Stanford vs Wake Forest report card

Putting together a report card is not easy for Stanford football’s loss at Wake Forest Saturday. To appropriately grade the game, grades should be offered for the first half and the second half differently. Obviously those grades would look very different, that is what happens when you turn a 17-3 halftime lead into a 24-17 loss. That said, let’s average the two halves together and see what happens:

RUN GAME: B-
As a team, Stanford rushed for 115 yards on 26 carries. That is not too bad. Toby Gerhart ran strong but the argument against the run game is he only got 17 carries. Of course his biggest carry of the game was called back by a chop block that negated a 39-yard run in the 4th quarter. This grade was clearly an A for the first half but the lack of consistency in the second half really hurt. They could never get that one big play to stick.

PASS GAME: B
I think Andrew Luck has proved in two games now that he is going to be the real deal. He was very sharp against Wake Forest going 23-34 for 276 yards. He did throw his first interception on a rushed play after a fumbled shotgun snap. But he recovered from that to lead Stanford on another scoring drive. Ryan Whalen was outstanding with his nine catches for 123 yards and two touchdowns. Chris Owusu was again solid. But as great as the passing game was, Jim Dray had two drops and Ryan Whalen’s drop on the first pass of the second half really set the tone for the second half collapse. Just like the run game, the passing game was great in the first half but could never hit their stride in the second half to make that one big play that could have stemmed the tide.

RUN DEFENSE: D+
In the first half it was bend but don’t break. There were some great plays on the goal line by Erik Lorig, Tom Keiser and Matt Masifilo. But in the second half they started breaking. The wide receiver hand off accounted for at least 50 yards sprinting to the outside. By the time the Cardinal defense adjusted to that one play, the inside was opened up for more damage. There were missed tackles and far too often someone would take a bad angle to the ball carrier. Bottom line, in the second half the defense failed to make that one stop when they needed it most. Of course the defense was really hampered by the loss of Masifilo and Brian Bulcke to injury.

PASS DEFESNE: C-
We will all remember the last pass where a blown coverage allowed for Lovell Jackson to get behind Corey Gatewood for a catch down to the 2-yard line. After watching similar blown coverages in the NFL this weekend by the Bears and the Chargers in the final two minutes, you can conclude these mistakes happen at every level early in the season. But the timing was horrible. The rest of the game the pass defense was okay. There was constant pressure on Riley Skinner from Tom Keiser and Erik Lorig, but neither of them could get that big sack. The corners did okay, but again, in the second half nobody was stopped.

SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Tip your hat to Nate Whitaker for nailing the 54-yard field goal at the end of the half. But that was a huge miss in the 3rd quarter from 44-yards that would have put Stanford up by 10-points. Other than that special teams did not really stick out either way this time around.

COACHING: C
Let’s face it, Stanford had the better game plan in the first half, but Wake Forest was the team that made the halftime adjustments. The Cardinal could not seem to recover. From the first dropped pass by Whalen, the team just felt a bit flat and were definitely out of sync. I also thought on 4th and one late in the third quarter Stanford should have gone for it rather than try the 44-yard field goal. Conventional thinking supports the field goal attempt, but the flow of the game, the struggles on defense, the momentum and of course Toby Gerhart in the backfield, I think a gamble was called for.

OVERALL: F
Grades are nice, but bottom line is wins and losses. No moral victories here. Wake Forest is a good team. But being up 17-3 at halftime, there is no excuse for not holding on. I know each player and coach on the team will agree with that sentiment. Now it is up to the team to rally and put together a little win streak at home starting against San Jose State this Saturday.

GAME BALLS:
Offense: Andrew Luck, Ryan Whalen
Defense: Erik Lorig, Tom Keiser, Matt Masifilo (was having a great game until he got hurt)

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WAKE FOREST 24-17 STANFORD, INITIAL REACTION

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