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Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - Printable Version

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Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - washingtonismoney - 10-06-2012

Great write-up.

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - JeffInCorvallis - 10-06-2012

Rarely have I seen a QB scramble who looks slower and more awkward than Nunes.  Yet, he's obviously effective at it and, while I don't think he's going to running for 50 yards and dropping safeties to the turf anytime soon, defenses are going to have to respect his scrambling capabilites and the option in short yard situations.

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - Gauss - 10-06-2012

Fantastic write-up, you are on a roll Garvin!

(10-06-2012, 04:47 PM)garvin link Wrote:One of the two unproductive possessions in the second half failed when Ty Montgomery, after catching a big third-down conversion, fumbled it away at the Stanford 45, a disastrous and, it appeared, lethal mistake.

I really thought we were done then.

(10-06-2012, 04:47 PM)garvin link Wrote:The Wildcats were making the Stanford defense look like time-traveling clones of the Buddy/Idiotface era -- a hapless collection of D-1 rejects who couldn't cover or tackle anybody.

Great image. It is just painful to see Stanford trying to cover receivers in a spread offense.
And to think that Oregon shut Arizona out! (with some luck, sure).

(10-06-2012, 04:47 PM)garvin link Wrote:Nunes promptly directed a 60-yard drive on which he accounted for every inch of the yardage, passing for 57, scrambling for two, and scoring the TD on a one-yard option keeper. That was followed by the Stanford defense's first real stop since the first quarter, a three-and-out highlighted by Shayne Skov's first-down stuff of running back Ka'Deern Carey and a Ben Gardner bat-down of a pass. The resulting punt gave us the ball at our own 16 with 5:53 to go.

The drive that followed was fairly evenly divided between pass plays (six) and rush plays (8). But it was the pass calls that produced the truly cluth moments. The first was Nunes pulling ball down and scrambling 16 years on third and seven at midfield. The second was a beautiful 17-yard throw over the middle to Zach Ertz on fourth and nine at the Arizona 20, the play that set up the touchdown that tied the score with 45 seconds left. (I wondered if David Shaw might go for two, which I would have supported; but he didn't.)

Nah, too risky. I did think the first time he went for 2 was a good idea, pity that the officials didn't let us run the play quickly.

(10-06-2012, 04:47 PM)garvin link Wrote:At that point, Rodriguez made a coaching decision that was, at the very least, weird, and is going to be largely called stupid in Tuscon: Though he had two timeouts left, he elected to run the clock out. He paid a heavy price: On third down in overtime, an onrushing Henry Anderson knocked a Wildcat pass high in the air, and Chase Thomas came down with it. Two plays later, Stepfan Taylor went through a giant hole off the right tackle and ran mostly untouched for a 22-yard TD.

Anderson's deflection was heroic. So was Kelsey Young's 55-yard race for a TD on an end-around play near the end of the third quarter, a critical answerback after Arizona had taken a 33-28 lead with a 75-yard touchdown drive that took just 1:11.

And Jamal Rashad-Patterson, who just a couple of months ago seemed about to complete his entire Stanford career without leaving a mark, caught two passes for 71 yards, both of them crucial to Stanford touchdowns. Later, when he sits in the stands at reunion games, he'll remember that he helped to win a big one.

Overall a really fun game! Now that we've lowered expectations to reasonable levels again, these contested games are really enjoyable. We were a bit unlucky to lose against Washington, and we were a bit lucky that we won today.
Against ND should be close again, although I'm worried about Nunes playing on the road again.
Hopefully our defense will hold up better than today!

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - CowboyIndian - 10-06-2012

(10-06-2012, 04:47 PM)garvin link Wrote:The first was Nunes pulling ball down and scrambling 16 years on third and seven at midfield.
It only seemed like it. Nice read, GG. Thanks.

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - Cardinal96 - 10-06-2012

I am not sure if it was Arizona's defense that made him look good or Nunes maturing before our eyes.  Or maybe a little bit of both.  But wow Nunes impressed me today.  I couldn't tell if we lost our CB Brown for most of the game.  If we did, that may have played a role in how bad we were on defense.

