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Day After the Storm: Post Game Thoughts and Observations - Stanford

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NYCCaneadian

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There are definitely things to clean up, but this was the kind of game I want to see Miami play against a lower-tier ACC team. 5-10 years ago, these were the games where you spent the entire night waiting for our guys to put the game away and it didn’t happen until some point in the 4th quarter.

My top observations:
  • I wouldn’t say I was worried, but I thought it might take a few weeks for Mensah and Toney to really connect, given Mensah’s familiarity with Barkate. Safe to say, that’s not a worry anymore. Those two clearly have something going already. And Mensah is everything I thought he would be.
  • The WR room is going to be a problem for people. Malachi Toney - nothing needs to be said. I honestly haven’t seen a Miami WR dominate a half of football like that since freshman Ahmmon Richards. Enjoy every moment.
    But it wasn’t just Toney. Also, Daylyn Upshaw and Josh Moore looked smooth. Really glad to see them getting some burn as WR3/4, they both look like guys who can become a legitimate piece of this offense.
  • The OL looked pretty mid early.
    Guys (looking at you, SJ) got completely whipped by a Stanford DL on one play, and there wasn’t much push in the run game. A lot of what Miami was getting early was Fletcher creating something after the line didn’t. But I thought they got better as the game went on. I think that’s a combination of guys getting the rust off, Stanford already having a game under its belt, the staff figuring out the right combinations, and Miami wearing them down. The good news is that this is exactly the kind of thing that can improve over a season.
  • I wanted to get Toney out of there earlier. Happy for him and his record, but there’s no reason to risk your best receiver in a 40-point game. Get the young guys some reps, get everyone involved, and let’s get the **** out of there healthy.
  • The secondary looked pretty good as advertised. The front seven had some issues, but I thought the secondary was one of the more encouraging parts of the defense. Zechariah Poyser quietly had a really solid game. He was always around the football and had a couple near picks.
    Lucas was solid even though not flashy, Fitzgerald had some really good open-field tackles, and JJ Dunnigan had a few great run fills from safety.
  • We are not getting consistent pressure with four. When we started blitzing, we were able to disrupt Stanford more, but against better teams, you don’t want to have to manufacture all your pressure that way. The DL also needs to be more stout against the run, and the linebackers looked lost in coverage at times.
    That said, this is a young group. Moten is going to have to learn how to handle those double teams better, and I think a lot of these guys are going to look significantly different by November than they do right now.
  • Stanford gave us a LOT of help with penalties. Every time Stanford seemed to make a big play, it felt like there was a call that went in our favor. And the holding calls… Holy ****. After watching Miami get held approximately 7,000 times last season without seeing a flag, I’m going to enjoy every single one of these.
  • Seeing #87 catch a ball gave me instant Miami fan PTSD. 😂 He even runs a bit like Bauman too.
  • We’ve got a kicker? Weinberg and Dylan Joyce both looked good
  • One of my favorite moments of the night actually had nothing to do with the on field play. After Weinberg made his first field goal, one of the first guys over there to give him a big embrace was Mark Fletcher. Those are the little culture-building things you can’t measure with a guy like Fletcher.
  • There are definitely things to work out, but I don’t think any of them are fundamental roster problems. I think this team has a ton of runway. The OL will get better with reps. The DL will get better with reps. The young linebackers will get better with reps. And meanwhile, we already have all the pieces for a crazy offense. That’s a pretty good place to be sitting in September.
  • Overall, it’s nice to be able to put away a lower-tier ACC team the way we used to put away FCS teams 5-10 years ago.
    I’m not saying Stanford is an FCS team. I’m saying these games used to feel dangerous. You’d watch Miami play a team we should beat and spend the entire game waiting for the collapse, the dumb turnover, the special teams disaster, whatever.Tonight, Miami just handled business.
 
People are overreacting to how the defensive line performed last night. There's a reason why the refs were calling holding penalties left and right, the Miami DL was FORCING them to make those calls. Stanford's OL had to tackle guys, if they hadn't, their QB would have left the stadium in a body bag. Lightfoot and Wilson were winning on the edge and despite being consistently doubled, Moten was solid inside. The secondary has a ton of work to do, lots of busts and a lack of communication. Not having Frederique was an issue, Brown looked completely lost, he may not be salvageable at this point. Maybe he finds what he had as a true freshman, but it looks like that was more of a spark, than an actual fire.
 
Already several threads from trusted posters breaking down the game and I’m supposed to read all this nonsense by someone who thinks these two are brothers?


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Keeping it real... we have 2 TFL... against a team who had their best lineman out... against a team whose trenches are below par on what you will see this year. Maybe if their OL is 100% then you can say its a decent line, but that wasn't the case. Sure they held, but holding may stop sacks but it doesnt stop push. The reason we were good last year is because we had better trenches than anyone. We knocked teams back consistently and last night we didnt on either side of the ball. This is not a trench bully team. I thought this D would be as good, but our secondary is soft in zone and our DL didn't disrupt. Covering TEs is going to be a problem. Stanford had several drops on 3rd down that ended their drives. Also I am running on the assumption that Stanford is going to get 3 wins max in the ACC this year.

The OL was puzzling... it makes the practice reports make sense though... Sure our DL could look good against it, because Stanford shut down our run. If it wasn't for Mallory coming in a picking up an easy 30 yards we would have been under 3 yards per carry. I don't care if they have 9 in the box, any decent trench bully team gets more than that. You can SPIN that however you want but against a great d that means our offense is going to be completely one dimensional.

Im not looking at this team as an ACC team Im looking at it as a title contender and right now I aint sold and I think the practice reports were skewed by an overhyped DL.

I want to watch Stanford to see how good they really are and these young OL need to some gains quickly but seeing SJ and Max who are average OL and will never play on a Sunday start in front of them isn't good.
 
JHallCanes said:
I remember last year some fans bashing Bain and co for not getting sacks. But you could tell the QB was always throwing the ball under duress

Thought Warren was consistently feeling pressure even if we weren’t getting home
Click to expand...
He masked alot of that with some of his quick throws. As much as we want a sack on every play, seeing the guys get penetration is encouraging.
 
Give Stanford credit for also employing coaches & being able to game plan. The QB was better than advertised & they smartly moved him out of the pocket so he wasn’t a sitting duck. And, of course, the OL held & tugged. Their big RB was also shutdown.
Our LBs are obviously a problem in coverage, so guys like Pruitt & Dunnigan can hopefully be incorporated. Had no answer for the TE until Dunnigan played more after halftime.
Secondary didn’t live up to advance billing, but not a major area of concern.
Our offensive line is a work in progress, so good to have a few weeks to make some tweaks. If they’re comfortable with Cantwell at RT, wouldn’t mind returning McCoy to guard & add to interior beef.
Might be the most explosive team we’ve had in years. Just hope we can overall recreate close to the physicality we had last season, especially late & during the playoff run.
 
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