5. This game provided clarity on how Taylor intends to play Daniels and Lamson. It's the passing QB who can run/break tendency in Daniels and the running QB who can pass/break tendency in Lamson, like how Taylor used Dunniway and O'Hara last year. As at Sacramento State, Taylor is perfectly willing (and it seems capable) of having them juggle responsibilities on a play-by-play basis, rather than series or drives or quarters or halves. The more segmented division of playing time in the earlier games may have been the audition phase and now that we know that neither is very good or very separated from the other, Taylor can move on to the 2022 Hornets model, albeit at a lower level of performance. This would drive me insane if I had to decide which QB to play on every down, but we know from past experience Taylor can do it. I can already tell this is going to be very controversial among Stanford fans but I don't mind it. Neither guy is good enough to end the competition and this way we get continued meaningful data points on both and some resilience if either gets injured. In terms of performance last night, among 133 QBs nationally this week Lamson's Total QBR was #71 and Daniels' was #87. Daniels played right on his average while this is the best we've seen Lamson. I continue to think nothing we've seen suggests either is more than a backup level bridge as they're both in the running to be the worst QB in the Pac-12. If we are going to see Daniels continue to get his name called on more pass plays, I really hope his decision-making gets better. He's been a bit of a bonehead this season. He got bailed out on yet another red zone interception due to the pass interference penalty, the illegal forward pass, and other plays that should make worries about his processing and decision-making persist, and that's not to mention the physical error on the missed 3rd down pass to Filkins that was probably the most pivotal play of the game along with Karty's misses (and that throw was easier than 50+ yard field goals). It's interesting that Daniels' snaps were so pass heavy (78 percent) and Lamson's were so run heavy (64 percent). I don't think we have a lot of evidence Daniels is such a better passer to warrant that (I do think evidence is mounting that Lamson has a better knack for using his legs to get us in better down and distance). I wonder if Taylor may be setting up some tendency breaking calls later. It's also possible that Arizona's relative strengths and weaknesses and us playing without Pale led to a bit more of a passing-focused play calling than we would see against some other teams. In any case, I'm not going to have strong views on who should be playing QB when until one of these guys can have a good game. The closest either has come is Daniels against Hawaii, but after seeing New Mexico State's proficiency against Hawaii I'm not sure how good even that game was. Still waiting for either of these guys to really prove anything.
6. The most interesting subplot of this game may have been abruptly going from a running back committee to true freshman Sedrick Irvin getting clear RB1 snaps out of nowhere. This is interesting on several levels. First, the RB committee had actually been one of the most successful parts of our early season. Second, player and coach comments alike invariably talked about Filkins, Smith, and Butler as the main RBs with Irvin typically getting a tip of the hat more in the sense of doing well and being relevant for the future. A snap trajectory of 4, 12, 0, 53 is odd. It will be interesting to see how much of this is week-to-week game plan as opposed to crowning a new RB1, but it seems like a potential watershed for the RB room. To his credit, Irvin seized the opportunity. The opening run was a good play call, good blocking, and then a revelation in terms of Irvin's hard running and breaking of tackles. Irvin also did a nice job bouncing outside for the goal line touchdown. There were more unproductive runs than I would like, but that may have had more to do with blocking than Irvin. Overall, 66 rushing yards is one yard more than Austin Jones' season high as a freshman and, believe it or not, eight yards more than Bryce Love's freshman year high, making Irvin's game (if I'm not mistaken) the most rushing yards by a true freshman for Stanford since Christian McCaffrey's 77 yard rushing game against Utah in 2014. That is deserving of major props. I delight in eating crow and a month into Irvin's career I'm thrilled I already get to. This is already better than I thought we had right to expect based on how Irvin looked in high school. It's too early to know if we have a legit RB1 but we have something.
6. The most interesting subplot of this game may have been abruptly going from a running back committee to true freshman Sedrick Irvin getting clear RB1 snaps out of nowhere. This is interesting on several levels. First, the RB committee had actually been one of the most successful parts of our early season. Second, player and coach comments alike invariably talked about Filkins, Smith, and Butler as the main RBs with Irvin typically getting a tip of the hat more in the sense of doing well and being relevant for the future. A snap trajectory of 4, 12, 0, 53 is odd. It will be interesting to see how much of this is week-to-week game plan as opposed to crowning a new RB1, but it seems like a potential watershed for the RB room. To his credit, Irvin seized the opportunity. The opening run was a good play call, good blocking, and then a revelation in terms of Irvin's hard running and breaking of tackles. Irvin also did a nice job bouncing outside for the goal line touchdown. There were more unproductive runs than I would like, but that may have had more to do with blocking than Irvin. Overall, 66 rushing yards is one yard more than Austin Jones' season high as a freshman and, believe it or not, eight yards more than Bryce Love's freshman year high, making Irvin's game (if I'm not mistaken) the most rushing yards by a true freshman for Stanford since Christian McCaffrey's 77 yard rushing game against Utah in 2014. That is deserving of major props. I delight in eating crow and a month into Irvin's career I'm thrilled I already get to. This is already better than I thought we had right to expect based on how Irvin looked in high school. It's too early to know if we have a legit RB1 but we have something.