Didn't get to watch live (all day meeting.) Just now watched first quarter seeing something different from what I'd read.
I'll not criticize the Defense, as although the first Stanford drive was hurtful, D stopped them with only 9 points thereafter.
So, to the first quarter offense.
I was surprised (after the negative words on IE) that our actual three first quarter drives don't show bad play by either drew Pyne, nor in general the OLine, nor even the play-calling. As follows:
Drive One: This drive was stopped quickly and simply by (of all people,) Patterson. He starts us off with a motion penalty and then gets his communication with Zeke Correll wrong so that he's standing there blocking no one while Zeke blocks the guy who should be his, and the guy Zeke should be blocking is unabated to Pyne/RB straight up the middle. The other three OLine are blocking their three guys just fine. We are now seriously behind the sticks and have to punt.
Drive Two: Play one has no one in the receiving corps getting open, despite the OLine giving time, and Pyne makes the correct choice of a throwaway. Another play has Stanford OVERTLY loading 8 in the box vs only 6 ND blockers. ALL blockers do OK. Play is still stuffed by the extra guys. (ideally there should be a passing checkoff here.) Drive ending play has the OLine working fine, and Pyne surveying the field looking at Mayer. Mayer seems to run his route lazier than usual, counting on just shedding the defender off him without worrying about separation. Mayer however hesitates just after he shrugs off the DB and Pyne doesn't expect the quit-route, and puts the ball perfectly where Mayer should be. Incomplete and we punt.
Drive Three: really weirdass sequence of things. Really BS holding call on Mayer. Then TE and Flanked WR both on line-of-scrimmage to bring back a TD to Mayer. Pyne hits WR in the hands for a score except the guy bungles it terribly by not even getting his second hand up (which was not impeded by DB.) Pyne misses a pass --- in my opinion the only one to criticize about in the 1st quarter. The fourth down play is stopped by a great edge contain which Mayer could not dominate, and insufficient athleticism by the WR sweeping to hurdle Mayer's legs which would have allowed the timing to still work. There was also earlier an overt 9 in the box vs ND at one point when we had 3 TEs in. Two of the TEs don't help the line of scrimmage, but also, while Lugg and Fisher do their jobs, some strange pulling cross-blocking get Correll and the other two lineman tangled up to the point that Alt even gets pushed down (by Correll I think --- play was a design mess.) <--- that didn't look like OLine incompetence, but rather a screwy play design vs a defense emphasizing speed and edge slashing rather than power stuffing.
IN THE FIRST QUARTER ONLY the offense's on field problems were not Pyne's nor generally Rees' from what I see on tape --- sure there were a couple of plays were Drew should have had a check-off to a pass or an option, and those could have been mental errors by Drew on field or Tommy on planning. There were a LOT of good calls which worked or should have worked. The OLine played well except for three plays all involving Patterson, but one probably caused by design rather than execution (Correll looked clumsy to me on that one). TEs caused most of the trouble (blocking, Mayer's faux-hold and his hesitation route) and the WRs were their usual incompetent crew (dropped TD, essentially never open, poor sweep run.) Whether the young TE or the flanked WR was the guilty party on the TD call-back play is not known by me. Had the TE stepped one pace back, he would have nearly touching Mayer(?) as twins in that location, something I haven't seen in the slot. (so maybe it was the WR.)
Anyway, the 1st quarter drives tell a slightly different story from most of the IE commentary I've glanced at. Doubtless the later 3 quarters will get more in line with IE sentiments. If I watch them, I'll comment again FWIW.
