1. Pounding the Rock

Ty Montgomery just single-handedly won a football game. He took the rock and carried it for 299 all-purpose yards. He was the only offensive player that had success, but it was enough success to carry the day.  Hogan never got comfortable in this game. He made some curious decisions, especially on the 3^rd and 1 near the end of the game. He could have picked up the first down by cutting straight upfield, but he tried to stretch it outside. He just isn’t fast enough to get there. There was also never any rhythm in the passing game. But, he didn’t make big mistakes. The interception on 3^rd down turned out to be not much worse than a punt. And when he was moving the offense, it was timely. Hogan led three touchdown drives immediately following the first three Washington touchdowns. The announcer said, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen a game where a team scores and loses momentum so quickly.”

2. Ed Reynolds and The Party in the Backfield

The defense played just fine, considering it was on the field a lot—UW had seven 2^nd half possessions. Murphy and Tarpley produced the big interception to extend the streak to 29 consecutive games forcing a turnover. It was just enough to hold on. Price and Sankey are big-time stars, and we were fortunate to come out on top. I think UW is generally as good as Stanford, but they haven’t yet figured out how to avoid mistakes. Some dropped passes and a ton of 1^st half penalties really hurt the Huskies offense. Everyone is talking about the 4^th down replay at the end of the game, but it wouldn’t have mattered if Sefarian-Jenkins didn’t drop a perfect pass for a big 3^rd down gain on the previous play.

I don’t think you can understate Shane Skov’s importance to the team. 15 tackles was huge, but it goes beyond that. He is a charismatic leader, and provides a spark that David Shaw cannot.  In the press conference after the game, Skov said, “The more difficult the games are, the better we’ll become.” Skov has helped shaped the team’s mentality of inner strength. And Andrew Luck certainly helped build the philosophy of team first, always recognizing and appreciating those around you who are doing their job. The reason Stanford is mentally a cut above most teams has nothing to do with book smarts. It is leadership, and leadership wins close games. Mike Leach put it simply after the WSU game, “They’re a very mature team.”

Unfortunately, UW doesn’t seem to have the same kind of leadership. Sarkisian accused Skov and Gardner of faking injuries and questioned the replay call on the 4^th down play at the end of the game. That isn’t the kind of mentality that is going to make his team better, especially considering that reality of his complaints. The 4^th down play was an incompletion, plain and simple. The ball hit the ground. Regardless of the evidence being 99% or 100% incontrovertible, the right call was eventually made. And questioning the injuries sends the wrong message to his team. His position should be: one of the opponent’s best players just left the game (even for a play); let’s take advantage. Sarkisian, though, seems to be less mature than the student-athletes his team was playing against.

A continuing cause for concern on defense: Alex Carter is still getting burned on back-shoulder throws. He can’t turn around and find the ball. Teams know this. It is out there on tape. And the announcer noted that Price spent a long warm-up session practicing the back-shoulder throw before the game.

3. Math of David: Numbers and Coaching

What happened to the downfield passing game? After the game, Shaw said, “It wasn’t just us, they did a really good job on defense.” (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJkTxHZLtlg) He also hinted that the first-half interception and the downfield incompletion to Rector who was sandwiched in double coverage caused the play-calling to lean a little more conservative. UW kept the safeties back and there wasn’t a lot of single coverage. But that didn’t matter against Washington St last week. Stanford sent multiple receivers long and was able to outmaneuver WSU’s safeties without any problem. Maybe Washington is just that much faster on defense. We can’t know for sure, because Hogan only threw two deep passes the entire game. One was the incompletion to Rector. The other was the touchdown to Montgomery at the end of the first-half. On deep balls, 50% completion rate with one touchdown is pretty good. I think it was a mistake to not throw over the top a few more times in the second half—especially when the defense was expecting a run.

4. Up Next: Utah

Utah has a decent run defense but is 101^st in passing yards allowed with 274 ypg. I’m hoping to see the Hogan air show again. That was just too much fun and I miss it already.  Offensively, Utah will likely spread the field, as most teams do against Stanford, with a lot of quick passes and sweeps to the perimeter. They run up-tempo, but the Stanford defense should be getting used to this, as they’ve seen it for three straight games. Tackling again will be the key. Washington’s longest play from scrimmage was 29 yards and they were contained on kick and punt returns. If we can contain Utah and avoid the big plays, I like our chances.

5. Around the Pac-12

Well, I may have been wrong about Cal. Perhaps they aren’t as underrated as I thought. Now I don’t see how they are going to win another game. They already have 9 consecutive losses to FBS teams. They may end up 1-11 and extend that streak. They are the opposite of Stanford—full of big plays, crucial mistakes, and lazy defense. Go to the play that starts at the 2:07 mark of these highlights and watch how six Bears defenders surround the runner and accomplish nothing. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sfSgyUcGS0)

You know the Pac-12 is starting to get some respect when Gameday goes to Seattle following a UW loss. This is a huge game. Strangely, if UW can lose by 10 or less, their two consecutive losses might prove they are one of the ten best teams in the country. It has been 18 games since someone besides Stanford has lost by less than 17 to Oregon.

6. Ranking Issue of the Week

Oregon is 10^th in two of the BCS computer rankings and 7^th in two others. It was a huge mistake to disallow the computer rankings from using margin of victory in their formulae. The logic was to discourage teams from running up the score on weaker opponents. The sentiment behind the logic is reasonable. But no one ever talked about a simple solution that avoids the desire for huge blowouts and treats a one point win differently than a twenty point win. The rankings should have been instructed to limit the margin of victory that the computers use to 21 points, or some similar number. Any victory by more than 21 points is treated the same—a 21 point win. If this system were in place, the computers would do a much better job of determining the best teams.