Recap: Stanford falls to #24 UCLA in home opener

On Saturday, Stanford football lost to #24 UCLA 35-24 in their home opener. UCLA senior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson led the way for the Bruins going 19-30 for 212 yards, 2 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a 144.7 passer rating while junior running back Zach Charbonnet exploded for 209 yards and 1 touchdown on 25 carries.

Stanford sophomore quarterback Tanner McKee went 22-33 for 242 yards, 3 touchdowns, 0 interceptions, and a 158.3 passer rating while sophomore wide receiver Bryce Farrell had 3 receptions for 106 yards and 1 touchdown.

UCLA improves to 3-1 overall and 1-0 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 2-2 overall and 1-1 in the Pac-12.

“Good evening everybody. Tough loss,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Our calling card is how hard we play. That was obviously -- that was out for display today. Execution was not at a high level. It was a mixed bag for us.

“UCLA's level of execution was better than ours. They did what they did. We are missing tackles, you know, we left some guys open. We got beat in man coverage.

“And then for a while on defense we played really stout. Really stout. Couldn't stop them at the end. Offensively just a terrible start, absolutely terrible start, inexcusable. Throw it on me. It's my fault. We did not start well. That's my job. Did not start well.

“Not going to rattle off what we did wrong because it was pretty obvious. Didn't run it, didn't throw, penalties, inexcusable. Once we settled down, pretty doggone good. Pretty good. When we got our protection and did our jobs you see how explosive we can be, how many guys that can make plays for us. A lot of guys that can make plays for us.

“But if we don't hit our landmarks up front, hard to run the ball. You know, we don't block the guys we're supposed to block it's hard to run the ball. We missed a couple pass protection identifications. Quarterback is running for his life. We had some guys that could make some plays for us, but we need the time.

“Am I encouraged? Absolutely. Am I upset? Absolutely, because we can play much better than we played today. We played against a team that was very serious in what they were doing and executed at a high level. We were about 50/50. When we executed all three phases we were really, really good. When we did not and got we got out played collectively, individually, made it tough.

“This team is capable of much better than we showed today. That's a good UCLA football team, but we're also a good Stanford team. The goal is to play better. Better than we played.”

UCLA got off to a good start in this game. After forcing a Stanford’s offense into a four and out to start the game, UCLA responded with a touchdown drive to lead 7-0 with 12:12 to go in the 1st quarter. UCLA got the ball on their own 13 yard line and after gaining zero yards on first down, they more than made up for it on second down as Charbonnet rushed for 81 yards to the Stanford 6 yard line. UCLA then got themselves into a 3rd & 1 situation and from there, Thompson-Robinson found the end zone on a one-yard quarterback keeper.

The next two drives were uneventful as both teams traded punts, giving Stanford the ball with 9:12 to go in the 1st quarter. Rather than getting going on offense, Stanford had another poor drive that once again resulted in Ryan Sanborn coming out to punt.

UCLA would make Stanford pay as they did a terrific job of marching the ball down the field, setting up a 1st and 10 on the Stanford 16 with 1:31 to go in the 1st quarter. From there, UCLA was able to find the end zone as Charbonnet hit pay dirt, finding the end zone to make it a 14-0 UCLA lead with 15 seconds to go in the 1st quarter. 14-0 would be the score at the end of the quarter.

On their drive to open the 2nd quarter, Stanford once again punted with 14:13 to go in the half. The offense continued to struggle to find any sort of rhythm. It was not looking good for McKee and his men.

“Yeah, it wasn't just Tanner early on,” Shaw said of the offensive woes. “There were multiple mishaps early on. It's obvious when you play quarterback. First two passes were thrown really high and really tough to catch, like two out of the first three.

“So he settled down, we made some mistakes up front, made some mistakes at different positions, and then we settled down. Problem is we settled down and we were with behind, so we were playing catchup most of the game.

“Now, with the guys that we have, we can play catchup. And we caught up.

“So that's encouraging as a coach, that no matter what the score is, we can come back. Once we come back, now we got to play them even and don't give up big plays and don't shoot ourselves in the foot, and we did both after we got the score tied.”

Fortunately for Stanford, the defense started to wake up. Outside linebacker Stephen Herron got a sack on the next drive, which led to a UCLA punt. Stanford had the ball on their own 11 yard line with 11:50 to go in the half.

Rather than capitalizing on Herron’s sack and creating some momentum of their own, Stanford’s offense continued to be inert as they once again punted. It was a nice 57 yard punt by Sanborn to the UCLA 25 yard line, giving UCLA ok, but not great field position.

Stanford’s defense would once again do their job, giving the ball back to the Stanford offense with 8:36 to go in the half on the Stanford 30 yard line. After a rough 1st quarter, the Stanford defense was really starting to sink their teeth into the game.

As for the Stanford offense, they finally took their first bite on their next drive. Tanner McKee would connect with wide receiver Elijah Higgins for a 25 yard gain before rushing the ball himself to the 15 yard line. From there, McKee connected with Brycen Tremayne on a jump ball in the end zone, making it a 14-7 game with 4:31 to go in the half.

