Can the UCLA football team beat Stanford? If Saturday’s
outcome is any indication, the Bruins have a lot of work to do if they want to
upset the Cardinal on Friday night in the Pac-12 championship game.
UCLA and Stanford will meet for the second time in six days.
The venue will be different, in Palo Alto instead of the Rose Bowl in Pasadena,
but the outcome will be the same if the Bruins can’t make some key adjustments.
Stanford rolled UCLA, 35-17. By the second quarter, the rout
was on. Stanford was up 21-10 at halftime and scored two more touchdowns in 13
seconds in the third quarter to pull away.
The Stanford defense scored. The Stanford running attack
gave the Bruins fits. UCLA had one scoring drive that actually netted -8 yards,
a 48-yard field goal in the second quarter.
UCLA coach Jim Mora was asked after the game what his team
needs to do to beat Stanford.
“Once I look at the film, I can better answer that question
for you,” Mora said. “There is a lot to learn. I’m not going to get into too
many specifics. But I don’t want to give away what we need to do in order to
improve.”