Can UCLA finally beat Stanford? Not even the Golden Nugget Casino knows as they have opened with an interesting betting line for the Bruin-Cardinal game.
The Stanford Cardinal have defeated the UCLA Football team eight times in a row. Could that change this year?
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The Golden Nugget Casino has released several early betting lines and have literally made this year’s UCLA-Stanford matchup at the Rose Bowl a “pick’em”. That is literally the early line out of Vegas and it tells a great many things.
First off, it says that the Golden Nugget does not have confidence in the UCLA football team. It is not a bad thing, but looking at the patterns of the last seven seasons, one could intellectualize that the Bruins have been consistently outplayed by Stanford Head Coach David Shaw.
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Secondly, it seems the Golden Nugget is also not as convinced that Shaw and his team have enough to put away Bruins. UCLA can’t lose to Stanford every year and this could be a pivotal game in the series for the Bruins seeing as the Cardinal have lost several players on offense (except for that pesky Christian McCaffrey).
Third, this should be one hell of a game.
If you poll UCLA Football fans, it seems fair to say that at least half would have Stanford winning this game… again. UCLA Football Head Coach Jim Mora does not yet know how to beat Shaw despite having five chances to try and dissect Stanford’s game plan.
Last year was one of the worst performances as Stanford brutalized UCLA 56-35. Stanford basically smashed the Bruins in the first half, posted 21 more points in the third and then UCLA finally started clicking in the fourth quarter, but it was all for naught.
Things could be very different this year. Mora and the Bruins are using power elements and in the fourth game of the season when UCLA goes up against powerful Stanford, we will see if these improvements have the UCLA Football team on the right track or if they still have a long way to go.
Though this line is not very exciting, it is quite intriguing, especially considering what has been going on in the last seven years. Go Bruins!