[81alum]

[quote author=JPRI link=topic=6761.msg50747#msg50747 date=1351431820]
Let's not forget that our defense gave up a net of 10 points yesterday when you factor in the pick 6.

I'll take that any day of the week, even if they give up 700 yards passing.

Exactly.  People get obsessed with yardage, but it's not what matters.  The winner is the team with the most points at the end of the game, not the team with the most yardage.
[/quote]
I agree with both of those sentiments, so far as they go.  They reflect the old "bend but don't break" philosophy which has served Stanford well in the past.  And if we restrict our comments to WSU I might be persuaded that we did bend but didn't break.  But it was not just WSU.  Arizona scored 48 points on us and took us to overtime.  There we definitely broke.  And in the aftermath, we apparently did not figure out how to fix the problem.  Using a similar offense, the Pac-12's worst team put up 400 yards on our vaunted defense. 

So those 400 yards are meaningless in terms of wins, yes.  But they carry meaning when we ponder how future teams--most of them more competent than WSU-- will choose to attack our defense.

Another point to consider:  our offensive woes were increased by WSU's superior ball control offense of its own--though the short passing game.  To make our ground control game work we need to run a lot of plays and wear down the opposition.  We had many fewer opportunities and less time to do that yesterday, since WSU generated twice as many first downs as we did.  We got out ball-controlled, and bend-but-don't-break contributed to that.

[81alum]

[quote author=JPRI link=topic=6761.msg50747#msg50747 date=1351431820]
Let's not forget that our defense gave up a net of 10 points yesterday when you factor in the pick 6.

I'll take that any day of the week, even if they give up 700 yards passing.

Exactly.  People get obsessed with yardage, but it's not what matters.  The winner is the team with the most points at the end of the game, not the team with the most yardage.
[/quote]
I agree with both of those sentiments, so far as they go.  They reflect the old "bend but don't break" philosophy which has served Stanford well in the past.  And if we restrict our comments to WSU I might be persuaded that we did bend but didn't break.  But it was not just WSU.  Arizona scored 48 points on us and took us to overtime.  There we definitely broke.  And in the aftermath, we apparently did not figure out how to fix the problem.  Using a similar offense, the Pac-12's worst team put up 400 yards on our vaunted defense. 

So those 400 yards are meaningless in terms of wins, yes.  But they carry meaning when we ponder how future teams--most of them more competent than WSU-- will choose to attack our defense.

Another point to consider:  our offensive woes were increased by WSU's superior ball control offense of its own--though the short passing game.  To make our ground control game work we need to run a lot of plays and wear down the opposition.  We had many fewer opportunities and less time to do that yesterday, since WSU generated twice as many first downs as we did.  We got out ball-controlled, and bend-but-don't-break contributed to that.