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Showing up an aspirational peer

A few thoughts on Stanford:

- It didn't take long for Clausen to have another career day. The run game receded a bit this week from the showing against Purdue, forcing us to rely more on the passing game, but - we have an increasingly effective passing game, and it's outstanding to watch. Spreading the ball around to seven different receivers - WRs, RBs and the tight end - show Clausen is seeing the field well. (Weis said he was happiest about a check-down short pass to Allen that Allen then turned into the game's first Irish touchdown.) The audibled bomb to Floyd was perfect. I even saw Clausen shrug off a pass rusher this week like Quinn made a habit of doing so well by his senior year. In short, while the offense has not yet been consistent throughout an entire game - causing the lackluster and shaky efforts I noted in the SDSU and MSU games earlier this season - Clausen is looking every bit as sharp and composed as anyone could have hoped he would this year.

- One point I thought, after watching the Purdue game in particular (with that fantastic fourth-and-seven TD reception) but also the other ones this season, is that Grimes has stepped up his game a bit with the emergence of Floyd and Tate (and also now Rudolph). Having solid receivers on the outside allows him to play the middle a bit more and get open himself. His seven receptions Saturday for a solid 60 yards fit him comfortably in the mix of this newly-effective offense.

- Special teams overall has been improved this year. (In particular, it has been great to watch walk-on Anello being the first guy to the return man on almost every kickoff, and even when the coverage isn't great he's still impressively determined. On one fourth quarter Stanford punt, Anello missed the first shot, but jumped up and ended up in on the tackle most of the way back across the field. Not a great result for the Irish, but I can certainly admire the pursuit.) Nonetheless, Saturday wasn't the best game of the season for this unit. Walker's unfortunate mental block on field goals will inevitably cost the team again this season if no solution is found, and kickoff coverage was not as strong as it has been to date.

- The defense has also been a bit confusing. Sometimes we're better defending the run, other times the pass. The opportunism in creating/taking advantage of turnovers has been exciting to watch, but the tackling often leaves a lot to be desired. Weis tried putting this in perspective during his press conference Sunday:

You know, defense yesterday in the first quarter, our run defense was bad. I mean, they had a bunch of long runs. They rushed for over a hundred yards. I mean, they were gashing us pretty good. We didn't handle the shifts and unbalanced very well.

But you realize after the first quarter, they averaged two yards a carry in the run game. So you say, Well, how can we be getting gashed like this? Okay, but for the rest of the game, they had one long run in the fourth quarter, 27-yard run at the start of that drive. But including that one long run, it was two yards a carry for the rest of the game after the first quarter.

So I think he's concerned, but there's still some good results to be found. UNC will be one of the tougher rushing opponents we face this year (like MSU), and on the road (also like MSU), so the team has to find an effective way to shut down the run.

- Finally, 4-1 after five games? You betcha I'll take that! :)

Full post as published by Irish Law on October 08, 2008 (boomark / email).