There was some good, there was more bad, and there was also some ugly in Stanford's 35-14 loss at No. 12 Oregon. The Ducks are a talented but youthful team and in fact this was a contest of two of the least experienced rosters in terms of games started in the country. But in a number of instances Oregon's guys made better plays than Stanford's guys and some costly mistakes sunk opportunities.
Stanford found out that starters Davis Mills and Connor Wedington were out just a couple hours before the game, according to head coach David Shaw. That development completely flipped the plan for the offense on its head. What offense could really take that type of sudden personnel loss in stride and excel? Maybe Clemson and that's it. Still, there were some aspects of the offense's play that were disappointing.
The Good
I think we finally got to see a Kevin Carberry coordinated run game and it worked very well thanks to the exciting skill of Austin and Nathaniel Peat and the greatly improved offensive line. To my eyes this was the clearly the brightest star to emerge from this game for the Cardinal to follow to better days ahead. From the first drive the offensive line got push against a well-regarded defensive front and Jack West and Tanner McKee often had plenty of time to make their throws.
Some of Stanford's rushing total is inflated by the situations in which the runs occurred, but Jones (20 carries-100 yards-2 TDs-5 YPC) and Peat (6-93-long of 73) put together a better rushing performance than Stanford got all of last season and maybe even going back to the previous year. The offensive linemen around Drew Dalman and Foster Sarell aren't kids anymore. They're stronger and are playing with better technique and confidence. It's a line to build on not just for the rest of the season, but for the next couple of years.
West took a major step toward redemption after a disastrous first start of his career last year against UCLA. David Shaw said after the game that West has had a "fire in his belly" since that night because he wanted to prove he's better than that. He certainly cleared that bar tonight and with some room to spare. He at least showed that moving forward he can be counted on to be a serviceable backup.
That said, I think it's clear that McKee is at least even in the eyes of Shaw with West despite the junior's significant lead in playbook knowledge. Otherwise he wouldn't have played even as much as he did. If Stanford gets word tomorrow that Mills is out for the Colorado game then I think with a full week to prepare that the snap count will tilt toward McKee. And Colorado's defense is not Oregon's.
Especially in the first half, Thomas Booker made plays like you hope that a captain on the line will make. His surge up the middle in the first half helped set the tone for a positive first 30 minutes for Lance Anderson's crew — holding Oregon to 14 points.
The Bad
Levani Damuni showed up right away and proved that the hype from coaches and players about his offseason was real. So why is he in the "bad" category? Because his productivity makes his injury sting worse and there's no word about the severity. His departure from the game forced Spencer Jorgensen to play. The converted safety and former walk-on has been a linebacker for a period of weeks. Once again a position group is critically affected by injuries.
The Cardinal played well at the line of scrimmage for much of the first half against Oregon's entirely new offensive line (six career starts counting tonight) but it must have been dispiriting for the coaches to watch the Ducks start to take over up front as the game wore on. It's hard to use fatigue as a factor in the first game with a healthy rotation used by Anderson and Diron Reynolds. You didn't hear Dalyn Wade-Perry, Thomas Schaffer, Josh Pakola or Ryan Johnson get their names called for making impactful plays. It was an incredibly quiet night by that group. Oregon rushed for 269 yards and 85 of those yards were by Tyler Shough.
Which leads me to assignment discipline, especially on the edge. It was noticeably bad on a number of occasions and Stanford outside backers were so predictably crashing down on the running back on read options that offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead happily burned them with several play-action calls, or Shough just took off. In this regard it was a tough night for Thunder Keck and Jordan Fox.
Stanford had 10 penalties for 100 yards. A good lawyer could probably get some of those yards dropped but the fact remains that there were some really costly mental errors tonight.
The Ugly
Jet Toner and Ethan Bonner had games that they will want to forget and I won't kick them while they're down.
Yes, there were four missed field goals but it's worse to me that Stanford had to attempt four field goals. Despite playing without Mills Stanford got inside Oregon's 35-yard line seven times and scored 14 points. They got inside the traditionally defined red zone (25-yard line) four times. The sequence that led to the final field goal attempt was an absolute nightmare, and the play calling flew in the face of Shaw's own comments after the game that he makes decisions in situational football based on how the team is playing, not on analytics. If that's true about how he makes decisions on fourth down (which was the subject of the question that he answered with the no-analytics comment) then it should be true with the ball at the one-yard line and the offensive line is playing well. Instead the Cardinal once again came up scoreless after a comical series of jump ball throws from a freshman quarterback. If Stanford scored a touchdown there it's highly doubtful that the outcome of the game would have been different, but that's not the point, is it?
The defense allowed Oregon to convert 9-of-11 third down attempts and Oregon converted eight straight at one point. Stanford converted only 4-of-13 but did go 2-for-2 on fourth down. How the offense performed in situational football in this game gets an asterisks because of COVID, but the defense has been struggling to make plays to get an opponent off the field for going on three seasons now. It has been a talking point among the coaches for at least that long on.
