Poor Head Coaching Costs Stanford Game Against Oklahoma State: Pat Forde Has it Right at Yahoo! Sports

It was a very disappointing day for Stanford Law School alums such as the LawPundit.

It appears that a Shaw is not a Harbaugh, as Stanford wound up losing in overtime 41-38 to Oklahoma State in spite of outgaining the offense-oriented Cowboys 590 to 412 yards. Whenever that happens, a loss by the dominant team is often the result poor field marshalling and playcalling.

With the game on the line, Stanford head coach David Shaw stuck his head in the sand and did not go with his best player, quarterback Andrew Luck, but rather played conservative and left the game decision to the running game, and thus ultimately wound up having to rely on the foot of a redshirt freshman kicker who was overwhelmed by his responsibility.

Either you play to win, or you should get off the field.

Pat Forde at Rivals.com Yahoo! Sports has the story in Giving up on Luck costs Stanford dearly.

You do not win at the top level of competition by going to your weaknesses, but rather to your strengths. Luck completed 27 of 31 passes in the game and yet Shaw let the game be decided in its critical phase by the running game and by a greenhorn kicker. A negative result was then as good as pre-programmed.