[Goose]

It's also possible that we're overreacting to playing against a really good defensive front and having the game script get away from us.

It is for certain that the last game has more influence than it should in our collective reaction. ND has a good defense. We knew that going in. However, our OL was basically unable to handle that good defense on most plays. We never did get any run game going that we could rely on. That is how the game narrative got out of our control.

I think many of the fans here looked at SC and ND as games that would tell us what the ceiling for this year's team would be. SC usually has a good defense, at least physically if not schematically. We knew ND was defensively good, but possibly offensively vulnerable with Wimbush. The team beat SC, but mostly because SC couldn't score much. The OL looked OK at pass blocking, not so good at run blocking. At ND, we got beat by a better defense than we had yet seen. It was a disappointment, because it made it clear that this year's team wasn't yet ready to compete with the best and win. At least not last Saturday. The OL basically was ineffective the entire game. It got worse late in the game, but it was never adequate. Games have a "feel" to them, and even though it was close at the half, I think most Stanford fans we in the "Oh-Oh, this doesn't look good" mode.

 This OL wasn't great last year. We had lots of discussion here about how last years team was "feast or famine". This year's team is almost always "famine". We just don't move people. In 2016 we had problems on the OL, but they were made worse by having QB problems. That pushed the OL problems into second place. So, I don't think this problem is totally based on the last game. There has been a downward trend. Not monotonic, to be sure, but still a trend. Why, I don't know. Certainly opposing defenses have figured out a good approach against us, but that is partly because of our limitations on the OL.  It is not like we are too small. It may be that we are too slow, and unfortunately that is hard to coach away. However, if that is the case, we should still be able to drive block. Haven't seen us do that well either. We would still have problems with stunts and line slants, but we could for sure make 1 yard straight ahead. Lately, we haven't be able to do that.

We may see greatly improved OL play against Utah. I hope we see it there, and for the rest of the year. But for right now, that is the "issue" with this team, IMHO. If we are going to win the North, we have to be able to run the ball. And we will have to run the ball to beat UW. Period.

[Goose]

It's also possible that we're overreacting to playing against a really good defensive front and having the game script get away from us.

It is for certain that the last game has more influence than it should in our collective reaction. ND has a good defense. We knew that going in. However, our OL was basically unable to handle that good defense on most plays. We never did get any run game going that we could rely on. That is how the game narrative got out of our control.

I think many of the fans here looked at SC and ND as games that would tell us what the ceiling for this year's team would be. SC usually has a good defense, at least physically if not schematically. We knew ND was defensively good, but possibly offensively vulnerable with Wimbush. The team beat SC, but mostly because SC couldn't score much. The OL looked OK at pass blocking, not so good at run blocking. At ND, we got beat by a better defense than we had yet seen. It was a disappointment, because it made it clear that this year's team wasn't yet ready to compete with the best and win. At least not last Saturday. The OL basically was ineffective the entire game. It got worse late in the game, but it was never adequate. Games have a "feel" to them, and even though it was close at the half, I think most Stanford fans we in the "Oh-Oh, this doesn't look good" mode.

 This OL wasn't great last year. We had lots of discussion here about how last years team was "feast or famine". This year's team is almost always "famine". We just don't move people. In 2016 we had problems on the OL, but they were made worse by having QB problems. That pushed the OL problems into second place. So, I don't think this problem is totally based on the last game. There has been a downward trend. Not monotonic, to be sure, but still a trend. Why, I don't know. Certainly opposing defenses have figured out a good approach against us, but that is partly because of our limitations on the OL.  It is not like we are too small. It may be that we are too slow, and unfortunately that is hard to coach away. However, if that is the case, we should still be able to drive block. Haven't seen us do that well either. We would still have problems with stunts and line slants, but we could for sure make 1 yard straight ahead. Lately, we haven't be able to do that.

We may see greatly improved OL play against Utah. I hope we see it there, and for the rest of the year. But for right now, that is the "issue" with this team, IMHO. If we are going to win the North, we have to be able to run the ball. And we will have to run the ball to beat UW. Period.