Offense:
- My greatest concern was OL...and they played about like I expected. They were bad early, and 8 sacks is bad, but not all on them. Obviously, Stanford has a physical and talented front. By the time Stanford had a three score lead, they got a bit better--but how much of that was Stanford easing up a bit, and getting less aggressive? No way to know. Jesse was scrambling a lot...but more often than not, that was about holding the ball too long. Work in progress, as all thought.
- Jesse was a mixed bag, as a thrower. A few bad decisions. A few beautiful balls (with the TD to Zuber being the highlight). No timing. Since I watched on TV, there is no way to know if he had reason to hold those balls, but its doubtful. He'll get better.
- Lack of QB run game.. We might not like to talk about it, but opposing coaches saw the same thing we did. For me, this is the one thing I am most concerned about, going forward. Jesse just did not look confident on that knee, or with that brace. I do not believe we have enough weapons, or an OL experienced enough to win without the QB run game. Now,
- Heath looked like the most reliable receiving threat and returner. I've been a bit tough on his upside...but he showed why the coaches believed in him so early last year. He also looked stronger.
- And Pringle had what can only be described as a very poor debut. Some of that is first-game stuff, some of that is timing with the QB, but I'm not sure he is either as polished, or as physical, as I thought he'd be.
- OTOH, really nice debut by Zuber. Just an unbelievable catch on the TD, but not just that; he really looked good.
- I defended Charles Jones before the game, and will now, too. He is not a huge playmaker, he does have some limitations, and had a run or two where he left yards on the field...but he did run hard, and especially in the second half, with a LOT of determination. He seems to get better as the game goes on, gets in a bit of a rhythm. The once comment I would make is that he is the kind of back that, IMO, is going to give you what you need when you have a lead, or are in a tight game. But when we dig a hole, as has become our habit, I'd like to see us mix in more dynamic backs; another game down, another game where we still don't know what Warmack could do given more opportunity. Silmon had no space to run, but did run hard. But if he can't run with his head up, he isn't going to do much better than the 3.7ypc last night. He got 7 carries, to Jones' 8. Total 16 carries for the RBs...slim pickings.
- Yet another slow start, spotting yet another team a double-digit lead, and IMO, it's not on the players.
- Barnett made clear early he came to play, and was back in 2014 form.
- Geary and Lee, IMO, played the best games of their careers. They were really, really good.
- Wood was invisible until a big series late in the game. Two great tackles in one series, but not much otherwise.
- Willis was getting push, but could not get there. Played hard, and disciplined.
- McCaffrey will make 99% of college defenders look bad 99% of the time in the open field. We gave him relatively few opportunities to do that. With only a couple exceptions, we played really well against him, after the first three possessions, especially.
- There were some breakdowns, Davis struggled to find the ball, a couple people had trouble wrapping up, but overall, IMO, our defense looks like it has the parts; can we quit coaching our opponents to double-digit leads? For me, that's the bigger question here, and it is a direct result of philosophy, IMO.
