[Goose]

The OL has been the Achilles heel of Stanford FB for a number of years now and it seems again to be a weak link.

This IMO covers the main problem we have. While I am confident that the guys that are out injured are "better" than the players we have out there, I strongly suspect they are not that much "better". The hope that Stanford could be a run-heavy team playing possession football while taking some "shots" is and for "a number of years" has been a fantasy. We do not have an OL that can do that. To his credit, David Shaw tried to "adapt" to this problem. He kind of made it work for a couple of years, and was greatly benefited by having Bryce Love to provide a running threat even when our line really couldn't open running lanes reliably. In the end though it proved impossible. It still is.
 
We are indeed fortunate the OL we have is capable of pass blocking at the level it does. Not great, but it is much better than the run blocking. Of course, we have seen lots of this video before. On the plus side, we have a QB that at least so far seems to be able to operate behind this line even with its limitations. Even more important we have and receivers that are getting open. This was true even against Miami. In the recent past Stanford had real problems getting anyone open. ATM that isn't the case. IMO part of that is better coaching and better scheme for the players we have. Unfortunately as was pointed out in the Hawaii game our receivers didn't exactly help out the QB by reliably catching the ball. It was much worse last night. The 3rd and 2 play at the start of the game presaged the rest of the night. Catchable ball simply dropped by the receiver. In this particular case the receiver, who already had first down yardage when the ball was thrown, failed to catch it because he was looking downfield to maximize YAC. Sound familiar? Simply can't happen. A team like Stanford MUST catch the ball reliably. We aren't good enough to make up for drops of catchable passes. Some strategic yelling at the players may be required :-). Unless this gets fixed very quickly, we are in for a long year.
 

Remember the days when Stanford had RBs that could effectively pick up a blitzer? A very valuable skill which I didn't much in evidence tonight. 

Indeed. When not using play action Stanford is relying on the RB posing a threat as a pass receiver. The hope is to force the defense to cover him and therefore not blitz much. That doesn't reliably work in general, especially when the RBs are not a credible threat in the passing game. The defense can still send 5 and cover (or ignore) the RB. Even CMAC, who was a superb receiving threat, had to pick up blitzes. He wasn't great at it (size limitation) but he did reliably at least slow the blitzer/leaker down. BL and all his successors did not do much blitz pickup. When you play that way you really must, at a minimum, have a running back that can reliably function as a "hot" receiver and is deployed to do that. We aren't doing that.

[Goose]

The OL has been the Achilles heel of Stanford FB for a number of years now and it seems again to be a weak link.

This IMO covers the main problem we have. While I am confident that the guys that are out injured are "better" than the players we have out there, I strongly suspect they are not that much "better". The hope that Stanford could be a run-heavy team playing possession football while taking some "shots" is and for "a number of years" has been a fantasy. We do not have an OL that can do that. To his credit, David Shaw tried to "adapt" to this problem. He kind of made it work for a couple of years, and was greatly benefited by having Bryce Love to provide a running threat even when our line really couldn't open running lanes reliably. In the end though it proved impossible. It still is.
 
We are indeed fortunate the OL we have is capable of pass blocking at the level it does. Not great, but it is much better than the run blocking. Of course, we have seen lots of this video before. On the plus side, we have a QB that at least so far seems to be able to operate behind this line even with its limitations. Even more important we have and receivers that are getting open. This was true even against Miami. In the recent past Stanford had real problems getting anyone open. ATM that isn't the case. IMO part of that is better coaching and better scheme for the players we have. Unfortunately as was pointed out in the Hawaii game our receivers didn't exactly help out the QB by reliably catching the ball. It was much worse last night. The 3rd and 2 play at the start of the game presaged the rest of the night. Catchable ball simply dropped by the receiver. In this particular case the receiver, who already had first down yardage when the ball was thrown, failed to catch it because he was looking downfield to maximize YAC. Sound familiar? Simply can't happen. A team like Stanford MUST catch the ball reliably. We aren't good enough to make up for drops of catchable passes. Some strategic yelling at the players may be required :-). Unless this gets fixed very quickly, we are in for a long year.
 

Remember the days when Stanford had RBs that could effectively pick up a blitzer? A very valuable skill which I didn't much in evidence tonight. 

Indeed. When not using play action Stanford is relying on the RB posing a threat as a pass receiver. The hope is to force the defense to cover him and therefore not blitz much. That doesn't reliably work in general, especially when the RBs are not a credible threat in the passing game. The defense can still send 5 and cover (or ignore) the RB. Even CMAC, who was a superb receiving threat, had to pick up blitzes. He wasn't great at it (size limitation) but he did reliably at least slow the blitzer/leaker down. BL and all his successors did not do much blitz pickup. When you play that way you really must, at a minimum, have a running back that can reliably function as a "hot" receiver and is deployed to do that. We aren't doing that.