[CardinalSagehen]

I didn't see how SDSU was deploying their LBers, but $C was clearly using them to crowd the LOS looking for the inside run, then adjusting if they determined a pass. It would seem that quick hitters from the slot behind the LBers would have been effective. (Such a play was a of exceedingly large proportions weapon for us with McCaffrey.) Why we didn't see it isn't clear to me, but it's football 101 so it's not as if it simply didn't occur to the coaches.

This is mostly unrelated to your original point here, which was about forcing the LBs to back off when they're cheating against the run.  But I was actually expecting to see this kind of a pass into the slot on our final "drive" against SDSU.

Remember this, from happier times, in a similar final drive situation against ND in 2015?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6595URY4Jws&t=74m45s  .  You can see that ND had gone into a "prevent" mode, with extra DBs and a massive soft-spot over the middle for Cajuste's catch in the slot.

By contrast, if you can stand the brain damage, here's our last, fateful offensive play vs. SDSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIN4qpVqpM&t=10m25s.  The Aztecs were gutsier and stayed in their base 3-4 defense, leaving JJ in single-coverage on the outside, without much of a soft-spot for us to attack over the middle. 

On the general topic of seeing Costello, I think Shaw loses too much credibility with his players by switching this quickly.  He has a history of making the switch at mid-season, and that's what we may see here, assuming Chryst doesn't turn it around... which I hope he does.

[CardinalSagehen]

I didn't see how SDSU was deploying their LBers, but $C was clearly using them to crowd the LOS looking for the inside run, then adjusting if they determined a pass. It would seem that quick hitters from the slot behind the LBers would have been effective. (Such a play was a of exceedingly large proportions weapon for us with McCaffrey.) Why we didn't see it isn't clear to me, but it's football 101 so it's not as if it simply didn't occur to the coaches.

This is mostly unrelated to your original point here, which was about forcing the LBs to back off when they're cheating against the run.  But I was actually expecting to see this kind of a pass into the slot on our final "drive" against SDSU.

Remember this, from happier times, in a similar final drive situation against ND in 2015?: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6595URY4Jws&t=74m45s  .  You can see that ND had gone into a "prevent" mode, with extra DBs and a massive soft-spot over the middle for Cajuste's catch in the slot.

By contrast, if you can stand the brain damage, here's our last, fateful offensive play vs. SDSU: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHIN4qpVqpM&t=10m25s.  The Aztecs were gutsier and stayed in their base 3-4 defense, leaving JJ in single-coverage on the outside, without much of a soft-spot for us to attack over the middle. 

On the general topic of seeing Costello, I think Shaw loses too much credibility with his players by switching this quickly.  He has a history of making the switch at mid-season, and that's what we may see here, assuming Chryst doesn't turn it around... which I hope he does.