[CTcard]

Without Phillips, Stanford has been vulnerable on run defense.

You mean like the 1.3 yards per carry Stanford gave up to UCF?

I think that the better statement is that so far, the Stanford defense is equipped to deal with bad offenses but vulnerable to good offenses. [Not so surprising over all.] While Stanford allowed $C a healthy 5.5 yds/rush, they also allowed a strong 8.5 yds/pass attempt. Kessler had a PER of 180.5 [that's the best Kessler has ever had against a non-bottom feeder Pac 12 team].

Fortunately, OSU isn't very good on offense and in particular cannot pass. OSU is last in the conference in yds/game (117th nationally), yds/play (119th), points/game (111th), and pass rating (114th).
They can run a bit, 7th in the conference in yds/carry (57th), 5th in yds/game (41st).
All of this against FCS weakling Weber State (2-10 last year), Michigan (pretty good defense), and San Jose State.

They seemed to be on a bit of an upswing vs San Jose State, and of course the worry is that they are about to suddenly figure out the new system and new QB. Could happen.

But broadly speaking, I am more worried about an offensive implosion if Hogan cannot play (or cannot play well) against what might be a pretty good defense - though poor opponents make that mostly unmeasurable so far.

[CTcard]

Without Phillips, Stanford has been vulnerable on run defense.

You mean like the 1.3 yards per carry Stanford gave up to UCF?

I think that the better statement is that so far, the Stanford defense is equipped to deal with bad offenses but vulnerable to good offenses. [Not so surprising over all.] While Stanford allowed $C a healthy 5.5 yds/rush, they also allowed a strong 8.5 yds/pass attempt. Kessler had a PER of 180.5 [that's the best Kessler has ever had against a non-bottom feeder Pac 12 team].

Fortunately, OSU isn't very good on offense and in particular cannot pass. OSU is last in the conference in yds/game (117th nationally), yds/play (119th), points/game (111th), and pass rating (114th).
They can run a bit, 7th in the conference in yds/carry (57th), 5th in yds/game (41st).
All of this against FCS weakling Weber State (2-10 last year), Michigan (pretty good defense), and San Jose State.

They seemed to be on a bit of an upswing vs San Jose State, and of course the worry is that they are about to suddenly figure out the new system and new QB. Could happen.

But broadly speaking, I am more worried about an offensive implosion if Hogan cannot play (or cannot play well) against what might be a pretty good defense - though poor opponents make that mostly unmeasurable so far.