Le Cardinal de Stanford 2018: Faut-Il-y-croire?

Old Fart Tree

the maven of meat
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Well that was something. As I get old and withered I find myself less enthralled at my team’s outrageous victories and more feeling bad for fans like oregon, who even though they root for a corrupt band of kleptocratic sneaker pimps, deserve better than to have a sure 31-7 lead flip to 24-14 and then 24-21 in a cocaine heartbeat. Then they stuff Stanford, apparently reversing momentum, and score on their own fourth and one to make it a ten point game with four to play... and promptly allow Stanford to score inside of a minutes, and fumble the ball away totally unnecessarily fighting for a first down on second and two (when you could have been kneeling arguably).

So is this a good Stanford defense? I don’t know they locked up U$C pretty good. Fell for a lot of RPO bootlegs. Doesn’t seem as fast as past versions. But they got it done when it counted with the help of some bad duck turnovers.

Costello had a hell of a game. More of him please. Love hasn’t gotten the big numbers lately but I have to think the threat of him is helping to get those WRs and TEs wide open looks and Costello doesn’t look great slinging it but the ball gets there.

Didn’t think we’d be 4-0 at this point , probably 3-1 with a downside of 2-2. So what the hell! Let’s go into south bend and dickstomp those racist caricatures out of Punch Magazine!
 

cgori

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I was thinking of starting this thread, thank you for getting the ball rolling in style.

Defense has its moments but definitely seems a little more porous than years past. I agree that having to respect Love's rushing opens up the passing game. Still need to have a little more creativity in play calling, David is always pretty bland.

4-0 a big surprise, I figured 3-1 as well. Would really like to keep it rolling against the Domers.

(Saw your comment about where Shaw might go next in another thread - having talked to him for a little while ~2 years ago, he really does seem to want to stay. The place suits him, and his family.)
 
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McDrew

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As long as you make HC at a Power-5 conference money, Silicon Valley is a fantastic place to live. The weather is outstanding, and the only real problem is that everything is expensive as fuck.
 

Humphrey

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What I found strange was that Shaw decided to save his time out for between 3rd and 4th down (assuming that Oregon didn't get a first, of course). I would have used it. The reason being that if a fumble happens you have 40 more seconds to work with (you can always kill the clock with a spike)! But in this case it worked out in Stanford's favor. Also, if Stanford burned their time out maybe Oregon does the math and decides that two kneeldowns will be sufficient, who knows.
 

Old Fart Tree

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I think ND was just flat out more talented tonight, despite the fact that Shaw's playcalling on offense continues to mystify and confound. How did this defense hold U$C to 3 and give up 38 and counting to Notre Dame? ND made them look flat footed and slow.
 

Old Fart Tree

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Well, that was just ghastly. I missed the game but getting embarrassed by Utah is... not a good look. Top 10 felt like a bit of a reach, but they don't look like a top 25 team right now.
 

Old Fart Tree

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Well this season has certainly gone to hell in a handbasket. Oh well. 3 interception games are kinda tough to win. They ought to beat OSU, but Cal and UCLA look like toss ups. Even if you win out, your upside is probably the Redbox Bowl, which... is not good. Seriously, look at those Pac-12 bowls after the Rose Bowl, they're horrendous.
 

Old Fart Tree

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UCLA fumbles to end the game. Stanford is a weird team. If they beat Cal next week - and I'm not at all confident that they will - they're just gonna be one of those kinda-trash-8-win-teams that goes to a mediocre bowl and probably gets rolled by someone from the Big 12. Obviously not what was expected given their preseason hype, but... they were never really the 8th best team in the country, not with these quarterback issues and the defense not living up to its billing.