Instead of a trouncing, the Stanford Cardinal had trouble putting away a feisty Kansas State Wildcat team late in Friday nights 26-13 win, as the defense for both teams showed up in a big way.
Early on the Cardinal offense looked explosive as Ryan Burns looked fantastic running the offense and ended with 156 yards. He hit Michael Rector for 40 yards and a touchdown and did not see his first incompletion till late in the second quarter. Then a strange switch at quarterback to give Chryst a drive effectively killed the offensive momentum and the Cardinal petered out for most of the game. After the switch at quarterback Burns continued to played well but all of the passes were short, followed by runs up the middle. There was a real pain while watching the uninspired offensive play calling for Stanford in most of the second and all of the third quarter.
Despite the disparity in talent, Kansas State played extremely well on the defensive line which was helped by Stanford’s unwillingness to continue to spread out the defense. When they did try to spread the defense out on the run they went without McCaffrey. I also have a bone to pick with the offensive line, who all played fairly poorly while run blocking. Almost every other run McCaffrey’s first cut was made in the backfield to try and get back to the line of scrimmage. The offensive line and offensive play calling need to change drastically. Given those problems McCaffrey still had a pair of touchdown runs from over 30 yards out and finished with 210 total yards.
On the defensive side the Cardinal racked up eight sacks, eight tackles for loss, a two picks and a safety. Needless to say they showed up to play and came out with their ears pinned back. Outside Linebacker Peter Kalambayi had a huge night with three tackles for loss and two and a half sacks. The front seven always dependable for the Cardinal but save a few big plays the back end played very well. Quenton Meeks had a pick late in the game and Safety Justin Reid had broke up a pass and had five tackles. Both those guys will have to be leaders in the secondary and hold down the top receivers as other defensive backs had some slip-ups in coverage.
There were multiple miscues, one of which led to a McCaffrey punt return touchdown being called back. Across the board Stanford has the talent but needs to tighten up as they have the toughest part of their schedule ahead.
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Comments
Holder's two no-call PI penalties
Alijah Holder needs to cool it on contact. At least twice, he got away with blatant pass interference that could’ve completely altered the course of the game. StanU could’ve definitely been playing from behind in that fourth quarter. The defensive staff needs to work on that with him. The physicality is good, but it is just the degree to which he engages in it that matters. All in all, good win. Not pretty, but still good.
By John Loop on 09.03.16 9:45pm
Agreed
Problem is, he is too slow at the present time. so is our other starting safety, Mr. Zack H. Will Coach Shaw open up the passing game to take advantage of the talent in Mr. Burns arm? I did not see the requisite speed at Wideout, except for two passes. Shure was nice to see the Accuracy! Too many targets for Xian.
By ffishmanN1 on 09.04.16 10:23am
Pushoff
If you look at the video of the first non-call, the receiver pushed off and Holder reacted naturally when someone has a forearm in your chest.
By vk on 09.04.16 7:12pm
^^^ This! Totally this
Saw the replay and it was clear the receiver wanted to push off and holder reacted by physically challenging him and the receiver fell. It goes both ways with interference. Although he used both hands though
By layman on 09.05.16 12:29am
Ummm Mr Author
Didn’t we have 2 INT’s ?
Numerous pass break ups? Great rotation at LB? Deeper defensive line keeping fresh an making more sacks?
You should check stats a little closer is all before you write an article
By Martin Mcoy on 09.04.16 12:37pm
Yes, there were two picks
The article was written in a very rushed manner. No research, no editing, no proofreading. I am still wondering what this means: "The front seven always dependable for the Cardinal but save a few big plays the back end played very well. " ????
By Jeff Tarnungus on 09.04.16 1:30pm
Game grades after watching replay
QB: B+ for burns (chryst gets an I) A for the first half. B- for the second with that fumble and a couple of throws that weren’t connected which cannot be totally attributed to him (see below)
RB: A- (A for Mccaffrey, B- for scarlett) Inspite of not having a lot of running room, he still put up 126 yds with that juke move in the first half. Caff’s speed gain is evident on some of his runs and the ability to finish with TDs is very strong this year.
WR/TE: A-. As a group not a lot was wrong with their execution to catchable balls. I am deducting a point for blocking because of the inability to sustain blocks esp the inline TE.
