Early UCLA-Stanford Gamer
The Stanford Cardinal did not need to rip victory away from the hapless UCLA Bruins on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl, but they did it anyway.
Adding insult to insult, free safety Michael Thomas tore the football from sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince's hands and waltzed 21 yards into the end zone with just under a minute left in the third quarter.
By then, the Rose Bowl was just a shell, fans escaping to the exits like someone tripped the fire alarm.
Except the only thing tripped up? The UCLA offense.
The bumbling Bruins managed just 233 yards of offense and blew two scoring chances as the Cardinal chipped away, ultimately handing UCLA a second-straight loss, this a 35-0 beatdown in front of 56,931.
Behind star quarterback Andrew Luck, Stanford methodically pounded the ball, gaining 364 yards rushing and 23 first downs. Luck got in on the act, rushing for 63 yards on seven carries, including four carries of more than 10 yards. Luck appeared to add a rushing touchdown with just over a minute left in the third quarter, but he was ruled down at the 1-yard line following a four-yard gain before handing off to fullback Owen Marecic for the score on the ensuing play.
Exploiting a UCLA defense that looked run-first for much of the game, Luck began to pick the pass defense apart, particularly on the play action. Luck threw his first touchdown of the day to wide receiver Ryan Whalen on a rollout out of the Pistol formation less than six minutes into the game, then hit uncovered reserve tight end Coby Fleener for a three-yard touchdown with 9:25 left on the clock.
"He's probably the best quarterback in the Pac-10, probably in the country," UCLA safety Rahim Moore said. "I've known him since high school, the Army All-American Bowl, and he was throwing darts then. Everything was on the money."
Luck wasn't exactly Benjamin Franklin, Andrew Jackson or Abraham Lincoln on Saturday, but he got the job done.
After throwing for four touchdowns and 316 yards on 17-of-23 passing in the Cardinal's 52-17 win over Sacramento State in the season opener, the Davey O'Brien Award candidate completed just 11-of-24 passes for 151 yards against the Bruins before being pulled with five minutes remaining.
But Luck was accurate when it mattered, despite finding just five different receivers, including Doug Baldwin three times for 50 yards.
"The thing about Andrew Luck, he's really polished," Moore said. "You look at some quarterbacks, and are they polished? Do they make good decisions? He does. He blends in perfectly with that offense, and with him, it's like playing against Peyton Manning. That's the type of quarterback he is - just so polished."
Luck's counterpart, Prince, not so much.
More like a rough, pointed, jagged rock.
The Crespi of Encino product went 6-for-12 for 39 yards and an interception, a 60.6 quarterback rating. Under Prince, the offense managed just 160 total yards, with running back Johnathan Franklin picking up 66 rushing yards.
Prince was pulled after Thomas's fumble-return touchdown in favor of sophomore backup Richard Brehaut, and the Bruins started to move.
For a while, at least.
After Brehaut came in and led UCLA to the Stanford 21-yard line on his second drive, the Bruins stalled on fourth down, giving up their last scoring chance.
By then, the Rose Bowl was nearly empty, boos pouring in on a cloudless night.
wow. that was painful.
Fire Neuheisel
OMG. That was painful indeed. At one point, I couldn't even watch.
This team has a lot of soul-searching to do; the story through the first half was their good QB (even on a below average passing day he made plays with his feet) vs. our mediocre QB (there were no glaring drops, that catch by Harkey would have been a great one). Just too inexperienced and young right now, and our upperclassmen don't look like they have developed at all. I guess a silver lining is that we're burning redshirts left and right and these young talented freshmen will get experience for the rest of this season and next; oh, and I don't see Moore & Ayers going anywhere at the end of this year.
Think Hundley is expecting to play as a true freshman?
I'm sorry, but this is one POORLY-coached team, and they were exposed tonight by a very well-coached team. UCLA's defensive staff is clearly in WAY over their heads. Also, hard to remember a receiving corp that is this ill-prepared. I understand that we have some young talent, but I really question the ability of this staff to develop the talent in any meaningful way.
