11-24-2024, 01:33 PM
5. Daniels was #87 of 125 in Total QBR this week, his worst game since September and a median type of performance for his 2024 season. On the year he is now the #88 QB in the nation after being #85 last year. Water is finding its level. I am sure he would be better with a better offensive line but it's not clear that is a reasonable expectation any time in his Stanford career to come and I think we have seen enough - turning in highly consistent 2023 and 2024 seasons at a sub-par level of play for a Power Four QB - to basically know what we have here. It very well may be the best we can do but there should be a genuine competition heading into next year. If we were ruthless and really in it to win we would look very hard at a transfer QB. If we stick with Daniels, I think he could improve to become mediocre next year but I doubt there's more in him than that, and there's no guarantee he improves at all (as he didn't really compared to last season). It will be interesting to see if Brown gets in next week now that his redshirt has officially been preserved. I don't have strong views on whether that should happen and suspect Taylor will do what I would do, which is start Daniels and keep him in if hot and otherwise play it by ear.
6. Shout out to Ford for passing 300 yards rushing on the season. He has the most rushing yards a Stanford freshman has had since Wilkerson in 2010. It will be fun to see where Ford and Davis rank on the all-time list after next week. Neither will come within half of Nelson but both will rank near and ahead of some great backs. Also shout out to Mosley, Ayomanor, and Lamson for putting in a lot of work yesterday to move the chains, the latter breaking our record for QB rushing touchdowns in a season (though it was the second effort when stuffed on fourth down that I found his best effort). [Moving the chains (first down) leader board: Mosley (4), Ayomanor (4), Lamson (4), Ford (2), Daniels (2), Roush] I don't think Roush is a world-beater but I am becoming more confident next year will finally be the year he is a good player, which will also coincide with another year of development for our other tight ends, notably Blackburn but also getting Holt back from injury. On the offensive line, I have heard much be made of the offense doing worse after House went out. I think this is classic correlation is not causation. The offense was already starting to scuffle before that and, in any case, House has not been good this season, including yesterday. PFF actually thought McLaughlin in injury relief was our best OL yesterday, followed by Maikkula and Pale with meh performances, Baklenko and Leyrer playing even worse, and House bringing up the caboose. Really hard to see how this offense figures things out without being saved by transfers at OL.
7. Have a day, Zach Buckey! Play four years, get a half of a sack. Play in potentially your last Big Game, get three sacks in that game alone. We needed somebody to step up with Franklin serving the half game suspension and Buckey sure did, contributing those three sacks as well as another tackle for loss, a pass breakup, and a crunch time tackle for a four yard gain on a 2nd and 15 pass. Really big contributions. Always fun when somebody plays out of their skull and has a game they'll always remember, even if it was a loss. Sinclair also had an inspired effort coming back from injury and playing in his last Big Game, especially his two play sequence forcing a turnover on downs but also making other plays too. Buckey and Sinclair were joined by Edwards, Wright, Rowell, Bernadel, Tafiti, and Sumlin in making multiple plays that showed up positively in the box score. Between Buckey, Rowell, and individual big plays by Franklin and Phillips, it felt like the line did a lot more than usual. The enemy gets a vote and Cal having a terrible offensive line is a big part of that story, but it's good that we could capitalize. Wright had the kind of game we've seen often from him and before him Kyu Blu Kelly in recent years - plays that help us a lot but also getting burned deep in ways that really sting. This was a very encouraging game for Sumlin and if it's at all representative of his ability that is a big deal for us heading into next year. Other freshmen DBs struggled and it generally looks like a part of the roster that needs help via transfers if high school recruiting is going to continue to not get the job done.
8. Special teams did some nice things but the blaring headling is Weselman's screwup. That botched hold likely cost us the game. It felt really big in the moment, even with the significant lead and all the time remaining. Just felt like the fulcrum of the game and an unforced error that would come back to haunt us. It did. Kenney missed a 53 yarder, so that's two times when the field goal unit didn't give us points. Flintoft had net punts of 42 to the 18 (ok), 44 to the 42 (out-kicked coverage a bit but good result), 43 to the 29 (ditto), and 43 to the 2 (spectacular). That's probably one of Flintoft's nicer games. Kick coverage had a lot of guys make tackles that helped but the star was true freshman Mattingly stoning returners at the 21 and the 18, the latter of which forced a fumble. [By the way, those who gripe about officiating never acknowledge the breaks that go our way and that one being ruled a fumble seems like one of those.] Bachmeier made a major contribution with his 35 yard punt return, now 17th in the nation in punt return average, our best since Irwin in 2018. It's a shame Weselman's hold marred the special teams game, which was otherwise quite helpful.
