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STANFORD UNIVERSITY FOOTBALL MEDIA CONFERENCE

September 21, 2019

David Shaw

Stanford, California

Oregon - 21, Stanford - 6

DAVID SHAW: The game boils down to five or six plays, and the score will look like we're not evenly matched, but when we watch the film, we're going to see that we are.

Three weeks in a row, we were evenly matched, but we make a few errors against really good football teams that lead to points. Big plays and points.

Offensively, at times we're doing really well. We're churning. Cameron Scarlett is running really well, we're blocking guys up front, guys are making plays. Twice tonight we had explosive plays that were called back for penalty.

Sloppy play. Sloppy play. And just good enough to get you beat by good football teams. So we are in process to play our best football. We haven't seen it, haven't shown it on game day. There's so much more on this football team, and we've got to get it out of us.

It starts with me, finding a way to get us to play better. There are times where we play really, really well, and there are times where we're a little sloppy. Not going to blame it on anything other than our execution.

Not worried about penalties -- excuse me, about injuries, not worried about who we play. That's a very, very good football team, and at times tonight we didn't let them move the ball.

I thought we played really well up front on the defensive line. Our linebackers like Casey Toohill was outstanding. Got pressure on the quarterback. Did a great job against the run at times, and then three times during the course of the game, there's guys that are wide open, and it's inexcusable.

So I'm not going to hit the panic button. I don't have a panic button. There's no panic button. There is focusing on what we need to focus on, make sure we have guys in position to do their jobs, make sure we have the right guys in there to do those jobs.

Trust the character of this football team, trust our work ethic, trust our resilience. We've been down before. Going back on the road again, another tough environment to play, but once again, it's not about the opponent. It has not been the issue this entire year. It's about our execution and play making.

Questions?

Q. (Indiscernible) especially that early burst at the beginning of the game?
DAVID SHAW: Gosh, I want to say he probably broke about eight tackles tonight, somewhere between eight and ten. Slipped out of the first tackle. Guys were hitting him. He showed what kind of back he can be, physical, quick, tough, did a good job in pass protection, as well.

I thought he played really well. I thought he played really well. It's tough when you get down by two scores, and we tried to stick with the running game in order to have some balance so it doesn't just become a pass rush game. But I don't know, I think he probably averaged five yards a clip tonight with a couple of really nice runs.

If we got into the halftime like we probably should have, 7-7, hey, game plan stays on, you know. Come out of halftime 14-3, have to press a little bit.

14-3, had to press a little bit. We've got to get chunk yards. We tried to stick with the run, but also tried to make some passes down the field. They did a great job of Colby Parkinson, being physical with him, pushing him and shoving him, and the one time we had a chance to make a big play with him, we got a penalty, so it got called back.

So I like the guys that we have. I like the combination of things that we can do. I think you continue to see this season, what kind of a burst Osiris St. Brown has, see how he can be utilized with Mike and Connor. I think those three guys are playing really well. We need more out of Simi Fehoko. Got to put him in positions, he's got to be able to make plays for us. We know he's got the talent and ability, and we've got to put him in positions to make plays, and he's got to make plays. That will give us another weapon that can be utilized.

But teams are going to do. They're going to try and take away this Colby. He's probably the best tight end in America. And our other guys have to take advantage.

Bottom line for us, though, too many penalties. We got positive, positive, negative play penalty, now we're 2nd and long, 3rd and long. Against a really good front like this where they're playing coverage and not really pressuring you and you're trying to pick up those long down and distances, that's why you throw an interception late in the game. You have to pick up big chunks, and they do a great job of rolling their coverage and playing physical up front, and they hit our quarterback multiple times with a three- or four-man rush. That's how good they are up front.

So you got to stay out of 2nd and long, 3rd and longs against a team like this.

