01-02-2014, 10:44 PM
One thing to note is that the QB is only one ingredient in the passing offense. An effective passing offense requires:
A) An accurate QB who can make good decisions
B) An offensive line who can protect the QB.
C) Receivers who can catch the balls thrown. [This also includes pass catching tight ends]
I think we have a very good QB, though one who is prone to the occasional inaccurate throw and poor decision. I think our offensive line is very good to excellent, though far from perfect. I think the weakest area is actually the receivers. Montgomery is good, but has been prone to the occasional dropped ball. The other wide receivers (Cajuste, Rector, Whitfield) all have potential, but are all effectively playing their first season (they had a total of 21 catches between them last year).
The bigger issue, of course, is our abject lack of pass catching tight ends. The ESPN blog made a very good point (http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/...get-better):
If Stanford had a reliable tight end, it would have given quarterback Kevin Hogan a place to dump the ball when his receivers were blanketed by A-list cover corners, which was the case against Michigan State. It would have given the Cardinal an option in the intermediate passing game, a guy who could have exploited the Spartans' questionable safeties, who were joining the fight at the line of scrimmage in an effort to outnumber the Cardinal's power running game.
It is worth noting that "Stanford QB Kevin Hogan completed 2 of 7 passes thrown 15 yards or longer, tied for his most such incompletions in a game this season." (also from the ESPN blog). Now to be fair, one of those should have been a PI, but let's face it, the lack of viable tight end receiving options killed us in a game where MSU's elite DB's could cover our wide receivers one on one.
BC
A) An accurate QB who can make good decisions
B) An offensive line who can protect the QB.
C) Receivers who can catch the balls thrown. [This also includes pass catching tight ends]
I think we have a very good QB, though one who is prone to the occasional inaccurate throw and poor decision. I think our offensive line is very good to excellent, though far from perfect. I think the weakest area is actually the receivers. Montgomery is good, but has been prone to the occasional dropped ball. The other wide receivers (Cajuste, Rector, Whitfield) all have potential, but are all effectively playing their first season (they had a total of 21 catches between them last year).
The bigger issue, of course, is our abject lack of pass catching tight ends. The ESPN blog made a very good point (http://espn.go.com/blog/pac12/post/_/id/...get-better):
If Stanford had a reliable tight end, it would have given quarterback Kevin Hogan a place to dump the ball when his receivers were blanketed by A-list cover corners, which was the case against Michigan State. It would have given the Cardinal an option in the intermediate passing game, a guy who could have exploited the Spartans' questionable safeties, who were joining the fight at the line of scrimmage in an effort to outnumber the Cardinal's power running game.
It is worth noting that "Stanford QB Kevin Hogan completed 2 of 7 passes thrown 15 yards or longer, tied for his most such incompletions in a game this season." (also from the ESPN blog). Now to be fair, one of those should have been a PI, but let's face it, the lack of viable tight end receiving options killed us in a game where MSU's elite DB's could cover our wide receivers one on one.
BC