On Saturday, Stanford football fell to #12 UCLA on the road by a final score of 38-13. UCLA senior running back Zach Charbonnet rushed for 198 yards and 3 touchdowns on 21 carries while senior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson went 18-29 for 199 yards and a 119.7 rating. Stanford junior quarterback Tanner McKee went 13-29 for 115 yards, 1 touchdown, and 1 interception for an 82.6 rating while freshman edge David Bailey had 9 total tackles (8 solo), 1 sack, 2 tackles for a loss, and 1 forced fumble. UCLA improves to 7-1 overall and 4-1 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 3-5 overall and 1-5 in the Pac-12.
“Bottom line, that was our worst game in a month,” Stanford head coach David Shaw said after the game. “Didn’t play well. Offensively we marched down the field and missed two opportunities to score touchdowns and had to kick a field goal. I’ve been saying it in the press, been saying it repeatedly to our team all week, we just can’t come down and play the field goal game with this team, they’re too talented and have some elite players. You have to score touchdowns to beat teams like [UCLA]. Defensively we held on for a while, but eventually that runner ... he’s special, he’s big, he’s fast, he wears you down.
“Offensively we didn’t keep the ball enough, defensively [Charbonnet] started getting too many yards. Pass coverage-wise, we held up pretty well. A team like this, you have to be disciplined in your pass rush, in your coverage, in your gaps. They make you play close to a perfect game to stay with them, and we did not.
“The opportunities were there on the offensive side, we’ve missed too many connections, especially as we cross the 50. Had opportunities and didn’t hit them. Lot of things to clean up from this game. Probably our worst game in a month. It happens sometimes, I’m not making any excuses. We’ll look at some things we can correct, correct those things, and looking forward to giving a much better effort all-around next week.”
Stanford got the ball first as UCLA won the coin toss and deferred to the second half. Stanford started their drive on their own 35 yard line after a kickoff out of bounds. Caleb Robinson got things going with a 12 yard run. Tanner McKee then completed a pass to John Humphreys for a 10 yard completion.
On 3rd and 4 from the UCLA 20 yard line, Brycen Tremayne drew a pass interference flag, setting up 1st and goal from the UCLA 5 yard line. Stanford was not able to score a touchdown on that drive as Tanner McKee tried to find Elijah Higgins in the end zone on a 3rd down from four yards out. This resulted in Joshua Karty coming out to attempt a 22 yard field goal, which he could make in his sleep. 3-0 Stanford lead with 10:35 to go in the 1st quarter.
UCLA would get the ball on their own 25 yard line after a touchback from Karty. Charbonnet then went to work with three straight runs for 14 yards, 11 yards, and 11 yards before Thompson-Robinson threw an incomplete pass, setting up 2nd and 10 from the Stanford 39 yard line. Charbonnet would then rush for four yards after which Thompson-Robinson threw another incomplete pass. As would become a theme of the night, UCLA went for it on 4th down and converted, this one being a 12 yard completion to Jake Bobo to make it 1st and 10 from the Stanford 23 yard line.
UCLA would keep working it down the field and on a 3rd and 3 from the Stanford 3 yard line, Thompson-Robinson found the end zone to make it a 7-3 UCLA lead after the extra point. 6:05 to go in the 1st quarter.
After a 17 yard return from Brendon Barrow, Stanford started their next drive on their own 24 yard line. On the first play of the drive, McKee would throw an interception to Darius Muasau. This gave UCLA the ball back on the Stanford 23 yard line with 5:51 to go in the quarter. McKee was trying to get the UCLA defense to bite on the slow mesh, but they just stayed patient and didn’t take the bait. Hence the easy interception.
"I actually have been waiting for that play since the beginning of the game,” Muasau said. “I saw that on film, on the bus ride here I was watching the film, and they ran that against ASU in their previous game, and I was waiting for it. I saw that they ran it a couple of times, they run a little power and get the linebackers to bite on the run and do a little pop pass, but I was waiting for it.”
On the first play of the UCLA drive, Charbonnet rushed to the right, found an opening, and took off for a 23 yard touchdown. This made it a 14-3 UCLA lead with 5:45 to go in the quarter after the extra point.
“I always watch the replays because I’m trying to pull defenders with my play fakes but getting to hear the crowd hyped and everything definitely brings juice to the team,” UCLA head coach Chip Kelly said when asked about Charbonnet’s performance. “For me personally, Zach’s someone I always try to feed off of. He makes a big play here, I make a big play there, and vice versa. Zach is definitely a great dude to defend off of when things aren’t going my way. I can always look to him and lean on him for sure.”