Stanford’s defense once again did their job on the next drive, forcing UCLA to punt rather quickly. With 3:01 to go in the half, Stanford had the ball, looking like they might be on the verge of tying up the game. Instead, Stanford’s offense fell asleep again, punting the ball back to UCLA with 1:40 to go in the half on the UCLA 45 yard line. Rather than looking like they might have a tie game at halftime, Stanford was now hoping to not be down by double digits at halftime.

Thanks to 38 receiving yards from Charbonnet, UCLA found themselves on the Stanford 10 yard line with four downs to work with. After a three yard loss from Charbonnet made it 2nd and 13, Thompson-Robinson found tight end Greg Dulcich for an 11 yard reception down to the Stanford 2 yard line. On 3rd and 2, Thompson-Robinson faked the entire Stanford defense out of their shorts and ran into the end zone without being touched. It was now 21-7 UCLA with 23 seconds to go in the half.

“Yeah, they tried to man up our outside guys, so just trying get the matchup and running backs and the linebackers,” UCLA head coach Chip Kelly said. “That was something we felt like we could exploit there a little bit. They were back in the box, so let's loosen them up and get the ball -- how can we get the ball to Zach and get it to him on the perimeter. Both him and Britain. I thought Britain was going to break that one but he slipped. I thought both him and Britain gave us something there in the pass game.

“If you're going to play man coverage we have to go to our best matchups, and we really felt like the tight end and Kyle and then Zach a little bit were some of the matchups, and Dorian understands that when they play man coverage, we want to find out what our matchups are and then how do we exploit those matchups.”

In those final 23 seconds, Stanford was able to get the ball in field goal range for Josh Karty to attempt a kick, but unfortunately, his kick wouldn’t go through. As a result, it was 21-7 UCLA at the half.

UCLA opened up the 2nd half moving the ball across the 50 yard line with 12:35 to go in the 3rd quarter. The Bruins looked like they might build on the positive momentum they had to start the 1st quarter. Instead, Stanford’s defense came through featuring Thomas Booker’s first sack of the year. This led to a 43 yard UCLA field goal attempt that was no good. With 8:44 to go in the 3rd quarter, Stanford had the ball, looking to take advantage.

“That was great,” Shaw said of Booker’s sack. “Thomas has been working really hard all year. He really has. He's forced some holding called. Guys trying to drag him down. But he was able to get through there today.

“Got close again. Besides that, great to see him get that sack and I think there are more to come. I think our guys really played hard. They really played hard. We got to make more opportunities for ourselves.”

“Yeah, you know, defense is one of those things where there is so much about scheme and everybody has to do their assignment, their job,” Booker said when asked about his sack. “Sometimes that results in you getting a lot of different plays, a lot of TFLs, a lot of sacks, a lot of stat sheet production, and sometimes it ends up having you set up for other guys.

“So for me, I was fortunate enough that my teammates made plays enough to set me up for that one. So it was great getting that in the stat sheet, but the way our defense goes, that stuff can come in bunches or sometimes you're doing the dirty work and washing the dishes.

“You got to be satisfied to do both of those in order to win the game. Yeah, it was great to get that, but obviously it was partly because of my teammates.”

To the disappointment of Stanford fans, the Cardinal found themselves in a 4th & 1 situation on their own 34 yard line and decided to punt it. This resulted in UCLA getting the ball on the 10 yard line with 6:38 to go in the 3rd quarter. UCLA was called for a holding penalty on the return, so that backed them up a bit more.

Stanford’s defense once again came to play as UCLA lined up in a punt formation on their next drive and punted the ball to Bryce Farrell, who fair caught the ball on the Stanford 44 yard line. 5:40 was left in the 3rd quarter.

The next play for Stanford literally was as good of a play as they could have asked for: A 56 yard touchdown completion from Tanner McKee to Elijah Higgins. With 5:30 to go in the 3rd quarter, it was now 21-14 as Stanford cut the UCLA lead in half.

“Yeah, so all game they were doing a really good job of protecting the perimeter, running cloud coverages, kind of high-lowing our outside guys to have a flat defender and then a deep defender as well,” McKee explained.

“So we knew that middle was going to be vulnerable. Elijah ran a great route. Took a great angle. They ran a cut coverage where the safety came across the field and then he had to turn back around and run. He almost had to turn a complete 360 and run back in a different direction. So Elijah did a great job and it was a good timing play.”

Stanford’s defense came up big once again on the next drive as linebacker Ricky Miezan put pressure on Thompson-Robinson, forcing UCLA to punt the ball back to Stanford. UCLA’s punt resulted in a touchback, giving Stanford the ball on the 20 yard line. A five yard run from Nathaniel Peat would be the final play of the 3rd quarter, making it 2nd and 5 for Stanford on their own 25 yard line to start the 4th quarter.

