[GK3]

Neither West, McKee, or Mills plays on defense and that is Stanford's big weakness right now. Gaining 400 yards and scoring 30 points a game won't matter if the defense is giving up 500 yards and 40 points.

True. What do we know about Kyu Blu Kelly? We are short handed at corner, and with everybody playing "up" a position because Adebo isn't there we are already stretched. Stretching even more to play without Kelly isn't viable. Oregon had a receiver that we couldn't cover, and that is fatal in almost all cases.

If we want to get better we have to get better at defense first.  Give up 9 of 11 4th down tries to Oregon says a lot about the defense.  In contrast we went something like 4 for 13.  Last year we gave up more points over 12 games than any year going back to Walt's last year.  As good as our offense might be, we absolutely have to play better defense, or the QB  has to have the game of his life every game and the offensive play calling has to improve markedly.  I agree that out play calling could be better but if you give up nearly 35 points a game you are going to lose a lot more than you win.  We also had the ball something like 4 minutes more than Oregon.  Defense is what wins games, plain and simple.

[GK3]

Neither West, McKee, or Mills plays on defense and that is Stanford's big weakness right now. Gaining 400 yards and scoring 30 points a game won't matter if the defense is giving up 500 yards and 40 points.

True. What do we know about Kyu Blu Kelly? We are short handed at corner, and with everybody playing "up" a position because Adebo isn't there we are already stretched. Stretching even more to play without Kelly isn't viable. Oregon had a receiver that we couldn't cover, and that is fatal in almost all cases.

If we want to get better we have to get better at defense first.  Give up 9 of 11 4th down tries to Oregon says a lot about the defense.  In contrast we went something like 4 for 13.  Last year we gave up more points over 12 games than any year going back to Walt's last year.  As good as our offense might be, we absolutely have to play better defense, or the QB  has to have the game of his life every game and the offensive play calling has to improve markedly.  I agree that out play calling could be better but if you give up nearly 35 points a game you are going to lose a lot more than you win.  We also had the ball something like 4 minutes more than Oregon.  Defense is what wins games, plain and simple.