[Spiny_Norman]

But contrast Saturday's mauling with Harbaugh's first game against a highly ranked SC in LA. No comparison. Also, a bit of an unfair comparison, because there was an extra month before facing SC in '07.  I do think this probably being the last matchup in some time added a lot of fuel to SC's fire and they avoided any John David Booty moments. SC gave that game away in '07, but at least Stanford was capable of taking it.  I'm not sure this year's team is capable of anything close. I don't think there is enough time in any game or enough vindictiveness for anyone to hang 222 on anyone, but if USC wanted to do it, they could have gotten about half way there. 

1960 (no conference victories) is a real possibility with this schedule. Assuming Taylor can fire everyone up to avoid another Davis debacle, Stanford can't beat any of the teams remaining on their schedule without significant improvement.  There is always one of those games where it comes together, so I'd be surprised if that happens, but only mildly.

The week before the Greatest Upset of All Time, ASU thumped Stanford 41-3. The Cardinal had negative rushing yards and was 2-14 on 3rd down. ASU sacked QB TC Ostrander 7 times. He suffered a seizure and could not play the next week. No one could have foreseen what would happen at the Coliseum.

After the game, Harbaugh said, "We need to do a better job as coaches and our players need to execute better themselves. Tonight was the first time I feel we haven't gotten better this season. I feel we need to regroup and keep working hard." And as we know, they were resilient after getting pushed around by a superior team (ASU) and did regroup the next week. 

This week is a big test for the current Stanford team and coaches. How resilient are they? Still, even with my mental image of the Blutarsky speech in Animal House ("was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"), this year's team still might get shellacked regularly this season. Effort and scheme can only get you so far when the gap appears so big in talent, strength and speed. But I hope they prove me wrong.

[Spiny_Norman]

But contrast Saturday's mauling with Harbaugh's first game against a highly ranked SC in LA. No comparison. Also, a bit of an unfair comparison, because there was an extra month before facing SC in '07.  I do think this probably being the last matchup in some time added a lot of fuel to SC's fire and they avoided any John David Booty moments. SC gave that game away in '07, but at least Stanford was capable of taking it.  I'm not sure this year's team is capable of anything close. I don't think there is enough time in any game or enough vindictiveness for anyone to hang 222 on anyone, but if USC wanted to do it, they could have gotten about half way there. 

1960 (no conference victories) is a real possibility with this schedule. Assuming Taylor can fire everyone up to avoid another Davis debacle, Stanford can't beat any of the teams remaining on their schedule without significant improvement.  There is always one of those games where it comes together, so I'd be surprised if that happens, but only mildly.

The week before the Greatest Upset of All Time, ASU thumped Stanford 41-3. The Cardinal had negative rushing yards and was 2-14 on 3rd down. ASU sacked QB TC Ostrander 7 times. He suffered a seizure and could not play the next week. No one could have foreseen what would happen at the Coliseum.

After the game, Harbaugh said, "We need to do a better job as coaches and our players need to execute better themselves. Tonight was the first time I feel we haven't gotten better this season. I feel we need to regroup and keep working hard." And as we know, they were resilient after getting pushed around by a superior team (ASU) and did regroup the next week. 

This week is a big test for the current Stanford team and coaches. How resilient are they? Still, even with my mental image of the Blutarsky speech in Animal House ("was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"), this year's team still might get shellacked regularly this season. Effort and scheme can only get you so far when the gap appears so big in talent, strength and speed. But I hope they prove me wrong.