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - CompSci87 - 10-06-2012

(10-06-2012, 05:54 PM)CowboyIndian link Wrote:[quote author=garvin link=topic=6613.msg49110#msg49110 date=1349567254]
The first was Nunes pulling ball down and scrambling 16 years on third and seven at midfield.
It only seemed like it. Nice read, GG. Thanks.
[/quote]

Hee hee. I edited Garvin's post to get rid of an unwanted smiley and couldn't resist fixing that typo too.

Once a copy editor, always a copy editor...

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - Kathy - 10-06-2012

We editors can always use reinforcements.  ;D


Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - terry - 10-06-2012

(10-06-2012, 06:13 PM)NYCCardinalFan link Wrote:I couldn't tell if we lost our CB Brown for most of the game.

Brown left very early, I think after just one play. He never returned.

Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - scorecard - 10-06-2012

As usual, better write-up than the AP.  Some additional random thoughts:

- this game is some bad foreshadowing for the Oregon game
- our best defense against the pass seems to be having one of our tall lineman bat down the ball.  Henry Anderson's play was brobdingnagian, as was Murphy's pick-six last week.  Gardner got a couple this week too.  Funny how some of the preseason talk was about how Stephens was a leader, and Gardner was a relentless beast, and Anderson was, uh, tall
- Thomas showed good hands coming down with that interception, usually the 3 defenders are so eager that they collide and botch that one
- our corners still give up way too much cushion, not sure if that is just our scheme, but unfortunately both our young bucks Carter and Lyons both allowed a lot of yardage today; they should of course improve with more experience; Lyons isn't quite a Thorpe award winner yet but you can see his potential and his closing speed (but please turn around in the future) 
- not exactly sure who our defense is at this point; looked great against SC, mostly great against UW minus 2 brobdingnagian plays, and looked somewhat mediocre today (kind of like the 3rd quarter against San Jose State); still vulnerable to the quick pass, but also gave up a lot of rush yards today right up the middle as well after getting spread out
- we have put a lot of hits on quarterbacks particularly early in games, Barkley seemed perhaps the most rattled by this (how many licks does it take to get to the center of Matt Barkley?  Apparently about 10), Price and Scott both seemed to hang in and continue to perform better
- I still hate the fade, but at least it failed on a 2-point conversion and not on one of our crucial 4th downs; Toilolo is 6'8" but he does not seem to be a great leaper which might help some of these plays
- Kelsey Young has got some jets; now we see why the coaches were raving
- the 4th and 1 false start against Arizona probably saved the game
- thankful for instant replay in college football, otherwise Terrell's third and 8 catch and fumble gets ruled incomplete and the game is probably lost as we are down 14 at the time with 8 minutes left (and Shaw was sending out the punt team -- why?)
- as much as I am rooting for Williamson, I am sure glad the game did not come down to him kicking the FG.  His kickoff out of bounds when we needed another stop to get the ball back when we were down 7 was just maddening, but luckily we forced the 3 and out
- I was wondering if Shaw would have ran the ball 3 times and let Williamson kick a 40+ yarder; I was also wondering how crappy my day was going to be if we lost this game, thankfully I will never have to find out either of these things
- speaking of guys I feel bad for, hope Montgomery is okay (ankle injury?); the broadcast seemed to show him having words with a teammate (Ertz?) after his big fumble; wonder if he is feeling some of the pressure from his big dropped passes in previous games
- to me, the Fox analyst seemed to be dead on the money in discussing Nunes - was a harsh critic in the early going, but then praised him when he really started to look confident in making some plays at the end of the game; his first TD pass to Ertz was actually a horribly late decision, and was just lucky the defender fell down
- Nunes' slow-and-go scramble move made another magical appearance in a crucial moment
- I wonder if they will open up the playbook more against Notre Dame to test their secondary, since Nunes seems to throw a much better medium-long ball compared to the one hoppers on short passes


Re: Final: Stanford 54, Arizona 48 (OT) - JohnR34231 - 10-07-2012

We won the game, so I'm not complaining.

It was kind of a good news/bad news  type of game. The good news is that Nunes and the offense performed well, albeit against one of the weaker defenses we'll see for the rest of the year.

The bad news was that the defense got taken to the woodshed, although you do have to give them credit for making the plays at the end that allowed the offense to come back and win.

ND will be a true test of how much the offense has improved. Nobody has put up much on the Irish so far, and we'll be away from the friendly confines of home.

P.S. Kelsey Young always looks impressive when he gets the ball, which isn't often. I wonder why we don't use him more.