[washingtonismoney]

One more point here. Stanford fans are, for whatever reason, fixated on offense. The (typically implicit) premise in these discussions is that the defense is fine. But I'd like to challenge that implicit conventional wisdom. While I think the offense could use an overhaul in the offseason, the defense is (in my mind) also leaky enough to warrant some rethinking. 

First of all, coming into the year, Stanford's offense has actually outperformed the defense during the recent years of the Shaw era: 
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BonaguraESPN/status/1040688080850579456[/tweet]

The defense has already been consistently stout this year either. Both defensive performances during the two-game losing streak were, of course, hardly vintage ones. Stanford has now surrendered over 6 yards per play for four straight games, for the second time in the Shaw era (the first being in 2011). 

It appears to be a bit of a trend. Last year, despite the most experienced defense in the Shaw era, the team was similarly porous. 

So there's been, in my mind, a definite drop-off in performance on both sides of the ball in recent years. While the record has cosmetically been similar, the underlying performance is not as good. Shaw needs to rethink his program in toto.

[washingtonismoney]

One more point here. Stanford fans are, for whatever reason, fixated on offense. The (typically implicit) premise in these discussions is that the defense is fine. But I'd like to challenge that implicit conventional wisdom. While I think the offense could use an overhaul in the offseason, the defense is (in my mind) also leaky enough to warrant some rethinking. 

First of all, coming into the year, Stanford's offense has actually outperformed the defense during the recent years of the Shaw era: 
[tweet]https://twitter.com/BonaguraESPN/status/1040688080850579456[/tweet]

The defense has already been consistently stout this year either. Both defensive performances during the two-game losing streak were, of course, hardly vintage ones. Stanford has now surrendered over 6 yards per play for four straight games, for the second time in the Shaw era (the first being in 2011). 

It appears to be a bit of a trend. Last year, despite the most experienced defense in the Shaw era, the team was similarly porous. 

So there's been, in my mind, a definite drop-off in performance on both sides of the ball in recent years. While the record has cosmetically been similar, the underlying performance is not as good. Shaw needs to rethink his program in toto.