[Goose]

As always, I enjoyed your thoughts. Thanks for doing this

<snip>
9. On defense, the story of the game was Sinclair's inspired if complicated Big Game performance. It was inspired in obvious ways - around the ball and closer to the line of scrimmage than he practically ever has been (and in fact getting tackles behind the line of scrimmage a few times), laying the wood on game-changing (it turned out for the worse but easily could have gone the other way) hits - and complicated in equally obvious ways, with PFF continuing to not like the overall player and the personal foul penalties being killers. On balance I appreciated the performance. We need fire and effort, as well as productivity, and he gave all three. In less than two thirds of a game I counted eight positive box score plays and he was split seconds/referee discretion away from two game-changing forced fumbles. On the other hand, his personal fouls were arguably the biggest things in the entire game that cost us the win. I really feel for him on those, though. All three were questionable calls. I didn't find them egregious calls, but they were questionable and it's a really tough break for him to have his effort and impact marred by all three calls going against him, especially the most pivotal play of the game, the awesome hit and forced fumble that was called for targeting and will cost him at least half of what could be the last game of his career.

I wonder about his on-field conduct. The first penalty he got on the Manley interception was a hit that simply didn't need to be made. It was way downfield from the play and just didn't matter.  IMO it was borderline dirty. I think he also complained about the call. From then on, the refs were going to watch him carefully (or be out to get him, take your pick). He needed to understand that and not give them an excuse. He has enough experience he should understand that. He did the opposite. That seems to be a far too common trait in this years team. You need to play with passion while NOT doing anything stupid. Too many times, we have see the latter.

<snip>
12. We are almost there in getting to turn the page on this season and start getting back to work in earnest on the recruiting, roster construction, culture building, and strength and conditioning that will determine whether this rebuild works out. You have to play the games but if we're being honest this fall is one Taylor just needs to get through and never offered much hope of winning or excitement. That we've gotten a modicum of both and that we've had young receivers show out and signs of life in run defense has made this bearable, but the real season starts in a week. Not much upside in playing the #5 schedule in the nation (and maybe that goes up as we're about to play arguably the second best team on our schedule) with a hollowed out roster. I don't expect next week will be competitive but I'm excited for Taylor to get back in the lab and his assistants back on the trail.

Agree. It is far too soon to know what the future holds. Going forward, it is obvious Stanford needs better players and also needs to hold on to the "better" ones we have. Everyone knows it isn't going to simple or easy. We all need to take a breath and see what unfolds. Next year, with the change in conference alone, "everything will be different". Not necessarily better, but different :-). Let's hope TT et al have success.

[Goose]

As always, I enjoyed your thoughts. Thanks for doing this

<snip>
9. On defense, the story of the game was Sinclair's inspired if complicated Big Game performance. It was inspired in obvious ways - around the ball and closer to the line of scrimmage than he practically ever has been (and in fact getting tackles behind the line of scrimmage a few times), laying the wood on game-changing (it turned out for the worse but easily could have gone the other way) hits - and complicated in equally obvious ways, with PFF continuing to not like the overall player and the personal foul penalties being killers. On balance I appreciated the performance. We need fire and effort, as well as productivity, and he gave all three. In less than two thirds of a game I counted eight positive box score plays and he was split seconds/referee discretion away from two game-changing forced fumbles. On the other hand, his personal fouls were arguably the biggest things in the entire game that cost us the win. I really feel for him on those, though. All three were questionable calls. I didn't find them egregious calls, but they were questionable and it's a really tough break for him to have his effort and impact marred by all three calls going against him, especially the most pivotal play of the game, the awesome hit and forced fumble that was called for targeting and will cost him at least half of what could be the last game of his career.

I wonder about his on-field conduct. The first penalty he got on the Manley interception was a hit that simply didn't need to be made. It was way downfield from the play and just didn't matter.  IMO it was borderline dirty. I think he also complained about the call. From then on, the refs were going to watch him carefully (or be out to get him, take your pick). He needed to understand that and not give them an excuse. He has enough experience he should understand that. He did the opposite. That seems to be a far too common trait in this years team. You need to play with passion while NOT doing anything stupid. Too many times, we have see the latter.

<snip>
12. We are almost there in getting to turn the page on this season and start getting back to work in earnest on the recruiting, roster construction, culture building, and strength and conditioning that will determine whether this rebuild works out. You have to play the games but if we're being honest this fall is one Taylor just needs to get through and never offered much hope of winning or excitement. That we've gotten a modicum of both and that we've had young receivers show out and signs of life in run defense has made this bearable, but the real season starts in a week. Not much upside in playing the #5 schedule in the nation (and maybe that goes up as we're about to play arguably the second best team on our schedule) with a hollowed out roster. I don't expect next week will be competitive but I'm excited for Taylor to get back in the lab and his assistants back on the trail.

Agree. It is far too soon to know what the future holds. Going forward, it is obvious Stanford needs better players and also needs to hold on to the "better" ones we have. Everyone knows it isn't going to simple or easy. We all need to take a breath and see what unfolds. Next year, with the change in conference alone, "everything will be different". Not necessarily better, but different :-). Let's hope TT et al have success.