Stanford marched into Seattle on Friday as the No. 7 team in college football and left as a shell of itself, dressed down in a 44-6 Washington blowout that left the Huskies as the clear Pac-12 favorites. It was a weird show, because Stanford’s supposed to be the epitome of solid. The Cardinal don’t usually lose, and they almost never look silly.
Stanford tried a trick play that had Washington using a 321-pound cornerback. It failed.
And the Cardinal had two other offensive plays that were just as amazingly bad.
Photo by Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images
Yet, they lost and looked silly. You don’t lose 44-6 without getting obliterated on the field, and that happened all night. Here are the three worst plays, ranked.
1. Stanford put a bunch of linemen at wide receiver. It went terribly.
Watch Washington’s No. 11 slide from the line all the way to the outside, briefly living the big man’s dream.
What are you doing tonight, Stanford? pic.twitter.com/HGWS5zbpPB
— Chris Burke (@ChrisBurke_SI) October 1, 2016
On its face, this is an attempt by Stanford to use a bunch of fat guys as wide receiver screeners, part of a haphazard attempt at Steve Spurrier’s beloved Emory and Henry formation. It makes some logical sense.
But one problem here is that offensive linemen aren’t as quick as defensive backs, nor do they operate as smoothly in the open field. It’s a reasonable concept, but Washington’s Kevin King (No. 20) was forgotten.
Shoutout to that No. 11, Washington defensive tackle Elijah Qualls, who wisely followed the mass motion and lined up as a 6’1, 321-pound half-tackle, half-cornerback. He could’ve stayed put and tried to get to the QB before the quick throw, which is what Stanford would’ve wanted him to do.
2. The left tackle and QB both don’t know the play’s starting ... on fourth down.
Look, it happens. Snap counts get mixed up. Cadences are thrown off. That’s football, especially when you’re playing on the road in a loud stadium. But when it happens on fourth down and short? Not the best!
The left tackle, A.T. Hall, had no sense of time or space, and not even quarterback Keller Chryst seemed to know the play (apparently intended to be an option to the left with Christian McCaffrey) was starting.
3. The right tackle is erased from Earth by a bull rush.
That’s Washington defensive end Joe Mathis carrying out an actual human crime against Stanford right tackle Casey Tucker, who had to get away with holding on his way down just to give his QB a chance to escape the pocket. This didn’t count as a sack, but UW still had six of those in Stanford’s first 29 offensive snaps.
Stanford’s a pretty good football team, probably. This was not a pretty good night.
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