11-22-2021, 06:11 PM
Papa, I would respectfully disagree on a couple of points. Oregon was fortunate to beat Cal and got steamrolled by Utah. They were never deserving of a playoff bid. I think that Utah will roll over them again if they get into the championship game and I give the Beavers a decent chance to beat them. SC is a poorly coached team only a hair better than Stanford based solely on the WR's who can catch and scoot. THEY got steamrolled by UCLA. So that's one sloppy win over the worst team in D1, a victory over a bottom feeder and a win over an overrated Duck team.
Regardless of their lack of talent, speed and size on defense they should tackle better. Tackling itself is desire, commitment and technique. We're talking about routine stops not otherworldly physical and mental plays like we saw 2009-2015. Also if you closely watch end zone replays the Stanford safeties, principally Williams, are extremely slow to react and too careful in Anderson's read and react system. Williams makes up for lack of talent by not understanding where he should be as play enfolds.
Finally Stanford is hamstrung by the talent gap. Perhaps Yurosek could start for a majority of Pac 12 teams. Peat and Jones would be benchwarmers for everyone else. Tremayne was Stanford's best player, a kid who could make Arcega Whiteside impossible catches in traffic. His loss was catastrophic. Kelly is a top flight corner and Karty has the leg to be All American but why use a kicker when you're down three or four TD's. That's about it. There is some promise. McKee is still raw as organic sugar, McGill has some ability, Higgins can be a star and Farrell and Filkins need to be given a much better chance to play regularly. Both lines return a bunch of duds in 2022 and the LB's and DB's basically can't play.
I'm not going to talk about the coaches. There are two sides to the issue and the sides are as far apart as Dems and GOPers in D.C.
This team can lose to Colgate unless somebody can find some EUTM buried deeply into the stadium and practice field sod. Nobody any good will stay five years so if a freshman can actually block, can basically tackle, he should play. He'll make errors but they need to look to 2023. 2022 can be a truly historically bad season.
Regardless of their lack of talent, speed and size on defense they should tackle better. Tackling itself is desire, commitment and technique. We're talking about routine stops not otherworldly physical and mental plays like we saw 2009-2015. Also if you closely watch end zone replays the Stanford safeties, principally Williams, are extremely slow to react and too careful in Anderson's read and react system. Williams makes up for lack of talent by not understanding where he should be as play enfolds.
Finally Stanford is hamstrung by the talent gap. Perhaps Yurosek could start for a majority of Pac 12 teams. Peat and Jones would be benchwarmers for everyone else. Tremayne was Stanford's best player, a kid who could make Arcega Whiteside impossible catches in traffic. His loss was catastrophic. Kelly is a top flight corner and Karty has the leg to be All American but why use a kicker when you're down three or four TD's. That's about it. There is some promise. McKee is still raw as organic sugar, McGill has some ability, Higgins can be a star and Farrell and Filkins need to be given a much better chance to play regularly. Both lines return a bunch of duds in 2022 and the LB's and DB's basically can't play.
I'm not going to talk about the coaches. There are two sides to the issue and the sides are as far apart as Dems and GOPers in D.C.
This team can lose to Colgate unless somebody can find some EUTM buried deeply into the stadium and practice field sod. Nobody any good will stay five years so if a freshman can actually block, can basically tackle, he should play. He'll make errors but they need to look to 2023. 2022 can be a truly historically bad season.