09-11-2015, 05:29 AM
Reviewing the defense and using the fabulous defensive stats under Shaw is somewhat irrelevant to this discussion. The defense has been great, but part of the reason for their low point totals is the conservative Shaw offense you hate.
Don't get me wrong -- I am disgusted by the conservative/predictable approach (the plays are not all conservative, but the approach is). I actually think it hit bottom at the Rose Bowl against Michigan State and the philosophy has improved somewhat; at least I don't really hear/see as much arrogance now about Stanford daring people to stop what they know is coming. MSU and many since have proven that they can stop what they know is coming, and Shaw knows that. But he hasn't been able to transition to an offensive that consistently surprises the other side and punishes their strategies. It's instructive to hear Northwestern after the game say that their strategy was to free the safeties for run support, but we didn't we see any medium or deep passes in the first half to punish that strategy or try to them honest.
However that offense I don't like still would have handily defeated Northwestern if the O-line had executed. To me the biggest test for Shaw is whether he does something about the current O-Line/OC situation with Bloomgren. Stanford's offense is completely reliant on an O-line that has over-achieved ever since Harbaugh/Shaw arrived; until Bloomgren took on the additional OC responsibilities and it has under-achieved since. I have a bigger concern with what Bloomgren is doing with the O-line in his joint responsibilities than what he is doing as OC. My lasting memory from this past game is people wandering around looking lost at the end of plays after whiffing on blocks. Dalton Shultz was in his first game and Bloomgren isn't his position coach so I won't focus there, but I went back and watched the first drive and there was no problem with the play calls. However you get to watch one play blow up because Casey Tucker whiffs on his block, and then in the red zone the backbreaker was the misdirection end-around which was open except Kyle Murphy whiffs on his block. It could be that the worst thing that happened last year for this year were the last three games which allowed everybody to say the O-line issues were a resolved anomaly. I don't really expect Shaw to do anything about the situation until after the season so I hope I'm wrong and it improves rapidly, but I do recall the last time I didn't expect Shaw to do something about an obvious problem he suddenly replaced Nunes with Hogan and that year ended up okay...
So, while there are things I don't like under Shaw, I also think the Shaw-bashers go way overboard and I am certain that David and his two (so far) Rose Bowls will look awfully good in comparison if he ever leaves (and he's likely going to leave when he wants to and no other way).
Don't get me wrong -- I am disgusted by the conservative/predictable approach (the plays are not all conservative, but the approach is). I actually think it hit bottom at the Rose Bowl against Michigan State and the philosophy has improved somewhat; at least I don't really hear/see as much arrogance now about Stanford daring people to stop what they know is coming. MSU and many since have proven that they can stop what they know is coming, and Shaw knows that. But he hasn't been able to transition to an offensive that consistently surprises the other side and punishes their strategies. It's instructive to hear Northwestern after the game say that their strategy was to free the safeties for run support, but we didn't we see any medium or deep passes in the first half to punish that strategy or try to them honest.
However that offense I don't like still would have handily defeated Northwestern if the O-line had executed. To me the biggest test for Shaw is whether he does something about the current O-Line/OC situation with Bloomgren. Stanford's offense is completely reliant on an O-line that has over-achieved ever since Harbaugh/Shaw arrived; until Bloomgren took on the additional OC responsibilities and it has under-achieved since. I have a bigger concern with what Bloomgren is doing with the O-line in his joint responsibilities than what he is doing as OC. My lasting memory from this past game is people wandering around looking lost at the end of plays after whiffing on blocks. Dalton Shultz was in his first game and Bloomgren isn't his position coach so I won't focus there, but I went back and watched the first drive and there was no problem with the play calls. However you get to watch one play blow up because Casey Tucker whiffs on his block, and then in the red zone the backbreaker was the misdirection end-around which was open except Kyle Murphy whiffs on his block. It could be that the worst thing that happened last year for this year were the last three games which allowed everybody to say the O-line issues were a resolved anomaly. I don't really expect Shaw to do anything about the situation until after the season so I hope I'm wrong and it improves rapidly, but I do recall the last time I didn't expect Shaw to do something about an obvious problem he suddenly replaced Nunes with Hogan and that year ended up okay...
So, while there are things I don't like under Shaw, I also think the Shaw-bashers go way overboard and I am certain that David and his two (so far) Rose Bowls will look awfully good in comparison if he ever leaves (and he's likely going to leave when he wants to and no other way).