I usually keep all PFF stuff in the PFF grades thread but this game was significantly different.
I actually just finished the review of the most damning wins. This is the 2nd worst game via PFF. Miami v. GA Tech was considered the worst game. GA Tech overall game grade was 62.8. Miami (FL) ended up with an 87.5. The largest margin from the loser to the winner. 2nd - Colorado v. Stanford
Let's start with the victors, Stanford!
Stanford's game grade was an 66.2.
This was Stanford's 3rd worst game. 1. USC - 53.2 2. Oregon - 55.0
This was a mediocre game Stanford played today overall.
Offensively, Elic Ayomanor stood out majorly with an 83.7 playing 87 snaps. After a goose egg in the 1st half, he was insane in the 2nd and OT. Instead of spamming crossing routes, Stanford abused us with him doing SLANTS....
Next was Daniels at QB with a 69.7. I felt he was in the 30-40 in the 1st half and the 80s in the 2nd half. His OL did a superior switch job in the 2nd half. That said, I am not a grader. He only had one big-time throw but he had 20 1sts and 6 scrambles. He generally doesn't get much time to throw but CU DL gave him all day in the 2nd half. It's hard to say he played well, so much of his success was due to spamming like Morris (TCU) and CSU's QB against CU.
It was a tale of two halves for the OL. They struggled both halves at run blocking and pass blocking in the 2nd special, especially from the center. The LT had an excellent 2nd half while struggling mightily in the 1st half. They made some adjustments on his side and that's where 90% of the damage came from.
The running game was. They had to do a trick reverse to get in running-wise. It wasn't pretty. Stanford is bad P5 team.
WR wise, it was terrible outside of 13. Just terrible. Most guys were at 50% or under on catches based on targets. It was awful.
Defensively, the corners and SS struggled as we all saw but they actually played decently in the front 7. That's mainly where they did well defensively. That said, the secondary struggled against 2.
Now to CU. DAMN!
At an 81.7. This was CU's 2nd best-graded game behind Colorado State.
This was CU's best offensive grade game at 79.6.
This was CU's 3rd best-graded defensive game at 71.1. Behind the CSU and ASU games
2 ended up with his 2nd highest grade of the year with a 92 overall. He also had his best-rushing grade with a 79.3.
While Mr. Unfazed/Clutch struggled when it mattered the most, otherwise, this was a huge jump from previous weeks from 2. 2 had 4 BTT. 3 Drops by his WRs. 22 1st downs and 7 scrambles. He faced 18 pressures which is middle of the pack for him as he's the most pressured QB in college by a mile. He had more time in the pocket overall than usual at 3.12. Only Nebraska gave him more time in the pocket. This was a substantially better pass-blocking outing than usual. He did get one penalty for grounding. He 2nd in the nation in penalties for a QB. Shedeur during the bye week will have to figure out how to get the negative plays out of his game. He has too many but his great plays and good plays are tops in the nation.
Leads the nation in 1st downs. 22 more than Dillion Gabriel. 6th in the nation at scrambles. 52th in TTT. 27th in P2S which is decent. Penix is the standard for a passing QB. His P2S is an 9.1% compared to 2 at 25%. Leads the nation in being sacked. Leads the nation by a country mile in DPR (Total pressures of the passer of any kind (generated by the defense). For someone who gets knocked for not throwing the ball away, he's 26th in the nation at this tied with Celeb Williams. 2's ability for decision-making is superb. Only 1 throw while being hit has been made by 2. Ties him for 50th. 10th in batted down throws. 6th in the nation in WR drops. 1st in BTT. 55th in turnover-worthy throws. Since 2 passing way more than everyone else, what's more important is his BTT% is 31st and his TWP% is 13th in the nation.
Enough on 2, back to the Stanford game. Hunter had his best game of the year at WR with an 85.9. As usual, they didn't think much of the other WRs which is strange. Both Horn and Weaver actually did well when targeted but their grades are based on each snap and when they weren't targeted, they didn't have the impact as Hunter had. They really value playmaking and contested catches. Also making defenders miss. This was CU's highest graded WR game of the year.