The coaching at UCLA is horrible right now. Rick, sorry buddy, but you need to go. Maybe you can make up some type of family emergency and leave the program on your own terms. Oh, and take norm with you please!
Hmm.. I think I could've done a better job. At least my teams weren't this bad. Looks like you guys got what you wanted. Good luck the rest of the way... you really need it
Will Brehaut be starting the next game? They need to put in the younger guys like Jones and James for offense, and Owa, Zumwalt and Riley for defense.
Fire Neuheisel, fire Bullough, fire Chow, and do it right now because that was yet another in the decade of beatdowns that is the Dorrell and Neuheisel era
Did Karl ever lose to Stanford 35-0 or to BYU 59-0? This program is in free-fall at the moment and nobody has any parachutes. I hope our current commits don't rescind their pledges and head toward more successful pastures. If we suffer blow-out losses to Houston and Texas, many of our commits will definitely consider other options. After tonight's debacle, I can't see anything good in our immediate or long term future.
Norm.....Offense is when you try to score points.....
Coach Thom,
No, I didn't. Although my teams suffered some bad losses, we did beat 'sc and were competitive. UCLA just didn't get anything going today.
Go Bruins
Looking at the schedule this team looks like a 2-10 or 3-9 team. No joke, look at the schedule. Two more tough non-conference games in Houston and Texas. After Washington State, you have Cal, Oregon, etc...
After that, basketball season (dosn't get any better). Its going to be a loooooong season for Bruin Fans. Bring on 2011.
The best thing Rick can do is step down. Humiliating
Prince better have lost his starting position. He needs to earn it back by PRACTICING.
The most embarassing part had to be when we stopped Stanford on 3rd and 7, only to realize the coaches had called a timeout before the play. Then we come out on the field on D, and Josh Smith comes trotting out to return a punt on 3 and 7, causing us to call a second timeout about 5 minutes into the game, and after all that we ended up giving up the first down even though we stopped them originally. They just seem really poorly coached out there.
Relentlessly Horrible...
Q & A Question #1
Jon, how bad does it suck being the beat reporter for the worst team in the Pac-10
Relentlessly Horrible...
Q & A Question #1
Jon, how bad does it suck being the beat reporter for the worst team in the Pac-10
I hate to say it but I see the very real possibility of an 0-12 season. This has got to be the worst Bruin team in 35 years.
What the hell is Brett Hundley thinking committing to UCLA? Give me 1 good reason to commit to our football program based on what we do on the field and coaching!
Guys relax, this team has a ton of talent,we just dont have a QB. The defense is not as bad as people think, especially our pass defense. It definitely is time for Brehaut to play out the year regardless of results. Prince cannot stay healthy and has not earned the right to keep his job. Can we get more Malcolm Jones and more hurry-up O? Seems over the last 3 seasons our hurry-up does pretty well.
Prince flat out stunk. I truly believe if Neu and Chow are going to go with the mantra "go with the best option to win today" i say prince is not the answer. brehaut should definitely get the nod for the starting position. prince-39 yds passing in 3+ quarters. brehaut- 42 yds in 2 drives and with more accuracy. those stats speak for themselves.
That was utterly pathetic! Very embarrassing to see all the mistakes made and turn overs! Kevin Prince has to have lost his starting job after that! They should give Brehaut and Kyle Tunney a shot. Everyone says our defense sucks, but how can they be good when our offense can't move the ball or sustain drives. Have no idea why Chow doesn't call for deep cossing or passing routes. Wheres Toledo, Al Borges and Cade McNown? 1998 please come back!!!
Defense isn't that bad just on the field ALL GAME. Same as the last several years but where is the highly touted OWA? Has he played this year? Need more offense so please more Brehaut and Jones.
Okay, well I don't know about the rest of you guys but that pretty much cleared out my sinuses.
Did you see Tennessee's stadium as the Ducks hammered their "beloved" Volunteers?-- maybe 5000 remained out of 100,000.
In sports, every "fan" is a frontrunner.
Heck, life is tough enough without following a losing team, so forggettaboutit.
