TD’s Extra Point: Stanford Needs No Luck with Luck at QB

09/20/2011

Stanford flexed their muscles Saturday night down in Tucson in their 37-10 Pac-12 opening victory against Arizona. No doubt about it, Stanford is a complete team and capable of a top-5 finish nationally. Andrew Luck was outstanding — but so was his supporting cast. The Cardinal has a big, young, physical offensive line — and the best overall group of tight ends in the country! Stepfan Taylor had a career night rushing for over 150 yards. The defense totally shut down the Wildcats’ running game and the only negative of the night for Stanford was the loss of defensive leader Shayne Skov to what could be a significant leg injury.

From an old coach’s perspective, I was blown away by the game management and offensive strategy of 1st-year head coach David Shaw. He wore the Wildcats defense out with the old unbalanced line both running and passing the ball. Really impressive!!

Nick Foles for Arizona looked good as he hit 17 straight passes during one stretch of the game, but Arizona will have to find a way to score at least 40 points this weekend if they hope to be competitive against the Oregon Ducks, who are flying into town having outscored their last two opponents 125-27.

That’s Just Offensive

Why are offenses in college football so far ahead of defenses across the country?? It may sound simple, but it’s this: very few teams are playing good defense! One reason is the game has changed so much. Offenses spread the defense from sideline to sideline and create “space” for themselves. Most teams employ a running QB who becomes an extra ball carrier, and in most cases the wide receivers are giants compared to the generally smaller defensive backs. Defenders are now forced to make more tackles in the open field, which has always been extremely difficult. “Gang tackling” is a thing of the past. Look for more and more scoring as defenses are stretched to the breaking point. But maybe there’s hope. Next week I’ll discuss what, if anything, the defenses can do to catch up.

–Terry Donahue, UCLA ’76-’95, HOF 2000

John Tautges and Terry Donahue will be back in Tucson this weekend to see if Arizona’s defense can slow down the Oregon Ducks. Coverage begins Saturday at 9:45 PM Eastern.

 

The Extra Point Archive

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TD’s Extra Point: The SEC Championship Game

28 November 2012
Well, the long-awaited SEC Championship Game is finally here. The best overall conference in America will put its two best teams out on the field and pound on each other for four hours Saturday night. There will…
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TD’s Extra Point: What a weekend!

20 November 2012
It was another great weekend of college football. Numbers 1 and 2 went down to defeat, leaving Notre Dame as the only undefeated FBS team that has a chance to play for a national title. But what if the Irish go down this weekend against USC? Then who should play…
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TD’s Extra Point: A Trip Gone Bad

25 September 2012
I was excited to broadcast the Oregon-Arizona game this past weekend. I had studied all the facts and was convinced that it would be a close game. After all, Arizona had beaten Oklahoma State and put 59 points — yes, that’s right, 59 points — on the Cowboys! On the…
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Terry Donahue’s Extra Point: UCLA back in the Top 25

14 September 2012
Saturday night will see the return of UCLA to the top 25 for the first time in a LONG, LONG time. The Bruins, ranked 22nd in the AP poll and 23rd in the coaches poll, are fresh off a significant win over Nebraska and will host the Houston Cougars at…
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Terry Donahue’s Extra Point: The Kickoff Classic

06 September 2012
The Chick-fil-A Kickoff Classic was once again an outstanding event to open the college football season. This year, the game’s promoters brought in four teams instead of two and produced a highly successful weekend for the city of Atlanta and college football. Westwood One’s game that I called between Clemson…
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TD’s Extra Point: A Wounded Duck

22 November 2011
First a 35-game home winning streak goes down in Boise. Now a 21-game Pac-12 home winning streak is ended by the Trojans of USC against the Oregon Ducks!! And all broadcast over Westwood One Sports. I simply can’t take these kinds of games anymore. As I said last week, “Why…
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TD’s Extra Point: Something Had to Give… and It Did

16 November 2011
Well, it finally came to an end! Boise State’s 35-game home winning streak was snapped by a TCU team that had a 21-game Mountain West winning streak of its own on the line. It was a great game by two talented and well-coached teams. When it was all said and…
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