The next Stanford drive would start on their own 25 yard line after a UCLA touchback. Stanford was in desperate need of getting going on offense. The first play of the drive would be a 19 yard completion to Benjamin Yurosek, but aside from that, Stanford’s offense didn’t find much success. They were trying to make things happen with the slow mesh, but it still wasn’t working. As a result, Ryan Sanborn came out to punt. Sanborn would punt it 51 yards, which got returned for 9 yards to the UCLA 14 yard line. 2:13 was left in the quarter.
“The big thing is diagnosing what the issue is,” Shaw said of the offensive struggles. “If it’s one guy, then you take that one person out. It was a myriad of things today. A couple times we didn’t get good releases at the receiver position. A couple times we didn’t get the throw we needed from the quarterback. More than a few times, we didn’t get the protection that we needed. Twice, possibly three times, we had guys going down the middle with opportunities to score a touchdown or change field position, and we didn’t have time to make the throw. It’s part pass protection, part releases, part making the throws we need to make.”
UCLA would get off to a strong start in their drive thanks to a couple of 11 yard completions to Jake Bobo and Matt Sykes. At the end of the 1st quarter, UCLA had a 4th and 6 coming up from the Stanford 47 yard line.
Coming out of the break from the end of the quarter, Thompson-Robinson got the first down with ease on a 20 yard run. UCLA would get all the way to the Stanford 10 yard line, setting up a 3rd and 6. However, they would lose three yards on the next play as Bailey tackled Charbonnet for a loss on a reception. This set up a 31 yard field goal attempt for Nicholas Barr-Mira, which he made. This made it a 17-3 lead for UCLA with 12:57 to go in the 2nd quarter.
The next Stanford drive would start on their own 25 yard line after a touchback. McKee would connect with Barrow for an 11 yard gain on 2nd and 10 from the 25, but that would be the only first down Stanford would get in the drive. Stanford went for it on 4th and 2 from the 44, but Levi Rogers got called for a false start, making it 4th and 7. This forced Stanford to punt as Sanborn came out to punt a 42 yard punt to that got returned for one yard to the UCLA 20 yard line. 10:00 were left in the quarter.
UCLA would slowly but surely start to move the ball down the field. On 1st and 10 from the UCLA 49 yard line, Logan Loya got a 15 yard reception after which Sykes got a 27 yard reception. This made it 1st and goal for UCLA from the 9 yard line. From there, UCLA found the end zone as Charbonnet punched it in from one yard out after nearly finding the end zone on an 8 yard reception. It was now a 24-3 lead for UCLA with 4:26 to go in the half.
The next Stanford drive did not go so well as it was a quick three and out with Sanborn coming out to punt from the Stanford 28 yard line. However, UCLA would muff the return, resulting in Stanford getting the ball back on the UCLA 32 yard line. It was the biggest gain of the night for Stanford. Stanford didn’t do much with that opportunity, but by being already in Karty’s range, Karty was able to come out and make a 49 yard kick to make it 24-6 with 1:23 to go in the half.
UCLA would start with the ball on their own 25 yard line after a touchback, but they quickly went to work as Kam Brown got an 11 yard reception on the first play of the drive. On 3rd and 1 from the Stanford 37 yard line, Charbonnet got a 16 yard gain to the Stanford 21 yard line. UCLA would then get to the Stanford 4 yard line after a 17 yard reception from Bobo. A false start would then back up UCLA five yards, making it 1st and goal from the 9 yard line.
To the credit of the Stanford defense, they found a way to force UCLA to attempt a 41 yard field goal, which they would miss, keeping it a 24-6 game at halftime. On 3rd and 9 from the Stanford 9 yard line, Stephen Herron would get a 14 yard sack, forcing UCLA to attempt the field goal. It was a definite victory for the Stanford defense.
In the second half, UCLA started with the ball on their own 25 yard line. Stanford’s defense would step up once again as Bailey got an eight yard sack on 3rd and 6 from the Stanford 45 yard line, making it 4th and 14 from the UCLA 47 yard line. This resulted in a UCLA punt that was fair caught by Jason Thompson on the Stanford 12 yard line with 12:08 to go in the quarter.
The next Stanford drive featured a 30 yard completion to Tremayne on 3rd and 8 from the Stanford 14, moving the ball to the Stanford 44 yard line. However, Stanford wouldn’t get the ball across the 50 yard line as Sanborn came out to punt once again. Sanborn’s punt was nice as it was fair caught by Loya at the UCLA 9 yard line.
The Stanford defense would get a stop on the next drive as well as UCLA punted on a 4th and 4 from their own 40 yard line, getting Stanford the ball back on their own 10 yard line after Thompson fair caught another punt. 7:11 was left in the quarter.