OL: C. Oh boy! If you want blame the 2nd half ineptitude of the offense, look at the biggest culprit. Before criticizing the line’s first start, I admit the KState DL was excellent and physical at the point of attack. It also didn’t help that their safeties were very downhill in the run game and defeated multiple blocks before they could develop. But this version of TWU is not as dominant yet to sustain long ToP drives. Everybody on the hill had a mistake in the second half that kept the O with some yds left on the field. The KState DL kept defeating the blocks and made tackles on caff in the backfield and made it hard to use his shiftiness at the next level. As of now I see some struggles against a talented husky defense and maybe a little against UCLA front.
Also even the pass blocking which was ok in the first half disintegrated in the second with people blowing past caspers and hall and not giving time for ryan burns.
DL: B+. Story of 2 units really. The starting 3 of harry, solly and jackson were solid in the run game and pressure on the QB. It’s the rotation at DE that reduces the grade for this unit. Watkins is going to be a stud and we won’t miss a beat with him or harry. But both luke kamatule and eric cotton are not so physical and seem a step slower in general. The breath of life the KState offense enjoyed came when the 2nd team DL was on the field.
OLB: A+. Actually the story of the game that no one is talking about. Talk about being versatile and bringing the party to the backfield. Kalambayi was a do-everything star with pressure in blitz package, covering the flats, playing DE on the nickel package and solid instincts in the run game. It’s the combination of mike tyler, casey toohil and joey alfieri in pass pressure that really opened my eyes on the replay.
ILB: B+. The inside LBs weren’t asked to do much and in general tackled well and very assignment sound. Sean barton has some good speed and in general stood out on some plays
CB: B+. Aside from the holder-pringle collision on every play, the CBs in general as a group were sound and fundamentally disciplined. This group doesn’t have the top end speed to keep up with some WRs in the pac-12 but they keep the play in front of them and break on them very well. Reducing some points for holder’s PI issues
S: A-. Justin reid is a magnificent safety. His instincts are off the charts and his ability to break on the play is evident. He gave up a TD at the end where he seemed to lose the receiver out of the bunch formation but that’s growing pains. Also there was a bad angle by ben edwards on the RB at the end of half that gave them 3 pts. I feel confident that we won’t see the guffaws we saw last year with respect to the safeties.
Coaching: B. A for the first half playcalling and game preparation. C- for the conservative shaw in the second half keeping this close to his vest. Can’t blame a win though and not being dumb with mistakes to lose
By layman on 09.05.16 1:48am
Oops forgot special teams love
A+. Multiple touchbacks. Ukropina nailing the 50 yarder. Bailey’s perfect inhuman punts and punt coverage. Caff almost putting a bow on top with that 97-yd return that was called back.
By layman on 09.05.16 2:05am
My only concern is the OL
The conservative playcalling, especially in the second half, was to be expected. Shaw didn’t want to give U$C too much film to study. The OL is the only area where I’m really concerned. They need to collectively and individually play better.
Let’s look on the plus side:
- The front seven really did play well. Yes they gave up some yards, but it was all between the 20s. There was only one quality play in the red zone all game and that was a PERFECT throw by Ertz. Jordan Watkins stepped in nicely for Harrison Phillips – looks like he’ll need to a week from Saturday too with Phillips likely out.
- ILB & especially OLB play was really strong. Kalambayi and Alfieri were pretty darn beastly, both in pass rush and containing.
- 8 sacks, almost all of which were coverage sacks. That tells me that #DBU is alive an well
- We have a starting QB!! And he’s pretty darn good. Can’t wait to see him sling it around a little more against the Toejams
- Special teams rocked it bigtime.
I expect to see the playbook opened up quite a bit more next game.
By winflop on 09.06.16 4:46am
Fear The Tree.
I don’t understand pulling Ryan after his performance that 1st half. If the kid won the starting role then keep him in. Too much coaching can sometimes misfire on a team. It seemed like we lost continuity after that. Of course, those repeated runs straight up the middle didn’t help matters. KSU stopped us stone cold!!! Granted, Shaw didn’t want to show KSU too much. But… it sure left us with a lot of long 2nd and 3rd down tries.
By bodumb on 09.12.16 11:06am