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UCLA Football vs. Stanford: Keys to the Game

By James Puryear

Sep 17, 2016; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw prepares to enter the field prior to a NCAA football game against the USC Trojans at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports
Sep 17, 2016; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw prepares to enter the field prior to a NCAA football game against the USC Trojans at Stanford Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports /
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UCLA’s faces their perennial bane in Stanford this Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins look to end the streak once and for all against the Cardinal and open up conference play with a win.

The Bruins will have their work cut out for them with the  #7 Stanford Cardinal who have just come off back to back wins against Kansas State and USC and are currently living up to the hype of being the PAC-12 preseason favorites to win the conference.

UCLA however, would love to knock off the defending conference champion, and beat Stanford for the first time since 2008.

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1. Curb McCaffrey

Lets get the obvious out of the way.  Christian McCaffey is  the best player in college football, and is by far the most important player on the Stanford team.  You could make an argument that your three keys could be to stop McCaffrey as a running back, receiver, and returner.

Nov 28, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey (27) is stopped by the UCLA Bruins defense after a 1 yard gain in the first half of the game at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2014; Pasadena, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal running back Christian McCaffrey (27) is stopped by the UCLA Bruins defense after a 1 yard gain in the first half of the game at the Rose Bowl. Mandatory Credit: Jayne Kamin-Oncea-USA TODAY Sportscombined. /

To put into perspective how much of the Stanford offense is a 1-man show, the Cardinal offense without McCaffrey only threw for 36 (out of 109) yards against USC last weekend, and rushed for 130 yards (out of 295).

It’s unlikely that the Bruins will stop McCaffrey altogether, but keeping him under control will go a long way in slowing down the Stanford offense.

The Bruins with Takk McKinley and Eddie Vanderdoes back only allowed 23 yards rushing to BYU last weekend, which should give UCLA fans some optimism that maybe with a healthy defensive line the Bruins might actually be able to match up with Stanford on the ground and keep McCaffrey in check.

2.  Staying Disciplined on Both Sides of the Ball

Stanford, as you would expect, plays smart football. They know that you know McCaffrey is going to get the ball most of the time and will use him as a decoy to give other opportunities for dynamic athletes Michael Rector and Bryce Love to make big plays.

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The Bruins will have to make sure all athletes are appropriately accounted for, and not tunnel vision on McCaffery.  As Coach Angus McClure said in an interview, UCLA “cannot set (it’s) hair on fire”

Additionally, the Cardinal have a retinue of trick plays that include fake fumbles, flea flickers, and reversals.  If the Bruins are caught flat footed, in all likelihood they’ll end up giving up a big play.

Lastly, penalties.  Stanford doesn’t shoot themselves in the foot, and have routinely been one of the best teams in the conference when it comes to flags.  Unfortunately in recent years UCLA has hamstrung itself, most notably in the red zone, against the Cardinal with penalties.  Considering the quality of opponent Stanford already is, if the Bruins get in their own way they  will almost certainly lose the game.

3.  Play a Complete Game on Offense

The UCLA offense hasn’t put together a complete game.  In the first two games of the season, the offense was plagued by frequent drops and missed targets.

While Josh Rosen struggled to get the ball to receivers against BYU the Bruins did a better job of catching the ball. Unfortunately the run game simply wasn’t there as the Bruins only rushed for 50 yards against the Cougars.

I genuinely believe that UCLA has the talent at quarterback and the skill positions to be an elite offense, but as of yet the Bruins hasn’t demonstrated it.

So far this year the Stanford defense has kept opposing teams to 13 points or less a game and when considering the quality of their opponents (USC and K-State) is likely an accurate indicator of the quality of their defense.  There will not be a large margin for error, and if UCLA wants win this game they have to play better on offense than they have all year.

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Final Prediction

While I think this is definitely a winnable game for the Bruins, I’m picking the Cardinal to win this game.  UCLA has the talent to win this game, but the Bruins haven’t had a performance on both sides of the ball that would suggest they should be favored to win this game.