Rushing was normal. Only 24 attempts which isn't good. 2 had 2 of them for 86 yards. Other than that, the running backs was rushing for nearly 3.6 yac which isn't going to cut it. A lot of this is due to Bailey's struggles. PFF graded Harden and Beebe well at run blocking. Both had solid gap and zone grades which is rare for our OL.
Pass blocking had better grades than normal. The guards did exceptionally well for their lack of quality in talent in true pass sets. Tank as usual struggled badly against it. Harden didn't replace Savion but he definitely made us forget about how bad Young was last week. Dylan has to be used as a weapon every time on true pass sets. He cannot block to save his life in true pass sets. The OL was better this week. The lack of talent is what it is. You got what you got. PFF didn't like the pass blocking today. Gave them a 65.5. 3rd worst grade of the season.
Defensively, we got another good effort out of the run stopping although it wasn't good in the 4th or OT. We got our worst tackling grade of the season at a 50. 3rd worst coverage grade behind the Nebraska game and Oregon game. The pass rush was bad as usual. The safeties were solid while the CBs had their worst game of the season by a country mile, especially Travis Hunter.
This was one of the games where the specialists did well like Walker and Manns. Even the good vets did decent in Cokes and Dominick but the guys who've been struggling on the DL all year, struggled today. The LBs were bad, especially Woods. Bentley had a decent grade but I didn't think he played well either. His tackling was legit and I agree but he wasn't in the right spots and the loss of JuJu was felt which is only the fault of JuJu.
Cam had a bad day and he was playing corner for some reason. None of the corners played well. None. Travis Jay had the best day of the corners by far and he really wasn't targeted so did it even matter. Carter Stoudmire had the highest grade by a mile and I agree even though he was terrible as well. It was just a really really bad day for the CBs. As I said during the TCU game. It's hard to leave corners on an island with no pass rush. It's one thing to do that in the NFL but in college, it's another.
Special teams were graded similarly. Stanford had some missed assignments and we had less but the Mata miss hurt and Stanford kicker missed one but made two plus the game-tying FG and game-winner.
When you are 17.5 on grades, a lost almost always equals coaching and that's what this one was. This was a coaching lost. Our first of the season. We have usually been winning because of coaching and 2. This one, we lost because of coaching and even 2 couldn't get them out of this L.
I actually just finished the review of the most damning wins. This is the 2nd worst game via PFF. Miami v. GA Tech was considered the worst game. GA Tech overall game grade was 62.8. Miami (FL) ended up with an 87.5. The largest margin from the loser to the winner. 2nd - Colorado v. Stanford
Let's start with the victors, Stanford!
Stanford's game grade was an 66.2.
This was Stanford's 3rd worst game. 1. USC - 53.2 2. Oregon - 55.0
This was a mediocre game Stanford played today overall.
Offensively, Elic Ayomanor stood out majorly with an 83.7 playing 87 snaps. After a goose egg in the 1st half, he was insane in the 2nd and OT. Instead of spamming crossing routes, Stanford abused us with him doing SLANTS....
Next was Daniels at QB with a 69.7. I felt he was in the 30-40 in the 1st half and the 80s in the 2nd half. His OL did a superior switch job in the 2nd half. That said, I am not a grader. He only had one big-time throw but he had 20 1sts and 6 scrambles. He generally doesn't get much time to throw but CU DL gave him all day in the 2nd half. It's hard to say he played well, so much of his success was due to spamming like Morris (TCU) and CSU's QB against CU.
It was a tale of two halves for the OL. They struggled both halves at run blocking and pass blocking in the 2nd special, especially from the center. The LT had an excellent 2nd half while struggling mightily in the 1st half. They made some adjustments on his side and that's where 90% of the damage came from.
The running game was. They had to do a trick reverse to get in running-wise. It wasn't pretty. Stanford is bad P5 team.
WR wise, it was terrible outside of 13. Just terrible. Most guys were at 50% or under on catches based on targets. It was awful.
Defensively, the corners and SS struggled as we all saw but they actually played decently in the front 7. That's mainly where they did well defensively. That said, the secondary struggled against 2.
Now to CU. DAMN!
At an 81.7. This was CU's 2nd best-graded game behind Colorado State.
This was CU's best offensive grade game at 79.6.
This was CU's 3rd best-graded defensive game at 71.1. Behind the CSU and ASU games
2 ended up with his 2nd highest grade of the year with a 92 overall. He also had his best-rushing grade with a 79.3.
