The UCLA football team will travel north to Palo Alto on Friday afternoon at 5 to battle Stanford (Channel 11) for the second week in a row, this time for the Pacific-12 championship and a possible Rose Bowl invitation.
The Bruins hope the outcome will be much different than last Saturday’s onesided 35 to 17 loss to Stanford.
“We came out a little flat but we will adjust,” said senior running back Johathan Franklin. Stanford’s defense held Franklin, UCLA’s all-time rushing leader, to 65 yards on 21 carries. Franklin has rushed for 4,175 yards in four years. That’s good enough for fifth place in conference history.
If UCLA expects to upset the No. 8-ranked Cardinal, they will have to open holes for the hard running Franklin. Stanford plays hard nosed football and makes few mistakes.
“They are a very physical team,” said UCLA coach Jim Mora. “They have experience, and they have been doing this for a long time. They have been running the same offenses and defenses. And they are consistent. They have had the same coaches in their system the last few years. They run the ball well. They tackle well. They block well.”
UCLA will also have to do a better job of protecting redshirt quarterback Brett Hundley. For the first time this season, the Stanford defense seemed to confuse Hundley. He was sacked seven times. At times it appeared he had running room, but decided, instead, to throw into tight coverage. “To be honest I tried to sit in the pocket as long as I could,” Hundley said. “I tried to make the throws I needed to make. I probably should have run a little more. I just have to play my game and try to help my team win the games.”
Stanford coach David Shaw expects to see a different Bruin team on Friday. “It’s going to be 10 times harder to beat UCLA again,” he said. “It’s really hard to beat a team twice in one season not to mention twice in one week. They are going to come back with a chip on the shoulders.”
On defense, the Bruins could not stop Stanford’s running attack led by senior Stepfan Taylor. Two of UCLA’s top defensive players, linebackers Anthony Barr and defensive tackle Datone Jones, said they knew what was coming but they still could not stop the Cardinal. “It’s tough to prepare for something, and you still can’t stop it,” said Barr. “We will go back to the drawing board and fix what we need to fix.”
Jones, one of the best defensive lineman in the Pacific-12, got Stanford’s attention from beginning to end. The Cardinal double-teamed him all day. “They did the same thing over and over again,” said Jones, “but we left a lot out on the field.”
Mr. Finley may be contacted at sfinley50@aol.com
