[msqueri]

It’s all in the lines. And the lines suck.

Poor protection on offense. Hardly a pass rush on defense. They have a chance against teams that have a similar pass rush because of the Stanford receivers.

Perhaps Bailey will get a sack or two along the way but the DL and for Sam’s sake the other edge guys have no push. Anderson hardly ever blitzes his ILB’s (or just LB’s for Sam). Was Penix even touched?

And it’s going to be even worse in 2023.

I do not think the offensive line sucks. The Washington game came against great edge defenders (ZTF the sack champion of the Pac-12 before his injury, Trice and Martin two of the conference's emerging stars this season, Smalls a former 5-star recruit) and a pass defense PFF has judged to be #12 in America so far, and they got to play against a Stanford team missing both starting tackles for a chunk of the game and having neither starting tackle healthy all game (Hinton out, Rouse hobbled for the half of the game he played). Very rash if anybody is concluding the quality of Stanford's offensive line based on one game against the best pass rush we face all season (nobody else even top 20 on PFF and UCLA and Notre Dame the only ones even top 40) without our tackles.

For what it's worth, PFF currently has Stanford as #80 in pass blocking and #21 in run blocking. That does not suck. If one figures that Rouse + Hinton > Miller + McLaughlin (which is clearly the case, let's see what health has in store for us) and that things get easier in terms of opponents (PFF has Oregon as the #120 pass rush), it's easy to see OL play getting better. I continue to think this is a relatively good OL by Stanford's recent standards and has a chance to be our best in seven years.

Don't get me wrong, the TEAM sucks. But offensive line is quite possibly the best thing about the entire team. A conservative take is it's a top three unit on the team (along with QB and WR), though OL has certainly played better for us this season than WR has.

Nothing to quibble with on your take on our defense's pass rush. It's bleak. I have no faith in Lance Anderson-led defenses, now or going forward.

Agree with you next season looks even worse than this season. I'd have to be very surprised by key players deciding to return who I think are gonzo and/or significant coaching staff changes to think there's a prayer 2023 won't be one of the worst Power Five teams in America. Again.

[msqueri]

It’s all in the lines. And the lines suck.

Poor protection on offense. Hardly a pass rush on defense. They have a chance against teams that have a similar pass rush because of the Stanford receivers.

Perhaps Bailey will get a sack or two along the way but the DL and for Sam’s sake the other edge guys have no push. Anderson hardly ever blitzes his ILB’s (or just LB’s for Sam). Was Penix even touched?

And it’s going to be even worse in 2023.

I do not think the offensive line sucks. The Washington game came against great edge defenders (ZTF the sack champion of the Pac-12 before his injury, Trice and Martin two of the conference's emerging stars this season, Smalls a former 5-star recruit) and a pass defense PFF has judged to be #12 in America so far, and they got to play against a Stanford team missing both starting tackles for a chunk of the game and having neither starting tackle healthy all game (Hinton out, Rouse hobbled for the half of the game he played). Very rash if anybody is concluding the quality of Stanford's offensive line based on one game against the best pass rush we face all season (nobody else even top 20 on PFF and UCLA and Notre Dame the only ones even top 40) without our tackles.

For what it's worth, PFF currently has Stanford as #80 in pass blocking and #21 in run blocking. That does not suck. If one figures that Rouse + Hinton > Miller + McLaughlin (which is clearly the case, let's see what health has in store for us) and that things get easier in terms of opponents (PFF has Oregon as the #120 pass rush), it's easy to see OL play getting better. I continue to think this is a relatively good OL by Stanford's recent standards and has a chance to be our best in seven years.

Don't get me wrong, the TEAM sucks. But offensive line is quite possibly the best thing about the entire team. A conservative take is it's a top three unit on the team (along with QB and WR), though OL has certainly played better for us this season than WR has.

Nothing to quibble with on your take on our defense's pass rush. It's bleak. I have no faith in Lance Anderson-led defenses, now or going forward.

Agree with you next season looks even worse than this season. I'd have to be very surprised by key players deciding to return who I think are gonzo and/or significant coaching staff changes to think there's a prayer 2023 won't be one of the worst Power Five teams in America. Again.