Stanford's victory at Arizona State was a flawed win by a flawed team still looking to play a complete 60 minutes seven games into the season. Much of what has been apparent in PFF grades this season was again relevant Thursday night: This is a team that can reach double-digit wins without being elite at any part of the game.

Fans reacted strongly after the game to what has come to be known as "turtling" -- which is when Shaw attempts to use big personnel formations to crawl forward, methodically taking time off the clock when up two touchdowns in the fourth quarter. It's a strategy that has never lost Stanford a game -- although it may have come closest Thursday to resulting in overtime -- but it can be agonizing to watch and is not a boon to PFF grades.

Like every game outside of Notre Dame, Stanford's pass blocking grades were better across the board compared to run blocking. It was Walker Little's best pass blocking grade since the season opener and his second straight better than 80.

The most surprising pass block grade was Trevor Speights for the reason that it was by far his worst score in that category this season. His worst snap was probably his misread of the ASU blitz that sacked KJ Costello on the second drive. He immediately went to take a safety blitz, but that was picked up by A.T. Hall. Meanwhile, linebacker Merlin Robertson came up the middle untouched. If Speights picks up Robertson it was going to be a clean pocket for Costello to scan the field on third and eight. But he did give KJ Costello just enough time to find JJ Arcega-Whiteside for a touchdown.

Speaking of pass blocking at running back, Cameron Scarlett's grade took a massive hit because of his horrible form on an attempt that ended with him tripping the pass rusher. That penalty made it second and 23 and effectively ended Stanford's last drive before "turtling".

Stanford had 12 possessions in the game and punted on eight of them. The Cardinal scored on the middle four: field goal, field goal, touchdown, touchdown. Stanford's scoreless fourth quarter was the third straight game with zero points added to the scoreboard in the final 15 minutes.

Stanford's first touchdown drive had three rushes that gained a total of 10 yards. It started with consecutive four yard gains by Bryce Love. Costello completed four passes for 50 yards. Stanford attempted two passes on first down. The first resulted in a pass interference call and the second was incomplete.

Stanford's second touchdown drive got rolling with a 25-yard run by Scarlett. He sidestepped the pileup in the middle and bounced the play outside. It's the type of run that Speights doesn't often make. Speights did catch a screen pass and crash ahead for 14 yards -- It was one of of five passes to running backs for 49 of Costello's 231 yards. (Love lined up out wide in the first quarter and was targeted for his easiest seven yard gain of the season.) Stanford threw one pass on first down: It went 22 yards to Trent Irwin off play-action.

Costello did a lot well Thursday night, but he's still a young quarterback in his 14th career start. He was fortunate not to be intercepted twice. The first was when he tried to force the ball across his body to Speights and the second was in triple coverage to Colby Parkinson.



Costello still hasn't completely shaken free from a tendency to look deep and lock in. The almost-interception intended for Parkinson missed a wide open Arcega-Whiteside underneath. On third and five on the third drive of the game Costello had a similarly open Irwin for a first down but tried for Parkinson downfield.

If there is a silver lining to forcing the ball to Parkinson on those two plays it's that Stanford/Costello is trying to involve the second tight end more. If that can be done effectively that becomes a huge positive for the offense.