Defensive Observations

[walzuu]

With all of the turnover we have had on defense I noticed the unit mixing things up a bit. There were actually some bright spots. You will find my notes from Martin Stadium below. Take em or leave em.

Overall: I think there were signs of life. Fewer blown assignments. The explosives we gave up were largely due to their WR being taller than our DBs and getting away with many a push off. Certainly a concerted effort to get bigger players on the field by our coaching staff. I appreciated the two high look and not bringing much pressure. When you are facing and offense that has as much trouble finishing drives as Stanford has this year using a bend but down break strategy seems prudent.

DL: fairly straightforward approach here. Lamont got a little less run than he had been. Nice to have Rodgers back.

LB: IMO this was J Rodgers best game of the year. He was not forced to play laterally which seems to be his weakness. Woods played more downhill than he had been.

Rush: Stone played the majority of the game. freshman Rocky Katoanga got his first run of the year (that I remember) mostly rushing the passer on passing downs. No sign of Willie Taylor that I saw.

Nickel: this position was the most interesting to me. Treveon Brown Played on first down and rushing downs. Marsh played on passing downs. He really struggled. One bad blown assignment and got picked on by larger Stanford TEs.

Strong safety: Thomas did not play in the 1Q but played his best game of the year after that. Pat Nun (previously nickel) took the other SS reps.

FS: no notes. Ross played fine. He is young and athletic and will improve.

Corner: sigh. Mostly a rotation of strong, Hicks, and Langford. Strong and Langford got the majority of the snaps. Consistently in the right place, consistently beaten to the ball giving up big plays.

I will be fascinated to see how we defend the quick slant that OSU has been using all year.

 

[dgibbons]

Taylor played some, it may have been only second half. Beekman played FS most of the game.

The wildcard here is whether any of it was for disciplinary reasons. I say that because Thomas didn’t start then played the majority of the game.

 

[walzuu]

Taylor played some, it may have been only second half. Beekman played FS most of the game.

The wildcard here is whether any of it was for disciplinary reasons. I say that because Thomas didn’t start then played the majority of the game.

Good finds. During his post game Leach hinted Skyler did not play in the first quarter for disciplinary reasons.

 

[Coug90]

The run defense and tackling on the short passes was phenomenal. By far the best tackling this year.

my positive takeaway on all the deep passes they hit is this. For the most part the DBs were step for step with their receivers. Stanford’s QB dropped most of those passes in perfect spots, so even with good coverage, that’s going to be tough...and Stanford’s always had the big WRs who are obviously coached to be physical- they were shoving off on our DBs on damn near every one of those deep balls and that makes it an impossible task for a DB to make a play on the ball.

My bigger concern is with pass rush. When we only rushed 4 he had all day to throw. How did we lead the conference in sacks just last year??

 

[COUGinNCW]

The run defense and tackling on the short passes was phenomenal. By far the best tackling this year.

my positive takeaway on all the deep passes they hit is this. For the most part the DBs were step for step with their receivers. Stanford’s QB dropped most of those passes in perfect spots, so even with good coverage, that’s going to be tough...and Stanford’s always had the big WRs who are obviously coached to be physical- they were shoving off on our DBs on damn near every one of those deep balls and that makes it an impossible task for a DB to make a play on the ball.

My bigger concern is with pass rush. When we only rushed 4 he had all day to throw. How did we lead the conference in sacks just last year??

Agree with you on some of the passes Mills was making. Very good coverage that he dropped right in the bucket. He was a 5 Star for a reason.

 

[BleedCrimsonandGray]

Agree with you on some of the passes Mills was making. Very good coverage that he dropped right in the bucket. He was a 5 Star for a reason.

And again, pretty easy to do when you know there is zero chance if being sacked. Hell, we never even made him move out of the pocket.

 

[cr8zyncalif]

Marsh looked like he needs some intensive coaching/mentoring in footwork and looking back for the ball near the end of the play. The footwork caused him to give up somewhere between a half step and a step right at the beginning on most downs. He is not as slow as he looks; he simply gave up too much early. He also has limited skills in terms of looking back when the ball is getting close. His body position wasn't bad, but he could get away with a lot more at the end if he just turned and looked once. Not gonna get a lot of close calls from the ref if you never look for the ball. I'm far from a coaching genius. If I can see that, why is he still doing it this late in the season?

 

[random soul]

Marsh looked like he needs some intensive coaching/mentoring in footwork and looking back for the ball near the end of the play. The footwork caused him to give up somewhere between a half step and a step right at the beginning on most downs. He is not as slow as he looks; he simply gave up too much early. He also has limited skills in terms of looking back when the ball is getting close. His body position wasn't bad, but he could get away with a lot more at the end if he just turned and looked once. Not gonna get a lot of close calls from the ref if you never look for the ball. I'm far from a coaching genius. If I can see that, why is he still doing it this late in the season?

All of our DBs are terrible at that. Have been for ages. I think it's part of the reason Grinch ran so much Cover 4

 

[roses04]

Actually I though our DBs played one of their best game of the year, yes they gave up 500+ yards, but that QB threw a great ball, made some perfect throws, and the Furd receivers made some great catches, and in all those cases we had a hand on the receiver, or were in his face, or in a position to make an immediate tackle although a few were missed. This may be the best QB Stanford has had in years, get a running game with that, and the future looks good over there. Contrast that with the UCLA game, receivers were wide open, no one near them, and they would run for 20-30 or 50 yards or more after the catch uncontested. Yes they still have a long ways to go, but they are getting better. I was at both games, and I thought the D played much better. Considering we booted 2 dbs during the week, and had to make some quick adjustments, I thought they did OK.

 

[random soul]

Actually I though our DBs played one of their best game of the year, yes they gave up 500+ yards, but that QB threw a great ball, made some perfect throws, and the Furd receivers made some great catches, and in all those cases we had a hand on the receiver, or were in his face, or in a position to make an immediate tackle although a few were missed. This may be the best QB Stanford has had in years, get a running game with that, and the future looks good over there. Contrast that with the UCLA game, receivers were wide open, no one near them, and they would run for 20-30 or 50 yards or more after the catch uncontested. Yes they still have a long ways to go, but they are getting better. I was at both games, and I thought the D played much better. Considering we booted 2 dbs during the week, and had to make some quick adjustments, I thought they did OK.

The one thing I agree with is that at least the dbs were in position to make a play most of the time. Leach was right about Cal being at least partly a case of 9 guys doing the right thing and 2 just freelancing and making excuses. No more of that, at least.

 

[95coug]

The one thing I agree with is that at least the dbs were in position to make a play most of the time. Leach was right about Cal being at least partly a case of 9 guys doing the right thing and 2 just freelancing and making excuses. No more of that, at least.

Well...they were in a position to make a play on the man after the catch was made. Unfortunately, most of the time their backs were turned so they had no chance to make a play on the ball and prevent the catch in the first place.