9. Game balls: Mosley, Buckey, Mattingly, Kolodziej
10. One more game left in a disappointing season. To me it still feels like we're playing for something as breaking the string of three win seasons would be an important step in giving the coaches at least something to sell internally and externally. This rebuild faces a lot of headwinds and it doesn't seem like the coaching staff's chops, charisma, or level of university support are going to provide significant boosts. We need to grind this out by slowly showing progress until we find ourselves in another zip code. Beating San Jose State to at least get to four wins is something tangible to support the argument of incremental progress. Otherwise we're just asking everybody - players, recruits, fans, donors - to take it on faith. We can beat San Jose State. Our first three games of the season and, more importantly, our last two have been at a level that would be expected to beat San Jose State. Let's turn in one of those performances and go into the off-season able to say with a straight face that we're slowly building something.
6. Shout out to Ford for passing 300 yards rushing on the season. He has the most rushing yards a Stanford freshman has had since Wilkerson in 2010. It will be fun to see where Ford and Davis rank on the all-time list after next week. Neither will come within half of Nelson but both will rank near and ahead of some great backs. Also shout out to Mosley, Ayomanor, and Lamson for putting in a lot of work yesterday to move the chains, the latter breaking our record for QB rushing touchdowns in a season (though it was the second effort when stuffed on fourth down that I found his best effort). [Moving the chains (first down) leader board: Mosley (4), Ayomanor (4), Lamson (4), Ford (2), Daniels (2), Roush] I don't think Roush is a world-beater but I am becoming more confident next year will finally be the year he is a good player, which will also coincide with another year of development for our other tight ends, notably Blackburn but also getting Holt back from injury. On the offensive line, I have heard much be made of the offense doing worse after House went out. I think this is classic correlation is not causation. The offense was already starting to scuffle before that and, in any case, House has not been good this season, including yesterday. PFF actually thought McLaughlin in injury relief was our best OL yesterday, followed by Maikkula and Pale with meh performances, Baklenko and Leyrer playing even worse, and House bringing up the caboose. Really hard to see how this offense figures things out without being saved by transfers at OL.
7. Have a day, Zach Buckey! Play four years, get a half of a sack. Play in potentially your last Big Game, get three sacks in that game alone. We needed somebody to step up with Franklin serving the half game suspension and Buckey sure did, contributing those three sacks as well as another tackle for loss, a pass breakup, and a crunch time tackle for a four yard gain on a 2nd and 15 pass. Really big contributions. Always fun when somebody plays out of their skull and has a game they'll always remember, even if it was a loss. Sinclair also had an inspired effort coming back from injury and playing in his last Big Game, especially his two play sequence forcing a turnover on downs but also making other plays too. Buckey and Sinclair were joined by Edwards, Wright, Rowell, Bernadel, Tafiti, and Sumlin in making multiple plays that showed up positively in the box score. Between Buckey, Rowell, and individual big plays by Franklin and Phillips, it felt like the line did a lot more than usual. The enemy gets a vote and Cal having a terrible offensive line is a big part of that story, but it's good that we could capitalize. Wright had the kind of game we've seen often from him and before him Kyu Blu Kelly in recent years - plays that help us a lot but also getting burned deep in ways that really sting. This was a very encouraging game for Sumlin and if it's at all representative of his ability that is a big deal for us heading into next year. Other freshmen DBs struggled and it generally looks like a part of the roster that needs help via transfers if high school recruiting is going to continue to not get the job done.
8. Special teams did some nice things but the blaring headling is Weselman's screwup. That botched hold likely cost us the game. It felt really big in the moment, even with the significant lead and all the time remaining. Just felt like the fulcrum of the game and an unforced error that would come back to haunt us. It did. Kenney missed a 53 yarder, so that's two times when the field goal unit didn't give us points. Flintoft had net punts of 42 to the 18 (ok), 44 to the 42 (out-kicked coverage a bit but good result), 43 to the 29 (ditto), and 43 to the 2 (spectacular). That's probably one of Flintoft's nicer games. Kick coverage had a lot of guys make tackles that helped but the star was true freshman Mattingly stoning returners at the 21 and the 18, the latter of which forced a fumble. [By the way, those who gripe about officiating never acknowledge the breaks that go our way and that one being ruled a fumble seems like one of those.] Bachmeier made a major contribution with his 35 yard punt return, now 17th in the nation in punt return average, our best since Irwin in 2018. It's a shame Weselman's hold marred the special teams game, which was otherwise quite helpful.
9. Game balls: Mosley, Buckey, Mattingly, Kolodziej
10. One more game left in a disappointing season. To me it still feels like we're playing for something as breaking the string of three win seasons would be an important step in giving the coaches at least something to sell internally and externally. This rebuild faces a lot of headwinds and it doesn't seem like the coaching staff's chops, charisma, or level of university support are going to provide significant boosts. We need to grind this out by slowly showing progress until we find ourselves in another zip code. Beating San Jose State to at least get to four wins is something tangible to support the argument of incremental progress. Otherwise we're just asking everybody - players, recruits, fans, donors - to take it on faith. We can beat San Jose State. Our first three games of the season and, more importantly, our last two have been at a level that would be expected to beat San Jose State. Let's turn in one of those performances and go into the off-season able to say with a straight face that we're slowly building something.