[msqueri]

5. Somebody watching that game who didn't know much about either team, especially somebody flipping to the games with ranked teams we were counterprogrammed against, would come away with a clear picture of Stanford football: hopeless up front on offense and lacking in athleticism on defense. There are two things that exemplified where we are. First, the six sacks showed both how little prayer our three young OL (Ugorji, Brown, House) have and how massively, historically inept Gulbranson is at feeling and avoiding pressure (now dead last 138th of 138 QBs nationally in the sack dimension of Total QBR). Second, Jennings' highlight reel evading pressure improvisational flip and the receiver's subsequent winding through so many defenders on the way to a dynamic 42 yard touchdown showed both the difference a playmaker at QB can make and the deficit between our defensive athletes and what good teams throw at us as weapons. There is no getting around that, while Gulbranson at his best can manage an offense and place a ball, he is a liability in other respects. In this game, he was 105th of 113 quarterbacks nationally in Total QBR this week. He now has an abysmal Total QBR in half the games this season and on the year is 127th of 138 in Total QBR and 111th in PFF when narrowing down to a similar sized field. There's Solid Ben and Bad Ben and halfway through the season the overall year has not been good. At this point it will be pretty tough for Gulbranson to match the level of play Daniels had the last two years, though I will still hold out hope for not only the kind of turnaround he had after the initial flubs but actually sustaining it rather than letting Bad Ben return like yesterday. For the future, unless we are cleverly holding Brown and Rizk out even in garbage time in order to hide assets from the surveillance of transfer portal suitors, there isn't much point in giving the current QBs on the roster much thought. A couple months out from one of the most intriguing aspects of our year, seeing what we can get at QB in the portal.

7. Luck is going to have quite a dilemma in figuring out where to focus resources in the portal. I can't imagine $15 million goes very far across the entire roster and snagging a QB1 and bolstering the offensive line, and there can be no debate we need to bolster the offensive line. This is the fourth year in a row under three different head coaches that we've been in the 120s nationally in sacks allowed. This is no way to live. As I have expounded ad nauseum and will rant about until the cows come home, it is not fair to play underclassmen linemen. Seniors or super seniors or mutants are all who should play at offensive line, and yet year after year we have a pipeline that necessitates playing youngsters. I would like to think it will be different next year but that depends on who we can keep among Prongos, Anderson, Mejia, and Leyrer (and I think by then Pale and Fattig could be physically ready to be useful) and what we can get in the portal. If we are projecting our 2026 OL and find ourselves counting on guys younger than seniors we are doing it wrong. Period. For now, we obviously can't have any hope the line will be competent this year. In that context I don't think yesterday was the worst. There were some pockets and some holes. Not nearly consistent enough but, again, not fair for us to expect teenagers to hold up in ACC football. Elsewhere on offense, there were several skill position players worth shouting out. Williams having a third straight 100+ yard receiving game certainly catches attention. I haven't fact-checked the announcers but they said that was the first time a Stanford players has done that since Alex Smith a generation ago. Williams is now 9th in the ACC in receiving, with Farrell (another pleasant surprise) 14th. Believe it or not, it was a career day for Roush in both catches and yards. I didn't love that he fumbled and two of his first downs came in garbage time, but that was the good game it would seem he would often have if coaches and announcers are going to talk about him like they do. Ford and Tabb both ran hard and well. Ford had some first downs but my favorite run of his was the one to get to the one on 2nd and goal. That may seem an odd choice since he got stonewalled a couple plays later, but I thought that was an excellent run to get to the doorstep. In retrospect, it's easy to agree with the announcers that we should have run twice from the one given how Ford was running that drive (or we could have put Irvin in), but we're not even talking about that if Blackburn makes a catch he needs to make. In addition to moving chains competently, Ford's effort running downfield on the pick six was extraordinary. What a winning play the moment the game turned to garbage. Tabb had a few first downs and could have had one or two more without penalties (hard to say as sometimes the holds help spring the run). I really hope we can hold on to these two beyond this season. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Williams (5), Roush (5), Ford (4), Tabb (3), Farrell (2), Libman]

8. Considering the back-handed compliments I gave the defense above, one would have thought there would be several players I could shout out given the box score. Nope, as close to a one man show as you can see. Galvan showed how much we've been missing with his absence this season, racking up eight quality plays in the box score across a range of skills, mostly run defense but also a pass breakup and a tackle for no gain on a pass play. Really good game. Otherwise? Well, Edwards had the sack to force a punt on the opening series and another tackle that was a good result. Every single other player who had multiple quality results needed garbage time to do it, pretty amazing considering there wasn't even that much garbage time. Patterson (though he did have the hurry/pass breakup on the first play of the game, setting a fantastic tone), Leigber (though he did have a pass breakup to force a punt), Staples (though he did have a sack to force a punt, albeit an insanely terrible play by Jennings not to throw it away), and Rose all needed garbage time to show up positively multiple times. There were other singleton good plays, like Wright's red zone pass breakup on third down and Barth (who has been bad as a Cardinal, sadly) getting a red zone third down stop to force a field goal, showing this was really a bunch of random plays to keep us somewhat in it and one guy, Galvan, truly being all over the place. I am especially disappointed in the outside linebackers doing bupkis outside of garbage time.

