O'Brien

O'Brien did blow the bootleg on 4th down as confirmed in this article.

Given the tone of Canada in that article, I concede that O'Brien will not be starting any time soon. However that doesn't mean he shouldn't.

The article also says Canada had thought of using O'Brien in the 2 minute drill during the week because he was effective running it.

O'Brien was the better quarterback coming out of training camp, which is why he started the season.

O'Brien was not very effective in his few starts while UW struggled to run the ball. From the same article:

Stave, making his first road start in a tough environment, completed 9 of 14 passes for 161 yards in the first half. Also in the first half, Jared Abbrederis caught five passes for 107 yards and a touchdown, while Ball rushed for 59 yards and two TDs.

In the second half when the running game went south, so did Stave. 3-9 for 53 yards. No running game = no success for both guys.

Stave's biggest asset so far is not turning the ball over. That is no small thing in a UW offense.
On some level this is a gut reaction. Stave did connect on some long balls, but he didn't make very good throws on any of them. The one that Ball dropped was underthrown. O'Brien hardly got a chance to throw it deep, but looked better when he did. When O'Brien was throwing the ball around he at least looked at more than one receiver.

I don't mean to say that O'Brien is good. He is not. Neither one of these guys looks to be a guy who can lead this team to anything more than a 4-4 Big Ten record and a Big Ten Championship by default.