[BostonCard]

Perhaps the reason for that is because Stanford always runs on first down and usually gets stuffed for little to no gain, putting them into immediate passing situation.

People tend to focus on playcalling because it's very visible and (partially because of stuff like Madden) very easy to backseat drive/armchair QB. In this case critcizing the playcalling isn't *wrong,* per se -- certainly it was very bad in the fourth quarter last night, to take the really easy example.

But the real problem is simply that players aren't performing terribly well. You've got lots of dumb penalties. Costello underthrowing St. Brown by a lot. Some other stuff. It's a mistake-filled offense in the sense that a lot of plays are perfectly fine conceptually but aren't being executed. I won't leave the conclusion there, though: if you have players you think are good who make lots of dumb mistakes, on some level this is a coaching problem. But what? Are the players not practicing well? At a conceptual (rather than playcalling) level is the offense not executable? Something else? I have no idea! Something, however, has gone very deeply wrong because this offense is a talented one. And that's a coaching problem, and it's more than just "I wish there was a play-action or jet sweep here and there." (Which, to be clear, probably would help.)

I completely agree with you here.  Play-calling is also non-falsifiable.  If you say we should have zagged when we zigged, it's not like we can go to an alternate universe and see the zag play being blown up; we just know that the zig was stuffed.  So, I am normally very reluctant to criticize plays.

That being said, this year there is accumulating evidence that our player personnel is not well suited to running the football.  The "stuff rate" cited by slide is particularly egregious, and looking at tape the runs very often look doomed from the start, with defensive linemen in the backfield before the running back can hit the hole.  So, while we need to acknowledge that Shaw is actually passing more than he has historically, more often than not the shift seems to come after he has proven (again) that we can't run the ball.  I admire his willingness to give the run game every chance to succeed, but this is one case where the "eye test" and the statistics don't lie.  We are a worse rushing team than every other team in the Pac-12, including pass happy Washington State, and even worse than every team in the pass happy Big Twelve.   I hope that even though it is a challenge to our offensive identity, Shaw realizes that our best chance to win will come by passing more early and complementing the passing game with a few well-timed runs to keep the defense honest, rather than waiting until our rushing attack is proven infeffective after the first couple series of the game.

And I agree, the bigger indictment of Shaw and the rest of the coaching staff is not that he is calling runs when he should be calling passes, or running between the tackles when he should be running outside.  Rather, it is that the staff has failed to either recruit or develop the talent needed to run his preferred scheme.  And, though it might be tempting to cite recruiting limitations that we are facing, I don't think there is a lack of individual talent on the team.  And if getting a collection of individuals to execute together as a team is not the first and most important duty of a coach, I don't know what is.

BC

[BostonCard]

Perhaps the reason for that is because Stanford always runs on first down and usually gets stuffed for little to no gain, putting them into immediate passing situation.

People tend to focus on playcalling because it's very visible and (partially because of stuff like Madden) very easy to backseat drive/armchair QB. In this case critcizing the playcalling isn't *wrong,* per se -- certainly it was very bad in the fourth quarter last night, to take the really easy example.

But the real problem is simply that players aren't performing terribly well. You've got lots of dumb penalties. Costello underthrowing St. Brown by a lot. Some other stuff. It's a mistake-filled offense in the sense that a lot of plays are perfectly fine conceptually but aren't being executed. I won't leave the conclusion there, though: if you have players you think are good who make lots of dumb mistakes, on some level this is a coaching problem. But what? Are the players not practicing well? At a conceptual (rather than playcalling) level is the offense not executable? Something else? I have no idea! Something, however, has gone very deeply wrong because this offense is a talented one. And that's a coaching problem, and it's more than just "I wish there was a play-action or jet sweep here and there." (Which, to be clear, probably would help.)

I completely agree with you here.  Play-calling is also non-falsifiable.  If you say we should have zagged when we zigged, it's not like we can go to an alternate universe and see the zag play being blown up; we just know that the zig was stuffed.  So, I am normally very reluctant to criticize plays.

That being said, this year there is accumulating evidence that our player personnel is not well suited to running the football.  The "stuff rate" cited by slide is particularly egregious, and looking at tape the runs very often look doomed from the start, with defensive linemen in the backfield before the running back can hit the hole.  So, while we need to acknowledge that Shaw is actually passing more than he has historically, more often than not the shift seems to come after he has proven (again) that we can't run the ball.  I admire his willingness to give the run game every chance to succeed, but this is one case where the "eye test" and the statistics don't lie.  We are a worse rushing team than every other team in the Pac-12, including pass happy Washington State, and even worse than every team in the pass happy Big Twelve.   I hope that even though it is a challenge to our offensive identity, Shaw realizes that our best chance to win will come by passing more early and complementing the passing game with a few well-timed runs to keep the defense honest, rather than waiting until our rushing attack is proven infeffective after the first couple series of the game.

And I agree, the bigger indictment of Shaw and the rest of the coaching staff is not that he is calling runs when he should be calling passes, or running between the tackles when he should be running outside.  Rather, it is that the staff has failed to either recruit or develop the talent needed to run his preferred scheme.  And, though it might be tempting to cite recruiting limitations that we are facing, I don't think there is a lack of individual talent on the team.  And if getting a collection of individuals to execute together as a team is not the first and most important duty of a coach, I don't know what is.

BC