9. Special teams were generally good for us with one massive caveat. I am bummed I can't give a game ball to Pulispher for two totally awesome tackles on punt coverage but Flintoft was on one. Holy cow. Flintoft had net punts of 45 to the 35 without the penalty on SMU and to the 25 with (excellent), 53 to the 20 (excellent), 54 to the 18 (excellent), 58 to the 32 (unreal), and 51 to the 24 (excellent). This has to be one of the greatest punting games in Stanford history. Just flat out balled. I would say this is an underrated reason we were in the game for three and a half quarters despite doing worse net yards per play than East Texas A&M and Missouri State. Kenney made a 34 yard field goal but the highlight of his day was the 52 yarder that we took off the board. I felt bad for him losing a 50+ yarder on his resume. Reich's call there, for what it's worth, is not what I would have done but I think was the right call. Not going to front that my lack of confidence in this team would be the right mentality for a coach to have or fault Reich for making a call to get more points against a tough opponent. High doesn't look like the most natural kick returner and in this one it was kind of a wash, getting an 18 yard return to the 29 and a 21 yard return to the 22. As for the caveat, I trust better days are ahead for Thorpe. A muffed punt after the defense had started us off so amazingly, letting two punts go that pinned us within the 8, and even not looking comfortable in judging space around him on the fair catch.....tough day in Dallas.

10. Game balls: CJ Williams, Jahsiah Galvan, Aidan Flintoft, Fred Guidici

11. I don't think highly of this team, its trajectory, or this season's relevance in the big picture but every week is a new chance to show they're making progress and to try to lay foundation for the rebuild to come. The coming matchup against Florida State is one I've long had circled as a home game (that appears to matter a lot!) against a team I have been saying for weeks is overrated and is facing the raw end of the travel gauntlet to fly cross country to face us. It will be surprising if we win but I don't think nearly as surprising as it would have been to beat SMU. What I want to see is the same fight and glimmers of progress (e.g., all four phases approaching competence) we saw yesterday but with more discipline and more finish. Over the course of the middle part of the schedule I want to see competitiveness and not the collapse that happened in between the byes last year. The main opportunities for additional wins come in the latter part of the season but it would not be crazy to steal this one. If we did this season would have a different complexion. Beat the Noles!

[msqueri]

5. Somebody watching that game who didn't know much about either team, especially somebody flipping to the games with ranked teams we were counterprogrammed against, would come away with a clear picture of Stanford football: hopeless up front on offense and lacking in athleticism on defense. There are two things that exemplified where we are. First, the six sacks showed both how little prayer our three young OL (Ugorji, Brown, House) have and how massively, historically inept Gulbranson is at feeling and avoiding pressure (now dead last 138th of 138 QBs nationally in the sack dimension of Total QBR). Second, Jennings' highlight reel evading pressure improvisational flip and the receiver's subsequent winding through so many defenders on the way to a dynamic 42 yard touchdown showed both the difference a playmaker at QB can make and the deficit between our defensive athletes and what good teams throw at us as weapons. There is no getting around that, while Gulbranson at his best can manage an offense and place a ball, he is a liability in other respects. In this game, he was 105th of 113 quarterbacks nationally in Total QBR this week. He now has an abysmal Total QBR in half the games this season and on the year is 127th of 138 in Total QBR and 111th in PFF when narrowing down to a similar sized field. There's Solid Ben and Bad Ben and halfway through the season the overall year has not been good. At this point it will be pretty tough for Gulbranson to match the level of play Daniels had the last two years, though I will still hold out hope for not only the kind of turnaround he had after the initial flubs but actually sustaining it rather than letting Bad Ben return like yesterday. For the future, unless we are cleverly holding Brown and Rizk out even in garbage time in order to hide assets from the surveillance of transfer portal suitors, there isn't much point in giving the current QBs on the roster much thought. A couple months out from one of the most intriguing aspects of our year, seeing what we can get at QB in the portal.

