[Austroturf]

I seem to remember reading that David Shaw teams had never lost a lead that they took into the 4th quarter until last year's WSU game. Then of course they did it again in the Alamo Bowl.

And neither of those games were lost due to "turtling". I know last night may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, or best for all of our nerves, but Coach Shaw, in his 8+ years at Stanford, has never blown a game in which we were leading, and his football equivalent of "parking the bus" offense cost us the game. 

At best, people can point to a couple of decisions in tied ball games, with kickers missing short kicks, and punting on fourth and long around the +35.

For me it's mostly a philosophical difference. When you have your foot on the opponent's neck, I think you push down rather than hold or pull back. Last night we had a 2-1 TOP advantage. The ASU defense had already played nearly 30 minutes at the start of the 4th quarter. With a two-score lead you have a chance to put the game away completely with even a FG, and at that point the offense was working with 4 scores in the previous five tries. I think you take that momentum and use it to give your opponent zero hope of coming back and coast the rest of the way. You also reduce the risk of injury to starters which is critical right now with so many guys down or nursing injuries and a correspondingly thinner depth chart.

The ends don't justify the means for me.

Completely agree.  Offense is often the best defense.  A TD scored is worth just as much as one defended.  And your point about TOP is well-taken: we had a 65:35 TOP advantage over the entire game, but let that slip in the 4th quarter.  My estimates of the play-by-play data show that we had a shade over 7 minutes of TOP in the 4th quarter, which means ASU got the other eight.  And that was with us beginning the quarter in possession of the ball; but after that tripping penalty and two ineffectual runs, we punted and went on the defensive.  ASU's paltry offensive output during the first three quarters was largely due to our TOP dominance: their offense was rarely on the field, while our defense was fresh and ready to stuff them.  We flipped that advantage in the 4th quarter by entering turtle mode.

[Austroturf]

I seem to remember reading that David Shaw teams had never lost a lead that they took into the 4th quarter until last year's WSU game. Then of course they did it again in the Alamo Bowl.

And neither of those games were lost due to "turtling". I know last night may not be the most aesthetically pleasing, or best for all of our nerves, but Coach Shaw, in his 8+ years at Stanford, has never blown a game in which we were leading, and his football equivalent of "parking the bus" offense cost us the game. 

At best, people can point to a couple of decisions in tied ball games, with kickers missing short kicks, and punting on fourth and long around the +35.

For me it's mostly a philosophical difference. When you have your foot on the opponent's neck, I think you push down rather than hold or pull back. Last night we had a 2-1 TOP advantage. The ASU defense had already played nearly 30 minutes at the start of the 4th quarter. With a two-score lead you have a chance to put the game away completely with even a FG, and at that point the offense was working with 4 scores in the previous five tries. I think you take that momentum and use it to give your opponent zero hope of coming back and coast the rest of the way. You also reduce the risk of injury to starters which is critical right now with so many guys down or nursing injuries and a correspondingly thinner depth chart.

The ends don't justify the means for me.

Completely agree.  Offense is often the best defense.  A TD scored is worth just as much as one defended.  And your point about TOP is well-taken: we had a 65:35 TOP advantage over the entire game, but let that slip in the 4th quarter.  My estimates of the play-by-play data show that we had a shade over 7 minutes of TOP in the 4th quarter, which means ASU got the other eight.  And that was with us beginning the quarter in possession of the ball; but after that tripping penalty and two ineffectual runs, we punted and went on the defensive.  ASU's paltry offensive output during the first three quarters was largely due to our TOP dominance: their offense was rarely on the field, while our defense was fresh and ready to stuff them.  We flipped that advantage in the 4th quarter by entering turtle mode.