One of my core beliefs relating to the air-raid is that it makes a defense soft. As they largely practice against it. WSU it its best years had a complimentary defense that played fast. USC to me when it is strong has been about power. Bruising physical football. It’s moving away from that is fine by me.
And how bout those Hawkeyes!
AF runs. Period. If you can grind against an up-tempo offense you keep them off the field. They lose rhythm. Stan-Oregon 2013 is in my top 5 all time Stanford games.
And how bout those Hawkeyes!
(12-27-2019, 10:49 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: It is shameful to give up 40+ points to Iowa. The most they scored against a power 5 opponent not Rutgers was 27 before tonight.
Slovis was hurt and knocked out of game, and Fink did throw a pick 6, but still, USC shouldn’t be giving up 42 points to Iowa, let alone 49, which is the most they scored in any game this season including Middle Tennessee State.
It appears the Air Raid offense has made USC a bit soft.
AF runs. Period. If you can grind against an up-tempo offense you keep them off the field. They lose rhythm. Stan-Oregon 2013 is in my top 5 all time Stanford games.
(12-28-2019, 06:12 AM)JohnR34231 Wrote:(12-28-2019, 05:40 AM)OutsiderFan Wrote:(12-28-2019, 12:17 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-27-2019, 11:36 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: And Air Force holds the Coogs to 34 fewer points than Stanford did, in a 31-21 victory, capping a pitiful PAC-12 Bowl performance evening.
Unless my math is wrong, 49 - 21 is 28, not 34, not that my bit of pedantry changes the underlying message that we did not have a good defense this year.
BC
Hmm, thought the score was 55-24 from memory, but yes it hardly matters because the point remains the same no matter my misremembered score.
(12-28-2019, 03:31 AM)Austroturf Wrote:(12-28-2019, 12:17 AM)BostonCard Wrote:(12-27-2019, 11:36 PM)OutsiderFan Wrote: And Air Force holds the Coogs to 34 fewer points than Stanford did, in a 31-21 victory, capping a pitiful PAC-12 Bowl performance evening.
Unless my math is wrong, 49 - 21 is 28, not 34, not that my bit of pedantry changes the underlying message that we did not have a good defense this year.
BC
The sobering stat in the Wazzu-Air Force game is that Air Force amassed 371 rushing yards vs. the Cougars and had a TOP of over 43 minutes, which means Leach's offense only saw the field for a bit over 16 minutes. We barely even tried to run against the Cougars and rushed for a total of 6 yards on 10 carries. We also lost the TOP battle 34 to 26. Davis Mills' school record 504 passing yards only netted 22 points. What does Air Force have that Stanford is missing? The Falcons did to Wazzu what we once were famed for.
Air Force had a the services of all five OL being experienced Seniors, and from what I could tell, both a faster and a more powerful RB than Stanford had available. It’s also possible Air Force had a better conceived and executed game plan than Stanford had on offense, some of which can be traced to having an experienced OL.
Air Force only really stopped the Coogs on 4th down plays inside the 10, as we know the Air Raid weakness and on the last desperate drive. Otherwise, their defense was the offense that possessed the ball for almost 3/4 of the game.
Yeah, one nice thing about recruiting at Air Force, is while you may not get four and five star players, the recruits you do get are highly likely to be around for four years. Also, while you can't technically redshirt a player, you can accomplish the same thing by sending him to the prep school for a year.