It was a fairly standard week here. The Stanford football team played a huge game and won-yet Stanford stadium was embarrassingly empty and The Old Pro charged a 10-dollar cover on Saturday night.
I don’t want to turn into a one-trick pony, so I’m going to focus on an oft-underappreciated aspect of Stanford’s success this season: the play of the big guys on both sides of the ball.
When Stanford is talked about on the national stage, the discussion tends to be centered on Andrew Luck. Luck deserves the accolades-he is one of the best quarterbacks in the nation-but seldom are the hogs in front of him mentioned (aside from Owen Marecic, who gets plenty of press, too).
Stanford lost the best running back in the nation, Toby Gerhart, from last year’s squad, but has continued to punish defenses with the run. The Cardinal offense is averaging nearly 5.5 yards per carry and Luck has been sacked only three times all season.
Defenses get worn down by the Cardinal offensive line to the point where even when they know what is coming-and usually it is “power”-there is nothing that can be done to stop it.
I’d really like to know how many times Stanford ran power to the right against Arizona this weekend. Wildcat defenders are going to have nightmares for weeks of big 71, Andrew Phillips, pulling from his left guard spot and clearing out would-be tacklers like mere flies being swatted to the side.
And then there is the jumbo package. Stanford should have a raffle every game to guess what number James McGillicuddy is going to wear. This week it was 87, but despite wearing a receiver’s jersey Saturday, the sixth-year senior is in the game for one reason-to block. Just ask Arizona safety Joseph Perkins, whom McGillicuddy sent into orbit on Stepfan Taylor’s fourth touchdown run in Saturday’s victory.
As impressive as the offensive line has been, the defensive line has been equally strong. Stanford’s defense was predicted to be its weakness this season, but instead it has proven to be a strength. The Cardinal has pitched two road shutouts in Pac-10 games, and just held a very talented Arizona offense to 17 points. Another question mark coming into the year was depth along the defensive line. Sione Fua, Brian Bulcke, Matt Masifilo and Thomas Keiser have put that notion to rest.
Much was made in the preseason about the hiring of Vic Fangio as defensive coordinator. Fangio brought Stanford-which has historically had a 4-3 defensive unit-the 3-4 alignment. In the 3-4, it is the job of the defensive linemen to eat up blockers so linebackers can run wild and make tackles. Stanford fans have become accustomed to seeing Shayne Skov and Chase Thomas flying around making tackles, and that is because the big boys up front are clogging things up.
The toughest position in the 3-4 is nose tackle, where you are routinely double- and triple- teamed. That assignment rests on Fua, who has played nothing short of brilliantly all season. Normally nose tackles don’t rack up any noticeable statistics, but Fua has four sacks and 5.5 tackles for loss this season, all while playing many more snaps a game than most nose tackles.
Stanford hasn’t used the 3-4 exclusively this year-it goes to a four-man front when in nickel or dime packages-but no matter how many guys have their hands in the dirt, Stanford’s defensive line has been quite impressive.
A successful defensive line is the secondary’s best friend. Pressure on the quarterback means inaccurate passes and receivers not having time to get out of their routes. At times this year Stanford’s secondary has, deservedly so, come under fire (just ask Robert Woods of USC). While the Cardinal does need to upgrade on the back end, improved defensive line play makes Stanford’s secondary at least passable (no pun intended).
It would be interesting to see where Luck would be without such a stellar offensive line and where the secondary would be without such strong D-line production. Would Luck be a Heisman candidate and a potential No. 1 overall pick if he were getting sacked at a Trent Edwards-like rate? Sure, Luck is far more mobile in and around the pocket than Edwards, but Luck owes a lot of his success to his O-line (and I’m certain he knows that).
Daniel Bohm wants you to appreciate the Card O-line and D-line. Reassure him that he’s not a one-trick pony at [email protected].