That was a wild one. I think the initial thought is that Stanford found a way to win on what clearly was not their best night - against a solid team (who knows how Washington State will finish the year, but they've been playing well lately) in terrible weather in front of a raucous crowd.
-There's been a lot of positive buzz surrounding Quenton Meeks really since his recruitment. He's a guy Stanford was very excited about when he was a high schooler, and he followed that up by faring extremely well in the offseason workouts. And he turned in Stanford's first two INT game since Wayne Lyons against Notre Dame in 2013. The second pick in particular was just fantastic. The ability to diagnose the play, beat the receiver to the spot and then make the catch was fantastic - and frankly not the type of play Stanford has received from its defensive backs all that much in the past few years. Suffice it to say, he has a very bright future. And his two interceptions were obviously absolutely critical.
-Kevin Hogan threw for 85 yards (10-19 passing and an interception). The Cardinal was out-gained 442 to 312. Washington State had 26 first downs to Stanford's 15. Kevin Hogan was sacked four times. Stanford converted 4-13 third downs. Stanford won the game.
-Hogan was both spectacular and shaky tonight. He missed several throws he's been making lately and did turn the ball over twice. And then in the second half, he showed that his ankle is pretty darn close to 100 percent. Stanford will need more from Hogan in the passing game moving forward, but he did just enough with his legs on a night when not much was working for the Cardinal enough.
-Stanford held Washington State to 2-14 on third downs. The Cougars did convert all three of their fourth downs (a pair of fourth and ones, one fourth and seven), but this is a different game if the Cardinal defense doesn't force field goals rather than touchdowns in the first half.
-Stanford's safeties have struggled at times this year, and there were missed tackles from the position group again tonight. But credit where it's due: Kodi Whitfield's stop on Washington State's two-point conversion ended up being a huge play. That was not an easy tackle but Kodi hung on and brought the receiver down maybe 6 inches/ a foot from the endzone.
-I'm not exactly sure what Washington State did (aside from bringing numbers to stop the pass/run) to slow Stanford's offense so much in the first half. Perhaps some of our experts here can chime in (and it's something that will certainly be discussed this week in the various media sessions). And one would think the weather played a role as well. Whatever the case, the result was something similar to Northwestern - the Cougars got frequent penetration and Kevin Hogan struggled. Such has been the case in several of Stanford's loss over the past few years. But it did seem the quarterback runs were an adjustment to Washington State's pursuit, and clearly they yielded dividends.
-Who knows how these things impact the game, and others may disagree, but I always like when a coach doesn't burn all of his timeouts in an end of half/end of game situation. Thought Shaw played that well - call the first timeout well before the kick (so that the kicker doesn't get a free practice swing) and then sit on the final one - there's always that uncertainty in the mind of the kicker in that situation. Probably not a big deal, but I thought Shaw approached that situation in an optimal manner.
-Mike Leach has obviously done a fantastic job turning around what was a pretty awful program. But his end of game strategy is... questionable. I understand that Washington State is not built to commit to line with with 7 offensive linemen and pound the ball between the tackles in a four-minute offense situation. But they snapped the ball with 15 seconds the play clock and attacked all parts of the field in the passing game. In other words, the four-minute offense was not much different than the normal Cougar offense.
-Stanford's pass rush (or lack thereof) has been a frequent discussion point this season. The Cardinal got plenty of pressure on Luke Falk early on - Kevin Anderson and Brennan Scarlett had sacks, Aziz Shittu got in the backfield. Then the Cougar offensive line was able to keep Falk clean as Washington State scored on six straight possessions. On the final drive, however, the Cardinal did get a few hits on Falk - and did just enough, as it turned out, to slow the Cougar attack.
-Stanford did catch a break, I think, with the Christian McCaffrey non-fumble. The explanation was that the WSU player didn't complete the recovery when he was in bounds. At least one Washington State coach disagrees (though I have a feeling the linked tweet, which is of a Cougar assistant coach objecting to the call, will be deleted at some point). On the other hand, there was a missed offensive PI on the Cougars - and the overturn on the final drive was a bit questionable. (I did think it was an incomplete pass, but was it indisputable? Not sure.) Plus, I'm not totally sure that Ronnie Harris forced Gabe Marks out of bounds on that touchdown. So there were some breaks that went to both teams, though clearly the McCaffrey non-fumble was the biggest.
-Stanford is now 6-0 in the Pac-12. They've won seven straight games. They'll be firmly in the top 10 (probably) when the first college football playoff rankings are released this week. They have a winnable game at Colorado next week (albeit one that starts far too early - and Colorado did look quite good against UCLA today). The Cardinal survived, and all of their preseason goals remain in reach as a result.
