[Goose]

No doubt fans hoped to see physical domination but IMHO that was ignorant. We came in as right near the bottom of FBS run teams and Elon came in right near the top of FCS run defense teams. In other words, it wasn’t actually clear we were a better team in that phase. I wouldn’t have been surprised if we struggled much worse in the run game.

I agree that Elon was a bigger challenge in run defense than most fans expected. That is partly due to fans hearing FCS and expecting a big drop-off from our other opponents. However IMO the bigger factor is that Stanford's run offense hasn't been based on successful "power" running for many years, certainly from Bryce Love onward. The "bottom of FBS" just doesn't sit well, but indeed that is where we are and have been for awhile. IMO unless and until we move up to at least "below average" in FBS we are going to be stuck in the 0-4 win area.

[Goose]

No doubt fans hoped to see physical domination but IMHO that was ignorant. We came in as right near the bottom of FBS run teams and Elon came in right near the top of FCS run defense teams. In other words, it wasn’t actually clear we were a better team in that phase. I wouldn’t have been surprised if we struggled much worse in the run game.

I agree that Elon was a bigger challenge in run defense than most fans expected. That is partly due to fans hearing FCS and expecting a big drop-off from our other opponents. However IMO the bigger factor is that Stanford's run offense hasn't been based on successful "power" running for many years, certainly from Bryce Love onward. The "bottom of FBS" just doesn't sit well, but indeed that is where we are and have been for awhile. IMO unless and until we move up to at least "below average" in FBS we are going to be stuck in the 0-4 win area.