What Stanford Learned On Halloween Night

While most of you were out Trick-or-Treating last Saturday one man was hard at work preparing for next Saturday. And the Saturday after that. With Stanford's next two opponents playing each other during the bye week coach Jim Harbaugh took this opportunity to get some scouting done. The battle between the two Pac-10 powers was a very telling game as weaknesses and strengths always reveal themselves against the best competition. Here's what to look for when Stanford goes against each unit. USC air attack Matt Barkley is solid in the exact sense of the word, meaning he does keep the USC offense moving but he does not carry it by any means. Although he is extremely mature in his understanding of the offense and his ability to get through his progression he is still a freshman. A couple of times on Saturday night he just completely missed throws most notably to his backup tight end Blake Ayles. It begs the question if he misses the timing and chemistry he had with Anthony McCoy. Barkley ... (link)