Notes
Kevin Hogan's 114 rushing yards were a career high.
-There's been a lot of positive buzz surrounding Quenton Meeks really since his recruitment. He's a guy Stanford was very excited about when he was a high schooler, and he followed that up by faring extremely well in the offseason workouts. And he turned in Stanford's first two INT game since Wayne Lyons against Notre Dame in 2013. The second pick in particular was just fantastic. The ability to diagnose the play, beat the receiver to the spot and then make the catch was fantastic - and frankly not the type of play Stanford has received from its defensive backs all that much in the past few years. Suffice it to say, he has a very bright future. And his two interceptions were obviously absolutely critical.
-Kevin Hogan threw for 85 yards (10-19 passing and an interception). The Cardinal was out-gained 442 to 312. Washington State had 26 first downs to Stanford's 15. Kevin Hogan was sacked four times. Stanford converted 4-13 third downs. Stanford won the game.
-Hogan was both spectacular and shaky tonight. He missed several throws he's been making lately and did turn the ball over twice. And then in the second half, he showed that his ankle is pretty darn close to 100 percent. Stanford will need more from Hogan in the passing game moving forward, but he did just enough with his legs on a night when not much was working for the Cardinal enough.
-Stanford held Washington State to 2-14 on third downs. The Cougars did convert all three of their fourth downs (a pair of fourth and ones, one fourth and seven), but this is a different game if the Cardinal defense doesn't force field goals rather than touchdowns in the first half.
-Stanford's safeties have struggled at times this year, and there were missed tackles from the position group again tonight. But credit where it's due: Kodi Whitfield's stop on Washington State's two-point conversion ended up being a huge play. That was not an easy tackle but Kodi hung on and brought the receiver down maybe 6 inches/ a foot from the endzone.
-I'm not exactly sure what Washington State did (aside from bringing numbers to stop the pass/run) to slow Stanford's offense so much in the first half. Perhaps some of our experts here can chime in (and it's something that will certainly be discussed this week in the various media sessions). And one would think the weather played a role as well. Whatever the case, the result was something similar to Northwestern - the Cougars got frequent penetration and Kevin Hogan struggled. Such has been the case in several of Stanford's loss over the past few years. But it did seem the quarterback runs were an adjustment to Washington State's pursuit, and clearly they yielded dividends.
-Who knows how these things impact the game, and others may disagree, but I always like when a coach doesn't burn all of his timeouts in an end of half/end of game situation. Thought Shaw played that well - call the first timeout well before the kick (so that the kicker doesn't get a free practice swing) and then sit on the final one - there's always that uncertainty in the mind of the kicker in that situation. Probably not a big deal, but I thought Shaw approached that situation in an optimal manner.
-Mike Leach has obviously done a fantastic job turning around what was a pretty awful program. But his end of game strategy is... questionable. I understand that Washington State is not built to commit to line with with 7 offensive linemen and pound the ball between the tackles in a four-minute offense situation. But they snapped the ball with 15 seconds the play clock and attacked all parts of the field in the passing game. In other words, the four-minute offense was not much different than the normal Cougar offense.
-Stanford's pass rush (or lack thereof) has been a frequent discussion point this season. The Cardinal got plenty of pressure on Luke Falk early on - Kevin Anderson and Brennan Scarlett had sacks, Aziz Shittu got in the backfield. Then the Cougar offensive line was able to keep Falk clean as Washington State scored on six straight possessions. On the final drive, however, the Cardinal did get a few hits on Falk - and did just enough, as it turned out, to slow the Cougar attack.
-Stanford did catch a break, I think, with the Christian McCaffrey non-fumble. The explanation was that the WSU player didn't complete the recovery when he was in bounds. At least one Washington State coach disagrees (though I have a feeling the linked tweet, which is of a Cougar assistant coach objecting to the call, will be deleted at some point). On the other hand, there was a missed offensive PI on the Cougars - and the overturn on the final drive was a bit questionable. (I did think it was an incomplete pass, but was it indisputable? Not sure.) Plus, I'm not totally sure that Ronnie Harris forced Gabe Marks out of bounds on that touchdown. So there were some breaks that went to both teams, though clearly the McCaffrey non-fumble was the biggest.
-Stanford is now 6-0 in the Pac-12. They've won seven straight games. They'll be firmly in the top 10 (probably) when the first college football playoff rankings are released this week. They have a winnable game at Colorado next week (albeit one that starts far too early - and Colorado did look quite good against UCLA today). The Cardinal survived, and all of their preseason goals remain in reach as a result.
Notes
Kevin Hogan's 114 rushing yards were a career high.
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