[cctop]

Now why our defense is so poor this year is a good question.  Is it recruiting, coaching, effort, scheme, execution, all of the above?

The general wisdom is that our defense is bad this year, but is it significantly worse than other teams?

I don't think we can look at statistical rankings to answer that yet, because two games isn't a big enough sample size.

All college football games this year seem to be unusually high-scoring.   For example, take a look at the other Pac-12 games last weekend:

USC 34
Ariz 30

Oregon 43
WashSt 29

Wash 27
OregonSt 21

UCLA 34
Cal  10

Our 35-32 score seems well in the middle of it.

If I had to guess I'd say it has more to do with the reduced practice time, specifically with respect conditioning, a lack of live tackling, and new players learning their assignments.  We had a couple of bad blown defensive assignments against Colorado that really hurt.

Our offense didn't help.  We went 3-and-out on three consecutive drives in the 1st quarter leaving the D on the field. Then the 3-and-out after Colorado scored to start the 2nd half was really deflating.

Yes, we could and should have won that game.  But I feel like there's a lot more to the story than, "Stanford's D is just bad this year."

[cctop]

Now why our defense is so poor this year is a good question.  Is it recruiting, coaching, effort, scheme, execution, all of the above?

The general wisdom is that our defense is bad this year, but is it significantly worse than other teams?

I don't think we can look at statistical rankings to answer that yet, because two games isn't a big enough sample size.

All college football games this year seem to be unusually high-scoring.   For example, take a look at the other Pac-12 games last weekend:

USC 34
Ariz 30

Oregon 43
WashSt 29

Wash 27
OregonSt 21

UCLA 34
Cal  10

Our 35-32 score seems well in the middle of it.

If I had to guess I'd say it has more to do with the reduced practice time, specifically with respect conditioning, a lack of live tackling, and new players learning their assignments.  We had a couple of bad blown defensive assignments against Colorado that really hurt.

Our offense didn't help.  We went 3-and-out on three consecutive drives in the 1st quarter leaving the D on the field. Then the 3-and-out after Colorado scored to start the 2nd half was really deflating.

Yes, we could and should have won that game.  But I feel like there's a lot more to the story than, "Stanford's D is just bad this year."