Stanford found out that starters Davis Mills and Connor Wedington were out just a couple hours before the game, according to head coach David Shaw. That development completely flipped the plan for the offense on its head. What offense could really take that type of sudden personnel loss in stride and excel? Maybe Clemson and that's it. Still, there were some aspects of the offense's play that were disappointing.
The Good
I think we finally got to see a Kevin Carberry coordinated run game and it worked very well thanks to the exciting skill of Austin and Nathaniel Peat and the greatly improved offensive line. To my eyes this was the clearly the brightest star to emerge from this game for the Cardinal to follow to better days ahead. From the first drive the offensive line got push against a well-regarded defensive front and Jack West and Tanner McKee often had plenty of time to make their throws.
Some of Stanford's rushing total is inflated by the situations in which the runs occurred, but Jones (20 carries-100 yards-2 TDs-5 YPC) and Peat (6-93-long of 73) put together a better rushing performance than Stanford got all of last season and maybe even going back to the previous year. The offensive linemen around Drew Dalman and Foster Sarell aren't kids anymore. They're stronger and are playing with better technique and confidence. It's a line to build on not just for the rest of the season, but for the next couple of years.
West took a major step toward redemption after a disastrous first start of his career last year against UCLA. David Shaw said after the game that West has had a "fire in his belly" since that night because he wanted to prove he's better than that. He certainly cleared that bar tonight and with some room to spare. He at least showed that moving forward he can be counted on to be a serviceable backup.
That said, I think it's clear that McKee is at least even in the eyes of Shaw with West despite the junior's significant lead in playbook knowledge. Otherwise he wouldn't have played even as much as he did. If Stanford gets word tomorrow that Mills is out for the Colorado game then I think with a full week to prepare that the snap count will tilt toward McKee. And Colorado's defense is not Oregon's.
Especially in the first half, Thomas Booker made plays like you hope that a captain on the line will make. His surge up the middle in the first half helped set the tone for a positive first 30 minutes for Lance Anderson's crew — holding Oregon to 14 points.
The Bad
Levani Damuni showed up right away and proved that the hype from coaches and players about his offseason was real. So why is he in the "bad" category? Because his productivity makes his injury sting worse and there's no word about the severity. His departure from the game forced Spencer Jorgensen to play. The converted safety and former walk-on has been a linebacker for a period of weeks. Once again a position group is critically affected by injuries.
The Cardinal played well at the line of scrimmage for much of the first half against Oregon's entirely new offensive line (six career starts counting tonight) but it must have been dispiriting for the coaches to watch the Ducks start to take over up front as the game wore on. It's hard to use fatigue as a factor in the first game with a healthy rotation used by Anderson and Diron Reynolds. You didn't hear Dalyn Wade-Perry, Thomas Schaffer, Josh Pakola or Ryan Johnson get their names called for making impactful plays. It was an incredibly quiet night by that group. Oregon rushed for 269 yards and 85 of those yards were by Tyler Shough.
Which leads me to assignment discipline, especially on the edge. It was noticeably bad on a number of occasions and Stanford outside backers were so predictably crashing down on the running back on read options that offensive coordinator Joe Moorehead happily burned them with several play-action calls, or Shough just took off. In this regard it was a tough night for Thunder Keck and Jordan Fox.
Stanford had 10 penalties for 100 yards. A good lawyer could probably get some of those yards dropped but the fact remains that there were some really costly mental errors tonight.
The Ugly
Jet Toner and Ethan Bonner had games that they will want to forget and I won't kick them while they're down.
Yes, there were four missed field goals but it's worse to me that Stanford had to attempt four field goals. Despite playing without Mills Stanford got inside Oregon's 35-yard line seven times and scored 14 points. They got inside the traditionally defined red zone (25-yard line) four times. The sequence that led to the final field goal attempt was an absolute nightmare, and the play calling flew in the face of Shaw's own comments after the game that he makes decisions in situational football based on how the team is playing, not on analytics. If that's true about how he makes decisions on fourth down (which was the subject of the question that he answered with the no-analytics comment) then it should be true with the ball at the one-yard line and the offensive line is playing well. Instead the Cardinal once again came up scoreless after a comical series of jump ball throws from a freshman quarterback. If Stanford scored a touchdown there it's highly doubtful that the outcome of the game would have been different, but that's not the point, is it?
The defense allowed Oregon to convert 9-of-11 third down attempts and Oregon converted eight straight at one point. Stanford converted only 4-of-13 but did go 2-for-2 on fourth down. How the offense performed in situational football in this game gets an asterisks because of COVID, but the defense has been struggling to make plays to get an opponent off the field for going on three seasons now. It has been a talking point among the coaches for at least that long on.
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