Agreed-we stunk...beyond stunk at times. It was hard to watch, however, Dorrell has some horrible losses as well. 44-6 to Utah? We even got hammered when we were good in 2005 (granted I'd certainly prefer 10 wins and two horrible losses to what we have in store today). USC 66-19? AZ 52-14? Point is, we always have horrible losses. I'm willing to be patient and hopefully see improvement this year and the leap next year- otherwise, I'm on board to pull the plug.
I always wondered why Colorado let Josh Smith get away......Now I know.... they realized that all the talent in the world don't mean a hill of beans if you lose count after 3. Rocks between the ears
lj: nobody can accuse Bruin fans of being frontrunners in this decade.
Brehaut needs to start. He's more accurate than Prince and he's a threat to run. CRN needs to make the change now.
The defense isn't bad, they need to move Chandler back to DT, start Graham and start Love over Westgate. I love Westgate's heart, but on most plays he's being pushed back.
Rick's worst losses are a lot worse than Dorrell's considering the talent each coach had. At least Dorrell had some good wins (beat Oklahoma and 'SC). To Rick's credit he beat an average Tennessee team in their house. Dorrell's team were more disciplined and executed better. Rick's teams look lost.
0-59 BYU
0-35 Stanford
The UCLA standard has been reduced to "we'll always have humiliating losses." GREAT.
the FIRE Rick Neuheisel movement is gaining traction. This team will win 3 games (maybe 4).
4 wins to 7 wins to 3/4 wins? Is that improvement? You will see this team self-destruct over the course of the season.
why isn't randoll carroll and josh smith on the field at the same time? Enough of the two or 3 wide receiver sets to on side. It's too easy to defend. We need deep to middle rossing routs! Let our speed show! This is starting to become serious B.S!!!
Look, it costs money to go to the RB or go to bars to watch games. You're not a front runner if you don't want to plunk down the money to go watch poor quality football. The concept of the front runner is just something people who did spend the time and money to watch a bad team pull out because they want exclusivity. It's like when people say a band sold out because they became popular.
I will always root for UCLA and I will always have hope that they pull it together, but I know they're not good and I know it's not going in the right direction and I can't keep pumping money into something like that. So you won't see me out in force. But I'll never turn my back on them.
It's just that since I'm in the bay area, I'd kind of rather spend the money to watch the team right by me that's pretty good and just whomped us 35-0.
UCLA was projected to finish in 8th place in the PAC 10. I think that's too optimistic.
look so my theory is that Kevin Prince is still in a lot of pain from his injuries and still cant make those great passes that he made last year. He seems to be one of those very hard working guys and doesnt want to tell people the pain he is in so he can play ,maybe as the season goes on the pain will be less and less and we win more games. but dont give up on KEvin yet!
I missed the game last night while attending a wedding. Should I bother firing it up on the DVR or should I have my wife stomp on my balls for 3.5 hours instead?
Aaaaaaaaand Droog wins...
You people who are saying the defense was fine....you're joking right?
-0 turnovers
-No pass rush whatsoever
-Absolutely zero backfield penetration
- 2 three-and-outs all game
-Receivers wide open on touchdowns (With Riley looking especially clueless on Stanford's 4th TD)
-Westgate is not a D-1 linebacker, sorry, he's trash
These guys couldn't hold their own jocks let alone Stanford's Gerhart-less offense. Pathetic. The only time someone made a tackle to keep a play under 5 yards, it was Ayers or Moore.
overall it was a bad game defensively and offensively. But if we're being honest with ourselves here the main problem is the offense. Prince is definitely not the answer right now. He needs to fully recover and get in some good practice time because right now he's doing absolutely nothing to help out the team and to have the ball stripped right from your hands is just a shame. Neuheisel and Chow both need to do some re-evaluation and make some changes before you have a team like Washington State come out and embarrass the bruins. Now wouldn't that just be a blow to the heart!
OH man. I hate to say it. I really, really, really, reeeeallly hate to say it but I might be in the running for closest score.
Much as I like Neuheisel if he doesn't sit Prince immediately for the rest of the year then its time to find another HC and probably AD. This is so unacceptable.
UGLY....UGLY......UGLY