10-24-2026, 02:06 PM
7. Warren's connection with High was fun to watch and the QB continues to take care of the ball, not take sacks (the one knocking us out of field goal range brutal but an exception that proves the rule), and manage the offense. The touchdown drive at the end of the first half was a thing of beauty. We're well served with Warren at QB. Total QBR judged it his second best game at Stanford, after Georgia Tech. He's moved up to 68th in the nation and 10th in the ACC, very respectable. And yet it wouldn't even occur to me to give him a game ball with the stellar games by our playmakers. Ford has had the first two 200+ yards from scrimmage games of his career in the last seven days. The only other time this era a Stanford player has done it even once was Ayomanor's Colorado game. Ford's lovely week is the most productive back-to-back games for a Stanford playmaker since Bryce Love in 2017. Ford is now 31st in America in yards from scrimmage, 32nd in rushing, and on pace for a 1000 yard rushing season. He has really changed the arc of his year. High was the energizer bunny on the first drive (to say nothing of the later touchdown), the success of which may have been crucial for the win and one of the more important opening drives of this era. With his second 100 yard game of the season and fourth of his Stanford career, High is now on the national receiving leaderboards, just ahead of the output CJ Williams had last year. If High does it twice more at Stanford he ties Ayomanor for most of this era. He'll be playing in the NFL. The Warren to Hall on 3rd and a mile in the fourth quarter trying to hold on to the lead was so clutch. Very happy for Hall becoming a key cog after a brutal start to his year and career. Hampton had a nice game. [Moving the chains (first down) leaderboard: Ford (9), High (7), Nico Brown (3), Hall (3), Warren, Hampton, Irvin, Blackburn] The PFF grading did not assess the offensive acumen to be unit-wide but rather great performances by Warren and High, good by Ford, Prongos, Hall, and Brown, solid by the tight ends, and weak links from Onovughe, Pale, House, and Anderson. I was surprised to see that judgment on the line considering the size of the holes my eyes observed. I also want to shout out the line's pass protection. Two thirds of the way through the season, we are 65th in sacks allowed per game. Our best finish in this category in the previous five years was 96th. Our PFF pass blocking grade is 99th, which is less impressive but consider that we haven't done better than 96th this era. The line, coaching, and Warren all probably deserve some credit for this improvement.
8. I mentioned the defense making just enough plays to hold on and to me what epitomized that in this game was Tafiti. He has had a quiet year and was only ok the first three quarters (a tackle for loss is nice), but he turned it up a gear in crunch time with the sack and three hurries. It's kind of boring to say BMO is our best defender but he is. I loved seeing the penetration Briehler managed and especially getting the hurry on Sumlin's awesome third down dislodging to force a punt and the crunch time tackle for loss, as Briehler did some solid work earlier that just didn't get home in time to prevent the play. Mattingly, like usual, seemed an active and not disciplined Jekyll and Hyde. I did observe to myself, as I have for decades, that off-ball linebackers always get the most gushing and uncritical commentary from announcers. PFF liked what it saw from Galvan (happy for him to wipe some bad taste out), Tafiti, Sumlin, and Davis and thought many others were serviceable, judging the weak links to be Eckhardt (brutal, of course mainly due to the 58 yard touchdown he screwed up), Bachhuber, Richardson, Green, and Rowell. I don't think we've talked about it here but Cooper has been benched, only about 11 snaps per game over the last three games; yesterday he made his snaps count, having one of his best games at Stanford despite the lack of run, notably contributing a pass breakup and third down run stop. We are 135th in sacks per game and yesterday the novelty of Tafiti's and accidental nature of Bachhuber's were reminders that this is something we've utterly lacked this year.
9. I hear the calls for Chris Davis Jr. to get a game ball due to corraling the onside kick but game balls for me require more than one play and his others were kick returns of 13 to give up 9 of field position and 16 to give up 7. I am with those who think there is definitely one or both of bad special teams coaching by Kaczor (to coach a team that so frequently gets tackled before the 20 and/or to not tell Davis not to take back all these kicks, take your pick) and Davis being a horribly selfish player. Not 100 percent confident in either of those but confident it's at least one of them. Davis leads the nation in number of kick returns. That's an unfortunate stat on two levels (the number of times we receive a kick and the number of times we don't just take the free touchback yards). So no game ball. Special teams game ball is clearly Flintoft. His higher profile job had net punts of 44 to the 26 (good), 48 to the 40 (very good), and 35 to the 11 (good). His role you usually don't think about unless something is wrong (holder) teamed with Kenney to save the day and bail out Chavez on the crappy snap on Kenney's crucial 31 yard field goal. Big contributions by Flintoft yesterday. Elsewhere on special teams, Hampton had a nice return erased by Vaccarello's hold and there were coverage tackles by Eckhardt, Edwards, Lugolobi, and Johnson (most notably, and big team energy boost). I'll put this in special teams because the opportunity cost of the calls were not kicking/punting: in real time I hated the 4th and 20 and the 4th and 4. One didn't work out and one very much did. Pritchard's postgame explanation was credible and defensible, as much as I mocked him on a CSR text chain about the 4th and 20. On balance I don't hate Wildman Tavita. I've said for years football should be less about special teams. Tavita actually lives it and goes for more points. This is of course inextricably linked to the problems in our place kicking operation. Hope that can be better next year.
