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Stanford vs UCLA report card
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It was another huge win for Stanford football. Toby Gerhart rushes for 134 yards to lead the Cardinal to a 24-16 win over UCLA. Stanford remains in first place in the Pac-10 with a 3-0 record, and at 4-1 overall is starting to gain some attention nationwide. It is time to breakdown the game and hand out some grades.
RUN GAME: A
Gerhart again was a battering ram against a pretty good defense. Give credit to the Bruins for laying on some big hits, and closing the hole fairly rapidly a number of times. Gerhart was even driving backwards once or twice which rarely happens. But even with these UCLA positives, Gerhart still pounded the ball for 134 yards and 3 touchdowns. Stepfan Taylor is really starting to look like a nice running back as well. He filled in for the injured Jeremy Stewart with six carries for 31 yards. The story is still the offensive lines and some of the most creative run blocking you can see. This week's changeup, using seven offensive linemen. Then they would use that "meat" package and shift the whole line. This goes with constant unbalance lines, shifting of tackles, and more. Give credit to line coaches Greg Roman and Tim Drevno for finding new ways to make simple running plays work.
PASSING GAME: B
After two games where the running game was so dominant, everyone knew there would be a time where the passing game would be required. This game was it and they responded nicely. Andrew Luck was 14/20 198 yards. He had a great throw to Ryan Whalen off the flea flicker to set up one touchdown. For the most part he was sharp all day. The line for the most part did a nice job keeping the pressure off of Luck with the exception of a couple of plays late in the second quarter that lead to a near sack and fumble followed by an actual sack and fumble. Luck was sharp but did throw two incompletions. Chaos in the backfield when he stumbled into Gerhart threw off the timing on a deep play to Chris Owusu. If Luck hits that bomb game was over. With the disrupted timing, he over threw Owusu by about 10-yards. Then on the critical 3rd down late in the game he threw behind Ryan Whalen on what could have been a game winning first down throw. Luck threw what looked like a bad pass in the end zone in the first quarter to tight end Konrad Reuland, but the replay shows that if he had thrown it on target, it would have been deflected by a defender, so maybe throwing behind Reuland was a good pass. Whalen had a nice day with six catches for 118 yards.
RUN DEFENSE: A-
It is hard to argue with anything they did against the run. UCLA ended up with 95 yards rushing on 26 attempts. There were no big runs allowed. There were a couple of nice holes, and a couple of first down runs, but really nothing major. The big lead helped de-emphasize the run as well. Overall nothing spectacular so count that as a big win for the Cardinal defense. Clinton Snyder was again all over the place. Chike Amajoyi had another nice game. The defensive line of Ekom Udofia, Sione Fua, Tom McAndrew and Thomas Keiser all played well against the run.
PASS DEFENSE: B
There are mixed feelings about the pass defense. The coverage was soft at times, the pressure on the pass rush was not as good as in past games, yet no big plays were given up and Stanford came up with two big stops when they needed them. Kevin Craft was held to 204 yards passing. There were pass interference calls made on Richard Sherman and Corey Gatewood that were close plays. The second to last drive for UCLA was way to easy until they got into scoring territory when Stanford started to dial up the blitz. On the final drive Kris Evans was in for Sherman and made two very nice defensive plays, one a pass defense and one a tackle on the scrambling Craft. Will Powers again showed some pass rush at the end of the game making the final hit on the final play. It was not always pretty, but overall it the defense did what they needed to do to get the win. Maybe it was closer than it could have been, but last year Stanford gave up the last minute drive. This time they found away to make the stop.
SPECIAL TEAMS: B
Stanford fans have become spoiled here. Overall there was not too much to the special teams play. Nate Whitaker made his only field goal attempt and rocked his kickoffs into the end zone. Owusu was neutralized by most UCLA kickoffs going deep into the end zone. The only real negative was the blocked punt. Beyond that, special teams was pretty much a draw.
COACHING: B
Enough can not be said about the creativity involved in the run game. Most running games have five or six basic plays. Stanford takes those basic plays and turns them into 25-30 different options thanks the some very unique blocking schemes. The offensive game plan was solid and if it was not for penalties, Stanford really could have blown things open. On defense, the totals look pretty good, so credit goes to the coaching staff for having a good game plan in place. It would be nice to see them start to get the corners a little closer to the line of scrimmage as they give up too many short receptions by giving too much room.
OVERALL: A
A win is a win. One of the great things about this win, Stanford did not play their best. Seven penalties and a turnover helped to stop themselves as much as UCLA did. There were a couple of plays (see the above missed pass to Owusu) where the timing appeared off. Yet despite not playing their best game, Stanford played well over all and that is good for a 24-16 win. In the past, Stanford needed their best game just to win. Now it appears if they do play their best game, they will win by a lot. Hard to tell where this team will finish in the end, but it certainly seems clear right now that this is a very good Stanford football team.
PLAYERS OF THE GAME:
OFFENSE: Toby Gerhart, Ryan Whalen
DEFENSE: Will Powers, Thomas Keiser
OTHER ARTICLES:
TOBY GERHART ON 200-YARDS RUSHING
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