Special thanks to Jibriel Taha of The Stanford Daily for speaking with me on the Quack 12 Podcast covering the Stanford roster. Listen HERE. OffenseIt 2018 all over again for Stanford - the offensive line can block, they can run the ball despite some pretty good backs, the quarterback is under pressure almost every dropback, and the offensive playcalling stubbornly refuses to recognize any of these things and adapt. But they have a quarterback with nerves of steel and a couple of basketball players with incredible hands playing wide receiver, and so several times a game they hit a huge pass out of nowhere, which has been enough to win two games and stay competitive in a third.In the opener, they switched off between #10 QB West and #18 QB McKee, but after two interceptions West was pulled for good and McKee has taken every other passing snap (the third quarterback, #0 QB Sanders, runs an occasional wildcat play). The passing offense isn very efficient - 50 successful designed passing plays vs 59 unsuccessful ones, given the down distance, or 45.9%. Excluding West snaps, it 43 vs 51 or 45.7%, virtually identical - that tells me the offense problems are structural and not with the signal-caller
Jackson Powers-Johnson Jersey [pr].What interesting about McKee is that he throws very accurate passes even under pressure, and has a big arm to hit deep passes against single coverage. Outside of garbage time Stanford is overall averaging 8.84 yards per attempt, which is a higher number than their per-play efficiency would predict
Cale Millen Jersey [pr], but it jumps even more to 9.24 YPA on just McKee snaps. Some of these throws are absolutely terrifying to Oregon fans who remember Stanford comeback win in Autzen in 2018:(Reminder - you can right-click or long-press any video to play it in ¼ or speed):00 - Just a perfect throw, dropped in the bucket where only the receiver can get it. #5 WR Humphreys creates separation with Stanford receivers customary aggression and tracks the ball well with great hands.:25 - The center is getting deposited in the QB lap, something I saw pretty frequently, but it doesn affect McKee at all as he delivers a perfect sideline route up high to #81 WR Tremayne.:46 - Stanford deploys lots of tight ends but only one gets targeted for passes with any regularity, #84 TE Yurosek. He missed the game last week along with six other players for undisclosed reasons, but Jibriel tells us he been upgraded to robable for tomorrow. This play is typical of his goofy-looking but effective route running, and a tall QB lobbing passes to a tall TE in the middle of the field is often a winner for any team.1:10 - This play feels like every pass Stanford hits: the line is getting crushed by a blitz and coverage is pretty tight, but it doesn matter because the pass is perfect and Tremayne is so strong he can keep his grip on the ball despite the CB having his arm inside.McKee generally doesn come off his first read, because he generally doesn have time to with such a frequently collapsing pocket and because most opponents try to cover their huge receivers in man. Ie seen some teams break up the pass with additional coverage he doesn see because he locked on, but by far the most effective way to stop Stanford passing attack is get to the quarterback and actually put hands on him as he throwing, not just threatening him. Some examples::00 - Kansas St was consistently getting pressure rushing only three, as in this play, and their strategy was to back out far enough with eight in coverage that McKee couldn immediately find a target for a deep shot
https://www.odoutletstore.com/George_Moore_Jersey-7 [pr], giving the pass rush time to get home.:14 - USC tried the opposite strategy and was sometimes even successful with it - blitzing and man coverage, and whacking the QB as he releases so the throw is inaccurate.:31 - Vanderbilt doesn have much of a pass rush but they were effective, before the game got away from them, at dropping their backers and breaking passes up underneath - McKee seems to have trouble tracking layered coverage.:45 - UCLA relied on the speed of their defensive front to get through in about 2 seconds after the snap. Pass blocking this poor against even a very simple pass rush just bringing 5, no stunts or twists here was common, but the difference for UCLA was that they were actually making contact with McKee as or before he released.Stanford rushing offense is their least efficient quadrant of play: 25 successful designed rushes vs 43 failed ones, or 36.8%, which is an astonishingly poor number. Furthermore their runs are incredibly predictable, almost constantly outside power out of the I-formation, with the fullback giving it away even more clearly by offsetting playside before the snap. The Cardinal rushes 85% of the time when they go under center, compared to just 19% of the time when theye in the shotgun.Successful rushes are pretty infrequent, and the biggest single reason any given run gets much yardage is an obvious defensive error. Two things are worth noting, however: first, three times in their first three games they managed to hit every single block on an outside power run and
https://www.odoutletstore.com/Tj_Bass_Jersey-66 [pr], because by definition that means there no one to stop the play, they ran the entire field for a touchdown. Second, the few times they tried them Stanford did fairly well on zone-blocked runs, and McKee has even kept it a couple of times for good yardage despite obviously not being a fast runner - I think surprise is the biggest factor.Here a representative sample of Stanford successful rushes::00 - I recommend watching this one on ¼ speed to really pick up how each man has a specific defender to hit
Noah Sewell Jersey [pr], because it shows how the play is set up for success they get the four frontside blocks from the two linemen, TE, and FB but it ends because the center gets hung up on the nose and can get a clean block on the backer. There nobody to block the DB, but #20 RB Jones (who uestionable for this game) runs through them for a few more.:09 - One of the three big runs, here every block aligns right and the safety takes a bad angle so #8 RB Peat, who played every game, gets to run the field.:35 - Defensive misalignment here - both the safety and corner go outside and the fullback seals them both off, with nobody in the E-gap.:49 - Stanford should really be running this play more often, they get the most out of their huge WRs as blockers and, despite the other problems, the OL is surprisingly quick on their feet for downfield blocking.But most of Stanford rushing plays instead look like these::00 - I not sure I see a single cleanly won block on this play.:08 - Weakside runs are even worse, nobody on this play picks up the safety or the backer - it so slowly developing that the whole defense has time to flow to the play and theye short-handed.:23 - I don know how this play could have succeeded as designed, there are three defenders over two TEs and the RT is down-blocking. Even as two defenders take off with the TEs in coverage there an unblocked man who predictably makes the tackle, and there a free backer to help out too.:35 - Bouncing this further outside is probably the right move by Peat since the TE has whiffed, but UCLA defense is just faster than he is, and he getting little help from Tremayne desultory block or the backside guards failing to get to the second level so the backers are free to chase him down.
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