Stanford’s drive went as they hoped, culminating in a 52 yard touchdown pass from McKee to Farrell to tie the game up 21-21 with 13:06 to go. After trailing 21-7 at halftime, Stanford scored 14 unanswered points. The Cardinal were back in the game.

Rather than being scared of Stanford’s surge, UCLA responded rather viciously: A 75 yard touchdown pass from Dorian Thompson-Robinson to Kyle Philips. It was now a 28-21 UCLA lead with 12:56 to go.

Stanford’s following drive resulted in a field goal as a 30 yard scramble from Tanner McKee helped the Cardinal get in field goal position. Stanford obviously would have preferred to tie the game up, but on a 4th and 2 from the UCLA 30 yard line, David Shaw decided to instead settle for the 48 field goal. Which Karty made with ease. With 9:10 to go, UCLA was now up 28-24.

“Yeah, the decision was to go for it or kick the field goal,” Shaw recalled. “Go for it, you don't get it, then you give them great field position.

“Our field goal kicker, got a lot of confidence in him. Put him out there and he made it. It wasn't three minutes to go, like you said it was nine minutes to go. There's a lot of football left.

“Kicked the field goal, made it a one-score game. Kicking off with a one-score game with nine minutes to go in the game. It's not even a question for me. Take all the analytics you want. Analytics don't matter. Football matter. One-score game with nine minutes to go and that's what we did.”

With 4:24 to go, UCLA had the ball on the Stanford 15 yard line. At this point, it all was coming down to whether or not Stanford could at least force a field goal and keep it a one possession game. UCLA would get the first down to make it 1st & 10 on the 10 yard line and then set themselves up for a 3rd & 5 with 5 yards to go. On the next play Thompson-Robinson once again connected with Philips for a 5 yard touchdown to make it a 35-24 UCLA lead with 2:30 to go. At this point Stanford needed a miracle.

On their following drive, Stanford was able to march the ball down into scoring range, but they chewed off way too much time on the clock. Karty came on to attempt a field goal and missed, giving UCLA the ball with 4 seconds to go. From there, the Bruins kneed out the game and walked out of Palo Alto with a 35-24 win.

For UCLA, this was a very nice win. They started strong and finished strong. While the middle of the game got interesting, they played like the better team. They were able to get whatever they wanted on the ground and their defense was able to keep Stanford’s offense in check. UCLA came in as a ranked team and they played like a ranked team.

As for Stanford, this loss was disappointing considering it was their home opener and they were coming in with a little bit of momentum having won two straight games over USC and Vanderbilt. The offense started sluggish and by the time they found their groove, UCLA was able to kick things into another gear.

The absence of Austin Jones, Casey Filkins, Benjamin Yurosek, and E.J. Smith was huge. Those guys are a huge part of the offense and without them, the offense just didn’t have the punch that they’ve been used to having. In some respects, Stanford should feel good that they were able to put up 24 points without those guys, but in the end, it’s hard to feel good about a loss.

“It was what it was,” Shaw said of the absences. “That doesn't go in the stat book. Nobody gives you any credit for not having all your guys healthy.

“You know, but then especially when we lost Isaiah Sanders. He was not able to come back, so we lost our running quarterback as well, which made a lot of those third down and short things different for us because we had a plan with him. We have other plays of course that we went to, but that was tough.

“That was tough. Not having the other guys and not having Isaiah. Once again, it doesn't go in the book. We have enough guys to play with out there. Nate Peat ran hard. He ran hard. He still broke tackles. He had to account for too many guys. Three times off the top of my head he got to the ball and there was somebody in the backfield. That's not Nate's fault.

“But when he had a lane and he got a crease, then he got through there. He's been a big-play guy for us, which is great. If you watch Nate, he gets a lot of tough yards, too. He runs through contact, he drags guys, he gets positive yards after contact. Too many times today he got the ball and had to deal with somebody in the backfield.”

“Obviously they are great players,” McKee added. “They're going to make a really big difference, so we're super excited for them to be back in the special teams game, offensively, really everything.

“That is a 1-2 punch that we miss definitely. I mean, it felt great come back here. Obviously losing is unacceptable but being back and seeing the crowd and everyone into the game, the band and everything like that, it was a lot of fun to be back in our home stadium. Been a really long time, especially with fans. So it was really great to be back.”

Up next for Stanford will be a home game against Oregon on Saturday, October 2nd. That game will kick off at 12:30 PM PST on ABC. They’ll be coming to Palo Alto as a top five team. They were ranked #3 coming into this week.

“Yeah, the way we look at it is we hate losing, point blank period,” Booker said of the team’s mood heading into Oregon. “You don't come to play college football and you're not an athlete at this level if you feel neutral or you like this feeling, right?

“But the whole point is you have to do something with the negative emotions that you're feeling and the anger that you feel about this. So that's how the team feels right now.

"Obviously don't feel good about losing our first home game. At the same time, you got to let that fuel your preparation. So feel sick about it, but do something about it. That's how we are right now.”