1. Perspective

In 2005, UC Davis came to Palo Alto to face a Stanford team that was showing major symptoms of the apocalypse. However, Davis was coming off season-opening losses to New Hampshire and Portland St, so surely the new Stanford coach, Walt Harris, expected to be 2-0 by the end of day. But Stanford fell flat after gaining a 17-0 lead, and UC Davis escaped the Farm with a 20-17 comeback victory. Walt Harris officially replaced Buddy Teevens as my least favorite person on the face of the earth.

David Shaw was not on staff at Stanford that year, and that is a good thing. Last Saturday, he led the Cardinal to a 45-0 victory, and Stanford is dancing once again under the adornments of victory.

In the offseason, it felt somewhat refreshing to reset our expectations a little bit lower. There is always personnel loss, and so we think of uncertainty. We may also think of balance, or the law of large numbers. Surely we can’t maintain such joy and triumph for another season! And then, at first touch, Ty Montgomery takes us on a curving waltz to the end zone. It was such a familiar picture that I could have sworn he was only running at half-speed. It is an image Stanford fans have seen now 17 home games in a row, the longest current home win streak in the country.

2. Offense: In Praise of Ed “Good Hands” McCaffrey’s Offspring

12 Stanford receivers caught passes in this game—the feather is going to be floating this year. Hogan wasn’t perfect, but he never is anyway. He was consistently good, which is what we are starting to expect from him. We won’t know anything about the offensive line and the running game until at least next week. With a weaker running game, red zone offense might be an issue this year. We failed to score any points on two drives inside UC Davis’ 5-yard line. However, we do know we have a slick tight end with great hands: Austin Hooper. Hooper caught four balls for 63 yards including a leaping touchdown grab. He should be a solid red zone target.

The offense blew the game open in the 2^nd quarter, scoring touchdowns on the first play of one drive and the second play of the next drive. It didn’t take Christian McCaffrey very long for his reality to catch up to his hype. 122 all-purpose yards and three tackles on special teams means that this true freshman is going to be around the ball all year. But he is also going to be near the heart of the program, since he seems to have that Shayne Skov-like “I bleed football” sort of attitude. Shaw said during a halftime interview, “What I love about [McCaffrey] is that I tried to pull him off of the kickoff team after that long touchdown, but he wouldn’t come out because he loves kickoff.” The leadership and attitude of players like Luck, Skov, and McCaffrey transcend coaching and turbulence and keep the needle of the program pointed due north.

3. Defense: Midfield Is a Wall of Concrete

UC Davis needed its final drive of the game to accumulate over 100 yards of offense and cross midfield for the first time. Ouch. It doesn’t matter so much if our offense scores 45 or 65 in a game like this, but there is a big difference between winning 45-20 and winning 45-0. It was an impressive showing by the defense. A lot of schools dominated FCS opponents last weekend, but the Stanford defense put in the most thorough and consistent performance of any.

UC Davis never tried to throw the ball deep, so this game didn’t provide much of a blueprint for what is coming from USC. We’ll learn a lot about our defense this coming Saturday.

Also, I can’t help but note that former defense coordinator and current Vanderbilt coach, Derek Mason, lost to Temple 37-7 in his debut. It doesn’t mean much, but at least it is safe to assume that Mason didn’t abscond with our defensive mojo.

4. Coaching

The Pac-12 network game commentator noted that Shaw asked his veteran players at the end of summer camp who they are excited about seeing. Apparently, everyone responded, “Christian McCaffrey.” The answer is unsurprising, but it is a wonderful novelty to hear about a coach asking his players for their opinions. This is one of Shaw’s best qualities as a coach: he builds a familial culture of trust and respect.