7. Luck is going to have quite a dilemma in figuring out where to focus resources in the portal. I can't imagine $15 million goes very far across the entire roster and snagging a QB1 and bolstering the offensive line, and there can be no debate we need to bolster the offensive line. This is the fourth year in a row under three different head coaches that we've been in the 120s nationally in sacks allowed. This is no way to live. As I have expounded ad nauseum and will rant about until the cows come home, it is not fair to play underclassmen linemen. Seniors or super seniors or mutants are all who should play at offensive line, and yet year after year we have a pipeline that necessitates playing youngsters. I would like to think it will be different next year but that depends on who we can keep among Prongos, Anderson, Mejia, and Leyrer (and I think by then Pale and Fattig could be physically ready to be useful) and what we can get in the portal. If we are projecting our 2026 OL and find ourselves counting on guys younger than seniors we are doing it wrong. Period. For now, we obviously can't have any hope the line will be competent this year. In that context I don't think yesterday was the worst. There were some pockets and some holes. Not nearly consistent enough but, again, not fair for us to expect teenagers to hold up in ACC football. Elsewhere on offense, there were several skill position players worth shouting out. Williams having a third straight 100+ yard receiving game certainly catches attention. I haven't fact-checked the announcers but they said that was the first time a Stanford players has done that since Alex Smith a generation ago. Williams is now 9th in the ACC in receiving, with Farrell (another pleasant surprise) 14th. Believe it or not, it was a career day for Roush in both catches and yards. I didn't love that he fumbled and two of his first downs came in garbage time, but that was the good game it would seem he would often have if coaches and announcers are going to talk about him like they do. Ford and Tabb both ran hard and well. Ford had some first downs but my favorite run of his was the one to get to the one on 2nd and goal. That may seem an odd choice since he got stonewalled a couple plays later, but I thought that was an excellent run to get to the doorstep. In retrospect, it's easy to agree with the announcers that we should have run twice from the one given how Ford was running that drive (or we could have put Irvin in), but we're not even talking about that if Blackburn makes a catch he needs to make. In addition to moving chains competently, Ford's effort running downfield on the pick six was extraordinary. What a winning play the moment the game turned to garbage. Tabb had a few first downs and could have had one or two more without penalties (hard to say as sometimes the holds help spring the run). I really hope we can hold on to these two beyond this season. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Williams (5), Roush (5), Ford (4), Tabb (3), Farrell (2), Libman]

8. Considering the back-handed compliments I gave the defense above, one would have thought there would be several players I could shout out given the box score. Nope, as close to a one man show as you can see. Galvan showed how much we've been missing with his absence this season, racking up eight quality plays in the box score across a range of skills, mostly run defense but also a pass breakup and a tackle for no gain on a pass play. Really good game. Otherwise? Well, Edwards had the sack to force a punt on the opening series and another tackle that was a good result. Every single other player who had multiple quality results needed garbage time to do it, pretty amazing considering there wasn't even that much garbage time. Patterson (though he did have the hurry/pass breakup on the first play of the game, setting a fantastic tone), Leigber (though he did have a pass breakup to force a punt), Staples (though he did have a sack to force a punt, albeit an insanely terrible play by Jennings not to throw it away), and Rose all needed garbage time to show up positively multiple times. There were other singleton good plays, like Wright's red zone pass breakup on third down and Barth (who has been bad as a Cardinal, sadly) getting a red zone third down stop to force a field goal, showing this was really a bunch of random plays to keep us somewhat in it and one guy, Galvan, truly being all over the place. I am especially disappointed in the outside linebackers doing bupkis outside of garbage time.

9. Special teams were generally good for us with one massive caveat. I am bummed I can't give a game ball to Pulispher for two totally awesome tackles on punt coverage but Flintoft was on one. Holy cow. Flintoft had net punts of 45 to the 35 without the penalty on SMU and to the 25 with (excellent), 53 to the 20 (excellent), 54 to the 18 (excellent), 58 to the 32 (unreal), and 51 to the 24 (excellent). This has to be one of the greatest punting games in Stanford history. Just flat out balled. I would say this is an underrated reason we were in the game for three and a half quarters despite doing worse net yards per play than East Texas A&M and Missouri State. Kenney made a 34 yard field goal but the highlight of his day was the 52 yarder that we took off the board. I felt bad for him losing a 50+ yarder on his resume. Reich's call there, for what it's worth, is not what I would have done but I think was the right call. Not going to front that my lack of confidence in this team would be the right mentality for a coach to have or fault Reich for making a call to get more points against a tough opponent. High doesn't look like the most natural kick returner and in this one it was kind of a wash, getting an 18 yard return to the 29 and a 21 yard return to the 22. As for the caveat, I trust better days are ahead for Thorpe. A muffed punt after the defense had started us off so amazingly, letting two punts go that pinned us within the 8, and even not looking comfortable in judging space around him on the fair catch.....tough day in Dallas.

10. Game balls: CJ Williams, Jahsiah Galvan, Aidan Flintoft, Fred Guidici

11. I don't think highly of this team, its trajectory, or this season's relevance in the big picture but every week is a new chance to show they're making progress and to try to lay foundation for the rebuild to come. The coming matchup against Florida State is one I've long had circled as a home game (that appears to matter a lot!) against a team I have been saying for weeks is overrated and is facing the raw end of the travel gauntlet to fly cross country to face us. It will be surprising if we win but I don't think nearly as surprising as it would have been to beat SMU. What I want to see is the same fight and glimmers of progress (e.g., all four phases approaching competence) we saw yesterday but with more discipline and more finish. Over the course of the middle part of the schedule I want to see competitiveness and not the collapse that happened in between the byes last year. The main opportunities for additional wins come in the latter part of the season but it would not be crazy to steal this one. If we did this season would have a different complexion. Beat the Noles!