The decline of our OL has occurred so insidiously we failed to notice. McCaffrey and a healthy Love in 2017 helped to obscure the problem, but it was there. Love's absurd runs particularly helped to obscure the fact that Stanford, relatively speaking, had a very ineffective running game. The feast was mammoth, the famines were long.
The problem started in 2014. It started with me screaming at Murphy and Caspers for false starting, two different guys for costly chop blocks, and a surge in sacks allowed. I took to keeping a file called "OL Mistakes," a number the peaked at 11 in the Washington game. The OL settled a bit in the latter part of the season, but the decline had begun.
Football Outsiders tracks this stuff obsessively, Here are our for adjusted (to the quality of the defense) yards per carry over the last five seasons:
2014: 59
2015: 41 (Mac 2)
2016: 48 (Mac 3)
2017: 74 (Love 3)
2018: 124 (Love 4)
And the pass protection numbers—our ranking for sacks allowed as a percentage of passes attempted plus sacks:
2014: 59
2015: 62
2016: 125
2017: 17
2018: 44
Adding the run ranking and pass protection and then averaging them to get an overall OL ranking, you get:
2014: 59
2015: 53
2016: 86
2017: 45
2018: 84
Some specifics for those interested:
Short yardage (converting 3rd or 4th and two yards or less)
2014: 23
2015: 12
2016: 79
2017: 49
2018: 94
Percentage of runs stopped for no gain or for a loss.
2014: 23
2015: 20
2016: 9
2017: 105
2018: 120
A mammoth leap last year, continuing this year.
This is not the Tunnel Workers Union and we are not the Home of Intellectual Brutality--and haven't been for years. And if we have an OL coaching or recruiting problem, of both, that isn't new either, imo.
The problem started in 2014. It started with me screaming at Murphy and Caspers for false starting, two different guys for costly chop blocks, and a surge in sacks allowed. I took to keeping a file called "OL Mistakes," a number the peaked at 11 in the Washington game. The OL settled a bit in the latter part of the season, but the decline had begun.
Football Outsiders tracks this stuff obsessively, Here are our for adjusted (to the quality of the defense) yards per carry over the last five seasons:
2014: 59
2015: 41 (Mac 2)
2016: 48 (Mac 3)
2017: 74 (Love 3)
2018: 124 (Love 4)
And the pass protection numbers—our ranking for sacks allowed as a percentage of passes attempted plus sacks:
2014: 59
2015: 62
2016: 125
2017: 17
2018: 44
Adding the run ranking and pass protection and then averaging them to get an overall OL ranking, you get:
2014: 59
2015: 53
2016: 86
2017: 45
2018: 84
Some specifics for those interested:
Short yardage (converting 3rd or 4th and two yards or less)
2014: 23
2015: 12
2016: 79
2017: 49
2018: 94
Percentage of runs stopped for no gain or for a loss.
2014: 23
2015: 20
2016: 9
2017: 105
2018: 120
A mammoth leap last year, continuing this year.
This is not the Tunnel Workers Union and we are not the Home of Intellectual Brutality--and haven't been for years. And if we have an OL coaching or recruiting problem, of both, that isn't new either, imo.