While Mr. Unfazed/Clutch struggled when it mattered the most, otherwise, this was a huge jump from previous weeks from 2. 2 had 4 BTT. 3 Drops by his WRs. 22 1st downs and 7 scrambles. He faced 18 pressures which is middle of the pack for him as he's the most pressured QB in college by a mile. He had more time in the pocket overall than usual at 3.12. Only Nebraska gave him more time in the pocket. This was a substantially better pass-blocking outing than usual. He did get one penalty for grounding. He 2nd in the nation in penalties for a QB. Shedeur during the bye week will have to figure out how to get the negative plays out of his game. He has too many but his great plays and good plays are tops in the nation.
Leads the nation in 1st downs. 22 more than Dillion Gabriel. 6th in the nation at scrambles. 52th in TTT. 27th in P2S which is decent. Penix is the standard for a passing QB. His P2S is an 9.1% compared to 2 at 25%. Leads the nation in being sacked. Leads the nation by a country mile in DPR (Total pressures of the passer of any kind (generated by the defense). For someone who gets knocked for not throwing the ball away, he's 26th in the nation at this tied with Celeb Williams. 2's ability for decision-making is superb. Only 1 throw while being hit has been made by 2. Ties him for 50th. 10th in batted down throws. 6th in the nation in WR drops. 1st in BTT. 55th in turnover-worthy throws. Since 2 passing way more than everyone else, what's more important is his BTT% is 31st and his TWP% is 13th in the nation.
Enough on 2, back to the Stanford game. Hunter had his best game of the year at WR with an 85.9. As usual, they didn't think much of the other WRs which is strange. Both Horn and Weaver actually did well when targeted but their grades are based on each snap and when they weren't targeted, they didn't have the impact as Hunter had. They really value playmaking and contested catches. Also making defenders miss. This was CU's highest graded WR game of the year.
Rushing was normal. Only 24 attempts which isn't good. 2 had 2 of them for 86 yards. Other than that, the running backs was rushing for nearly 3.6 yac which isn't going to cut it. A lot of this is due to Bailey's struggles. PFF graded Harden and Beebe well at run blocking. Both had solid gap and zone grades which is rare for our OL.
Pass blocking had better grades than normal. The guards did exceptionally well for their lack of quality in talent in true pass sets. Tank as usual struggled badly against it. Harden didn't replace Savion but he definitely made us forget about how bad Young was last week. Dylan has to be used as a weapon every time on true pass sets. He cannot block to save his life in true pass sets. The OL was better this week. The lack of talent is what it is. You got what you got. PFF didn't like the pass blocking today. Gave them a 65.5. 3rd worst grade of the season.
Defensively, we got another good effort out of the run stopping although it wasn't good in the 4th or OT. We got our worst tackling grade of the season at a 50. 3rd worst coverage grade behind the Nebraska game and Oregon game. The pass rush was bad as usual. The safeties were solid while the CBs had their worst game of the season by a country mile, especially Travis Hunter.
This was one of the games where the specialists did well like Walker and Manns. Even the good vets did decent in Cokes and Dominick but the guys who've been struggling on the DL all year, struggled today. The LBs were bad, especially Woods. Bentley had a decent grade but I didn't think he played well either. His tackling was legit and I agree but he wasn't in the right spots and the loss of JuJu was felt which is only the fault of JuJu.
Cam had a bad day and he was playing corner for some reason. None of the corners played well. None. Travis Jay had the best day of the corners by far and he really wasn't targeted so did it even matter. Carter Stoudmire had the highest grade by a mile and I agree even though he was terrible as well. It was just a really really bad day for the CBs. As I said during the TCU game. It's hard to leave corners on an island with no pass rush. It's one thing to do that in the NFL but in college, it's another.
Special teams were graded similarly. Stanford had some missed assignments and we had less but the Mata miss hurt and Stanford kicker missed one but made two plus the game-tying FG and game-winner.
When you are 17.5 on grades, a lost almost always equals coaching and that's what this one was. This was a coaching lost. Our first of the season. We have usually been winning because of coaching and 2. This one, we lost because of coaching and even 2 couldn't get them out of this L.
