Stanford’s passing game struggled against Washington State last Saturday, but both players and coaches expressed optimism that there were positives they can take away from the disappointing road loss and that a few small improvements could lead to a much better showing this Friday night against Washington.
The Cardinal passing attack gained only 105 yards against the Cougar secondary, and head coach David Shaw placed a lot of the blame for the inefficiency on his own play-calling and offensive game plan.
“Offensively, we didn’t get enough production out of the pass game,” Shaw said in his postgame press conference. “That’s my fault. That’s on me. Didn’t give the guys enough opportunities, honestly.”
Shaw was particularly upset with the first-down play distribution. Stanford ran the ball on 13-of-18 first downs for only 15 yards, outside of junior running back Bryce Love’s 52-yard touchdown.
“Call it conservative, call it whatever you want. We wanted to stick with the run game,” Shaw said postgame. “But we weren’t as efficient as we needed to be. We should have mixed it up a little bit. That’s completely my fault.”
Whether or not Stanford decides to throw the ball more on first and second down against Washington is yet to be determined, but the ball will be in the hands of sophomore quarterback KJ Costello to make those throws. Shaw announced today that Costello will get his second straight start and third of the season, replacing senior Keller Chryst.
Costello was nine-of-20 passing with an interception and a rushing touchdown, but Shaw said the stats don’t tell the whole story of the young quarterback’s performance.
“Two dropped balls, two deflected balls, on top of playing in that stadium which is loud, against that defense which is tough, in the snow as a kid from Southern California,” Shaw said after Monday’s practice. “It’s tough. I thought he did well, but I think he’s only getting better.”
Shaw also praised a few of Costello’s big throws on Saturday and his previous performances against Arizona State and UCLA.
“(Costello) threw a couple of great balls to [junior wide receiver] JJ [Arcega-Whiteside] and a really nice one where he had to throw the ball around a defender to [junior wide receiver] Trenton Irwin,” Shaw said Monday. “If you look at his game from Arizona State and UCLA, you see a lot of really good things.”
Both Shaw and Costello mentioned efficiency as something he and the offense in general need to improve on.
“Getting back to efficiency, as an entire offense,” Costello said when asked about the area where he wants to improve on most after watching the film against Washington State. “Being efficient on first down. And when it’s time to make plays, make plays.”
“We want to be efficient,” Shaw added. “Get the ball out of his hands on time, give guys a chance to make plays.”
Stanford will have to be more efficient to have any offensive success against Washington. The Huskies have the nation’s second-ranked scoring defense, surrendering only 11.1 points per game.
“They’re tough, they’re physical. They play big up front,” Costello said about the vaunted defense. “It’s going to be a battle of the trenches once again, like we say every week.”
“Not very many people have scored on them,” Shaw added when asked about the challenges of facing the Huskies defense. “We have not been great in the Red Zone; we have not been great in plus field position. There’s a lot of things we need to work on, both in play-calling and execution. But we believe we’ve got really good players, and hopefully we’re up to the challenge.”
The challenge will be a lot tougher if midseason All-American junior running back Bryce Love is not fully healthy. Shaw said Love did not participate in practice today but should be good to go tomorrow as he continues to recover from his ankle injury.
Stanford lost 44-6 to Washington last season. Costello, Love and the rest of the Cardinal get their shot at redemption this Friday night at 7:30 p.m. in Stanford Stadium. The game will be televised by FS1.
Contact King Jemison at kingj ‘at’ stanford.edu.