Stanford offensive line looks to rebound against Cougars

Of everything that was unexpected about Stanford's 44-6 loss in Seattle, the domination of the Cardinal's offensive line by Washington may have been the most startling for offensive coordinator Mike Bloomgren.

Stanford allowed more sacks (8) than they scored points against a Husky front that didn't have to bring extra pass rushers to win the line of scrimmage. Simply put,"It was our worst performance in six years," Bloomgren said.

“I don’t know the last time we gave up eight sacks,” head coach David Shaw said. “I don’t know the last time we gave up five. A couple of them were noise related. They got really good get-offs. A couple of them were bad technique and a couple of them were really good pass rushes.”

Even a few days removed from the Friday night game, Bloomgren seemed to struggle to put into words what happened in Seattle to the unit he coaches. The performance stood in stark contrast to the mostly positive trend of the previous three games.

Stanford rushed for nearly 300 yards against USC, and the following week averaged 6.1 yards an attempt on called run plays in a tough win over UCLA. And against a talented Bruins defense, Bloomgren saw only three plays when the line struggled to pass protect.

“Then you go and play like we did last Friday,” he said. “It does leave you scratching your head. It leaves you really confused about what occurred. What could we have done differently as coaches? What could we have done to prepare the guys better?

“To say I saw it coming and we were practicing poor or things were trending that way would be completely false. I really thought we would go up there and play well.”

The fact that Washington beat Stanford’s front without blitzing added insult to the film study, especially when Bloomgren added: “They are a blitzing team. They just weren’t against us and they didn’t need to be.”

The Cardinal lost one-on-one battles that Bloomgren wasn’t accustomed to seeing the players lose. And because Washington only needed four defenders to pressure Burns, there often wasn’t enough time to go through all his progressions against good coverage.

But Burns’ performance earned praise from Bloomgren.

“What he did is he stood in there and he continued to lead throughout the game,” he said. “He made throws and even after getting hit you never saw a fear factor come into play. It was never too big. And all he kept doing is being positive and trying to get the guys to perform around him. Was he perfect? Absolutely not. But his leadership was and I appreciate that.”

Now with Washington State coming to Stanford on Saturday, it’s worth remembering that the Cougars were able to beat the Cardinal up front for much of the first half last year in Pullman. Stanford only scored three points before the break.

“They’re good and they’re a lot like Washington in that they don’t want to stay blocked,” Bloomgren said. "They really work hard. They come off the ball and make a move. And if you’re able to block that move, they’re going to have a secondary and a third move. They’re going to keep fighting. It’s a great challenge for us. Obviously we’ve increased our practice time toward protection. It’s obviously necessary after a performance like that. Our guys are working hard and trying to do the best they can with their hands and try to keep their head and shoulders out of the block.”

Complicating the preparation for Washington State is the injury bug worked its way into the line. Brandon Fanaika has missed the past two games but appears on track to play Saturday. But right tackle Casey Tucker is questionable after suffering an injury against Washington.

David Bright has been practicing at the position in case he needs to take that starting spot.

“I think this is a very solid group of guys we have around us,” Bright said of moving forward from the loss. “I don’t think one of us ever has the response that we’re going to quit. I know I personally don’t. It’s just how I was raised never to quit.

“After watching the film, to be honest a lot of it fell on us. A lot of it fell on me as well. I didn’t have a great game. Coming back all we can do is work. We have to hone back in on the small things.”

Fanaika and Nate Herbig are in the mix to play at left guard. Jack Dreyer may play a role as well.

The line prides itself on being hard workers and they have extra motivation to perform well against the Cougars, Bloomgren said.

“I am angry,” he said. “I think they are. They’re disappointed. They work so hard all year long for these 12 opportunities, and to perform like that hurts us all. They all care immensely.”

Bright added: “There are small things every one of us has to fix going into this next game. We have to execute better. That’s what we’re going to fall back on. Just make sure this never happens again.”