.  I honestly thought this year would be Stanford's best offense since 2010.  All the pieces seemed to be in place.  We've seen glimpses, but not enough consistency, possibly due to being too predictable and not making defenses pay enough for their assumptions. It seems quite evident Stanford is way underperforming its talent level on offense. I mean being ranked in the 100s in so many categories, with the OL this team returned, should not happen.