The next Stanford drive also sputtered as Sanborn had to punt on a 4th and 11 from the Stanford 35 yard line. Sanborn didn’t catch the snap properly and the ball hit the ground forcing him to scramble and punt it only 23 yards to avoid a block. It was a pretty amazing effort by Sanborn to still get the punt off. This gave UCLA the ball on their own 42 yard line with 3:16 on the clock.
On the first play of the drive, Jonathan McGill tackled Kazmeir Allen for a 7 yard loss. However, on a 3rd and 17, UCLA made up ground with a 16 yard gain by Charbonnet. Charbonnet would then get the first down on a three yard gain, making it 1st and 10 from the Stanford 46 yard line.
On a 4th and 1 from the Stanford 37 yard line, Charbonnet would take it to the house for a touchdown. 31-6 UCLA lead with 3 seconds left in the quarter. This would of course be the score at the start of the 4th quarter.
“Probably the most physical [running back] we’ll see this year,” Stanford linebacker Ricky Miezan said of Charbonnet. “One of the harder running backs to tackle in all of college football. You really have to bring your feet, take up space, wrap up, all of that. We had opportunities to do that, sometimes we did and sometimes we didn’t. You saw what happen when we didn’t, he got free and made some plays.”
The next Stanford drive to open the 4th quarter would result in a punt that was downed at the UCLA 1 yard line. Sanborn was having a really good game. However, that punt would end up being in vain as UCLA would score on that drive via a 72 yard touchdown run by Allen. It was now a 38-6 UCLA lead with 10:29 to go.
The next Stanford drive started on their own 25 yard line after a touchback. On 2nd and 10, Ashton Daniels rushed for 18 yards, giving Stanford a spark. Later on in the drive, Barrow would rush for 13 yards to the UCLA 24 yard line. On 3rd and 4 from the UCLA 18 yard line, Humphreys would have an 11 yard reception to get to the 7 yard line. Stanford would inch things forward and set up a 4th and 2 on the UCLA 2. On that play, McKee found Yurosek for a touchdown, making it a 38-13 game with 4:11 to go after Karty made the extra point. It was Stanford’s first touchdown since the Oregon State game.
“Truth be told, not a lot of happiness coming out of that game or even that play,” Yurosek said. “The team is bored at the end of the game and the score showed it. Maybe a little bit of relief, but no the job as a team was not done today. Anything singular or personal, I do not care about.”
“We need more than that,” Shaw added. “I was just down there, and it was a good fourth down call. We worked that play for the last few weeks. It was just time to call it. That wasn’t about momentum, it was just about punching the ball in. There are a lot of things we need to clean up for momentum. The biggest things really are protection and connection between our quarterback and receivers. It’s something we work on all the time; we really need to get better.”
In the end, UCLA walked out with a 38-13 victory. UCLA showed why they are one of the top teams in the nation and one of the top teams in the Pac-12. They got a really strong defense and an incredibly explosive offense. I was honestly a bit skeptical of them because of their soft schedule, but they proved to me that they are no joke.
As for Stanford, the offense was the big problem here. They just never got going. Obviously, not having Michael Wilson and Casey Filkins is a big blow, but even so, they have to find ways to get things going more offensively. As for the defense, they had some high points for sure. Bailey was fantastic, Herron had a good game, and they battled hard. The issue is they got worn down by the UCLA offense and then never had much time to rest as Stanford’s offense was unable to put together long drives.
“The game hinged on [UCLA]’s quarterback,” Shaw said. “Every time we had him stopped, he’s a guy that made the plays. Dropping back and taking off. Two quarterback-designed runs, got him on the edge, we had a guy out there and their guy was just faster than our guy. You have to find a way to contain him.
“Second half, I thought we did a better job, but there was already a big lead, and he does not throw the ball to dangerous spots, maybe one tonight, because if everyone’s covered, he just takes off. We got in his face a couple times, got him on the ground a couple times, needed those earlier in the first half to keep the game close. But defense got a bunch of stops in the second half. Offensively we just couldn’t get over the hump.”
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this game. Learn whatever lessons they can and get ready for what should be a very winnable home game next week against Washington State. Outside of the road game at Utah, the rest of Stanford’s schedule is very winnable and there’s a chance for them to finish the season on a high note. They’ve shown resiliency to get the three wins that they already have and will need to show it again if they are to improve their record by season’s end.
“I think we have already proven this before; we went through a slump in the beginning of the season,” Yurosek said. “We had a tough three-game stretch and at the end of the day we have proven to ourselves that we are resilient, that we can bounce back. It’s going to hurt tonight, it should, it should hurt tomorrow, but at the end of the day, Monday we just got to come back to work.”
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