I am still concerned about two things, however. On fourth down, we still punt and kick field goals too much. In a blowout, I have no issue with Shaw punting inside Davis’ territory. (Stanford punted from UC Davis’ 44, 39, and 35 yard-lines in the second half.) Shaw wants his punt team to get some practice for those late game situations when pinning a team deep might make sense. But in higher scoring games with time on the clock, we will sometimes need to be more aggressive. As football teams continue to absorb—albeit slowly—more math into the realm of strategy, they are realizing that the data is incontrovertibly in favor of going for it on many 4^th downs in your opponent’s territory. I am concerned that Shaw remains unaware of these facts. (I’ll discuss these 4th down situations in more detail in a post soon.)

5. Up Next: USC

The Trojans are coming in hot—and fast. USC rolled up 701 yards in a 52-13 win over Fresno State. Steve Sarkisian has brought the up-tempo offense to USC, and Stanford is going to have a harder time getting to the quarterback than it has recently. Stanford’s defensive backs are going to have to win this game. USC is getting the ball to receivers and letting them make moves in space. Great tackling and perhaps and interception or two will go a long way to victory.

6. The Playoff Picture

There were very few results in Week One that will have playoff ramifications, so there is not much to write this week. Perhaps the only clear take-away from the first week is that the SEC is off to another hot start. The SEC won two big games: Georgia over Clemson and LSU over Wisconsin. A glance at the rest of the SEC non-conference schedule reveals that there are not many other stumbling blocks out there. And unfortunately for all college football fans, there is not a single game this season featuring a Pac-12 team against an SEC team. For the SEC to drop in stature, it will have to suffer a series of upsets. Perhaps San Jose State can rock the world and take down Auburn this weekend.

7. Around the Pac-12

The San Jose Mercury titled its article on the Cal-Northwestern game: “Bears barely hold on, but they’ll take it.” Cal will do a lot more than just “take it.” They are going to celebrate this victory like it hasn’t happened in years! Well… 686 days to be precise. Cal beat an FBS football team for the first time in 686 days. This is a good thing for Stanford, and it is good for the Pac-12. We will see if Cal’s defense can hold up, but its offense should put up enough points to win a few games this year.

It would have been nice if Washington State could have held on to beat Rutgers, which is now a member of the Big 10. The Pac-12 would benefit from a strong resume against the Big 10 when it comes time for the Playoff selections. Michigan St-Oregon, Michigan-Utah, and Washington-Illinois are still on the table. An Oregon win combined with a Washington win or Utah upset will secure a slight advantage for the Pac-12 in the head-to-head. The Oregon game is huge. As good as the Pac-12 has been in recent years, it has consistently come up short in the biggest games. Over the summer, the ESPN Pac-12 Blog posted the following question:

What?! For all of Stanford’s and Oregon’s recent success, this is the list to choose from? Indeed. Stanford and Oregon have both failed in the biggest games against the best teams. For the Pac-12 to be in the discussion with the SEC, this has to change, and Oregon absolutely must beat Michigan State this coming Saturday.

8. Overrated Team of the Week

#11 UCLA Bruins (1-0). UCLA only scored one offensive touchdown against a Virginia team that went 2-10 last year and lost its last nine games. UCLA relied on three defensive touchdowns and was outgained by 28 yards. UCLA should not be anywhere near the top-10, and the reasons go deeper than the horrible performance against Virginia. In the three prior seasons, UCLA has zero victories against top-15 teams. UCLA has also lost six consecutive games to Stanford—no way they should be above Stanford in the polls. (They were above Stanford in both preseason polls, but in the Coaches Poll they are now just below Stanford.) Yes, UCLA some returning starters, but they need to earn it on the field, and not in the media spin rooms. And now that UCLA has played a (poor) game, they should be ranked about 15^th or 20^th—where they deserve to be until they prove otherwise.

On Watch: #7 Ohio State Buckeyes (1-0). Ohio State only outgained Navy by 30 yards in an opening win that was close until the fourth quarter. Furthermore, Ohio State has not beaten a top-10 team since 2006. (Stanford owns six top-10 wins in that time span.) Ohio State also has only one ranked team on its schedule this entire season. It is the softest of soft-serve, and they will be easily passed over by the Playoff committee with one loss. Jon Wilner of the San Jose Mercury has them at #17 in his ballot, and that seems to be about right to me.