Stanford's Offensive Line Performance Against Duke, By the Numbers

It's no secret that the Stanford Cardinal underperformed their own expectations against Duke on the road on Saturday, ultimately losing 35-7. Quarterback Davis Warren was under constant pressure against the Blue Devils, getting sacked four times and pressured 16 times on 36 dropbacks. He just didn't have time to go through his reads and make a throw. 

That's part of the reason why Warren was 13-of-15 passing on throws between 0-9 yards, accounting for 125 of the team's 151 passing yards. There just wasn't time to get further down the field for more explosive plays. 

That comes down to the offensive line, which we have said for weeks will be the determining factor for Stanford's 2026 season. Obviously losing redshirt senior transfer Aidan Kilstrom in the first game of the season has hurt the team's play, but junior Charlie Hoitink had done a decent job in his absence. 

Saturday night in Durham, the entire offensive line — aside from left guard/tackle Josh Williams — graded out poorly. 

The starred players in the "S" column are the starters at their positions, and as you can see, right guard Simione Pale (37.9 grade), right tackle Fisher Anderson (33.2 grade), center Charlie Hoitink (27.4 grade), and left tackle Kahlil House (22.7 grade) all struggled mightily in pass blocking. They had no answer for what Duke was throwing at them. 

Without being able to move the ball in big chunks through the air and consistently facing long distances on second and third down, running the ball became less of an option as the game wore on. 

During last week's media availability, we asked head coach Tavita Pritchard about the difference that goes into blocking for the run game and pass game, given that some guys have graded out really well in one or the other, but not generally both. He said that it all works together as a cohesive unit, and that the grades can be misleading sometimes.

"What might look like this guy missing an individual block, the scheme might call for him getting more help from an adjacent lineman," Pritchard said. 

He went on to explain that sometimes those individual grades don't tell the full story, because the play calls and the scheme they're deploying are having an impact that is not being measured by the graders. 

"So much of what we're trying to evaluate is how are our pieces working in conjunction with each other," Pritchard said. "Are we on the same page? So you know when you when you evaluate those things, there are certainly times where hey, this guy individually just needs to be better. He needs to get his second step in the ground, or he needs to be better getting his head play side.

"But all of those are so interdependent that a lot of times there's a lot more than meets the naked eye of like hey, this guy just lost that rep."

While individual grades can certainly be misleading, the grades from Saturday afternoon just reinforced what we saw play out in real time. Now we get to see how the Cardinal respond.