10. Game balls: Caden High, Tevarua Tafiti, Aidan Flintoft, Malcolm Agnew
11. This win makes it more likely than not that we get to five wins (though losing out is very much in play given our level of play so far), which Luck and Pritchard would certainly aggressively sell as our most wins since 2018. Next up is an approximately Wake Forest level of challenge in Louisville. Given how we've performed on the road in the ACC era, it's hard to get hopes up. The way I'm thinking about it is we could win any of the remaining games but the likelihood ratchets up each week between now and Thanksgiving from very low likelihood against Louisville to almost a tossup against Cal, with SMU our second most winnable game left. The thing that would really boost our narrative is if we could exorcise ACC road demons and win a true cross-country game. Fat chance. Keeping Louisville even within 24 might actually be progress compared to our recent history. But that's why they play the games. If we do win one of the next two, it would be hard to deny the narrative victory Pritchard would have accomplished. Next week against Louisville is the first chance to do that.
8. I mentioned the defense making just enough plays to hold on and to me what epitomized that in this game was Tafiti. He has had a quiet year and was only ok the first three quarters (a tackle for loss is nice), but he turned it up a gear in crunch time with the sack and three hurries. It's kind of boring to say BMO is our best defender but he is. I loved seeing the penetration Briehler managed and especially getting the hurry on Sumlin's awesome third down dislodging to force a punt and the crunch time tackle for loss, as Briehler did some solid work earlier that just didn't get home in time to prevent the play. Mattingly, like usual, seemed an active and not disciplined Jekyll and Hyde. I did observe to myself, as I have for decades, that off-ball linebackers always get the most gushing and uncritical commentary from announcers. PFF liked what it saw from Galvan (happy for him to wipe some bad taste out), Tafiti, Sumlin, and Davis and thought many others were serviceable, judging the weak links to be Eckhardt (brutal, of course mainly due to the 58 yard touchdown he screwed up), Bachhuber, Richardson, Green, and Rowell. I don't think we've talked about it here but Cooper has been benched, only about 11 snaps per game over the last three games; yesterday he made his snaps count, having one of his best games at Stanford despite the lack of run, notably contributing a pass breakup and third down run stop. We are 135th in sacks per game and yesterday the novelty of Tafiti's and accidental nature of Bachhuber's were reminders that this is something we've utterly lacked this year.
9. I hear the calls for Chris Davis Jr. to get a game ball due to corraling the onside kick but game balls for me require more than one play and his others were kick returns of 13 to give up 9 of field position and 16 to give up 7. I am with those who think there is definitely one or both of bad special teams coaching by Kaczor (to coach a team that so frequently gets tackled before the 20 and/or to not tell Davis not to take back all these kicks, take your pick) and Davis being a horribly selfish player. Not 100 percent confident in either of those but confident it's at least one of them. Davis leads the nation in number of kick returns. That's an unfortunate stat on two levels (the number of times we receive a kick and the number of times we don't just take the free touchback yards). So no game ball. Special teams game ball is clearly Flintoft. His higher profile job had net punts of 44 to the 26 (good), 48 to the 40 (very good), and 35 to the 11 (good). His role you usually don't think about unless something is wrong (holder) teamed with Kenney to save the day and bail out Chavez on the crappy snap on Kenney's crucial 31 yard field goal. Big contributions by Flintoft yesterday. Elsewhere on special teams, Hampton had a nice return erased by Vaccarello's hold and there were coverage tackles by Eckhardt, Edwards, Lugolobi, and Johnson (most notably, and big team energy boost). I'll put this in special teams because the opportunity cost of the calls were not kicking/punting: in real time I hated the 4th and 20 and the 4th and 4. One didn't work out and one very much did. Pritchard's postgame explanation was credible and defensible, as much as I mocked him on a CSR text chain about the 4th and 20. On balance I don't hate Wildman Tavita. I've said for years football should be less about special teams. Tavita actually lives it and goes for more points. This is of course inextricably linked to the problems in our place kicking operation. Hope that can be better next year.
10. Game balls: Caden High, Tevarua Tafiti, Aidan Flintoft, Malcolm Agnew
11. This win makes it more likely than not that we get to five wins (though losing out is very much in play given our level of play so far), which Luck and Pritchard would certainly aggressively sell as our most wins since 2018. Next up is an approximately Wake Forest level of challenge in Louisville. Given how we've performed on the road in the ACC era, it's hard to get hopes up. The way I'm thinking about it is we could win any of the remaining games but the likelihood ratchets up each week between now and Thanksgiving from very low likelihood against Louisville to almost a tossup against Cal, with SMU our second most winnable game left. The thing that would really boost our narrative is if we could exorcise ACC road demons and win a true cross-country game. Fat chance. Keeping Louisville even within 24 might actually be progress compared to our recent history. But that's why they play the games. If we do win one of the next two, it would be hard to deny the narrative victory Pritchard would have accomplished. Next week against Louisville is the first chance to do that.