Q. What's your evaluation, first watch of K.J.'s performance, and maybe reasons for kind of the disconnect in terms of connecting with those receivers?
DAVID SHAW: I don't have an answer for the second one. Not bad, not great. There's a lot into it, honestly. You spend a lot of time in 2nd and long and 3rd and long. It's hard to play quarterback. It's just hard to play quarterback.

Those times where we stayed in positive down and distances, moved the ball like it was nothing. It was great. You know, got completions, hit check-downs. Like I said, Osiris was great on the screen early on. Mike made some big plays, some big catches. They did a good job of rolling coverage.

There were times also when we knew they were dropping out, and we had a chance to run the ball against a light box as we call it, and we miss a block. So a play that should be an outstanding play for us, we end up in 2nd and 11, we end up in 2nd and 14, we run against an optimal look.

The phrase of the day for me right now is error, to many errors against good football teams makes it too hard to win.

Q. There have been stretches over the years where you guys have struggled a little on offense, and it has often been the negative yardage plays that gets you behind schedule. Can you go back and figure out from past seasons either if there are trends or what you have done in the past to get that corrected, or do you need to wait until you've got a bye week to dig into it?
DAVID SHAW: No, we go through it week by week, and it's tough to go back because we've got different guys, and different guys have different issues.

We knew going in this front was really good. This is a really good front. They gave Auburn fits. The last two games really haven't been a contest for them. We knew they were talented, we knew they were good, and you have to stay in positive down and distances because of what they can do, because for them it's not just the exterior pass rush, not just the outside pass rush, but the interior pass rush and the stunts and games they have.

Those are tough match-ups individually, but also when they can stunt and twist, knowing full well that you need to pick up 15 yards to get a 1st down, and they're just playing soft coverage and not letting you get behind them.

So we're looking for seams, we're looking for catch and run opportunities. Bottom line is against a team like this, you can't play 2nd and long, 3rd and long. The times that we didn't, we marched right down the field. And now we have to score touchdowns in the red zone. We only got down there a couple times, and we had our chances. They gave us our chances, and we didn't take advantage.

Q. What changed in the defense's performance this week from last week, and what did you see in terms of how Lance Anderson attacked this Oregon offense?
DAVID SHAW: Well, I think I'll start with our secondary. Last week we didn't make it difficult. I mean, the five explosive passes, four of them guys were just running free. We didn't put our hands on them, we didn't press them, we didn't jostle them, we didn't disrupt their routes.

We did a better job of that today. I'll say Kyu Kelly really stepped up. True freshman, got a chance to start, played a lot, played extremely well. Very competitive young man. Has a high football IQ. Has a desire to be great. And it was great to see him out there, go out there and make some plays.

Safety-wise, I thought we played smarter safety-wise, as well. Up until the end, the kind of fake screen and go, we didn't let the ball get over our heads, which is the first thing. But that early touchdown really hurt because we're playing a really, really tight game. When you're playing a tight game against a good team, you can't give them the easy ones, you can't give them the cheap ones.

If they earn it, hey, pat them on the back, they got it. But we gave them a couple easy ones, and we didn't take advantage of our opportunities on the offensive side.

Q. Tough sledding from a field position standpoint. How critical was that in the outcome today?
DAVID SHAW: It was huge. It was huge. I told the guys last week, the only equation that I think really matters in football is field position plus momentum equals points. I heard that when I was a young coach, and it's proven to be true. And if you can't ever flip the field position by an explosive play or by a special teams play, then it becomes difficult because you're playing in your own backyard, and all they have to do is make a couple of plays, and they're in scoring position, whether it's touchdown or field goal.

You know, not being able to punch the ball out when we had the ball back there, and then not being able to get a turnover, get a big return, get something that puts the ball back on their side, get a huge punt and then a stop on 3rd down -- we got a couple of nice punts today. We really did. We got them in 3rd down, 3rd and medium, 3rd and long, and then we let them out.

And now it's not just they got the 1st down, even if we stop them, they're going to punt and get us back down inside of the 20-yard line. So we were not what we wanted to be in field position today.

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