GROUND TO A PULP IN PALO ALTO

[Not Stanford, but fitting.]

I never sausage a thing — Meating a team playing without their starting Steer-er (QB), the un-beefy UCLA Defense still manages to get butchered for 405 yards on the ground and 7 Touchdowns, including 3 by the back-up Running Back, in a 58-34 pulverizing in the Stanford Stadium Slaughterhouse, for the Bruins’ 10th straight loss to the Cardinal

Chalk this one up to Defense.  Bad Defense.  REALLY bad Defense.  Against a team that just lost to San Diego State, scoring only 17 against the Aztecs, WITH their starting Quarterback.  That was a week ago.  Then Stanford faces their favorite doormat, UCLA, loses their starting QB in the first quarter, but still scores FIFTY-EIGHT points against the Bruins.  Something is wrong at UCLA, and the blame falls squarely on the Defense.

The Offense was far from perfect, and made a dozen mistakes that could have made the game more interesting.  There was a dropped Touchdown pass, at least three other dropped passes, penalties, three or four fumbles (two lost), two Interceptions, less-than-stellar pass protection, and some errant throws.  But compared to the Defense, the Offense looked All-American.  Once again, Quarterback Josh Rosen tallied Heisman-level stats, going 40-for-60 for 480 yards and 3 TD’s.  Receivers Jordan Lasley and Caleb Wilson each caught 11 passes for 158 and 145 yards, with Lasley, Darren Andrews, and Eldridge Massington snatching TD receptions.  And even the Running Game rose from dormancy, with the return of Soso Jamabo.  In defiance of the TV announcer mispronouncing his name as “Jamobo” for half the game, Soso gained 100 yards Rushing on 12 carries, including a long of 49 and a Touchdown run.

You would think that all of that, accounting for 34 points, might be enough to at least compete with a team that put up a total of 17 against San Diego State last week.  But the Bruins were down by 17 in the 3rd, and struggling for air after that.  While everyone knew that Rosen could guide the team to enough scores to come back, everyone also knew that the Bruins would never get the STOPS that they needed.  The Bruins should have tried an onside kick when down by 10 with about 8 minutes to go, because the only way they could have come back is by keeping the ball!

It is just unfathomable that the Bruins could give up so many Rushing yards, when the BACK-UP Stanford QB posed no deep passing threat whatsoever.  Were they keying on the run, with 8 in the box, and still couldn’t come close to stopping the Cardinal ground attack?  The Trees weren’t just moving the chains, they were running heats of the 100-yard dash.  Starting RB Bryce Love set a career-high with 272 yards on 30 carries, and back-up Cam Scarlett scored 3 TD’s just while coming in to give Love a breather.

The Bruins lost Adarius Pickett for most of the game due to a targeting penalty, and committed several other egregious penalties that kept Stanford churning.  But they had Kenny Young back, and Jaleel Wadood back, and Josh Woods back, and Boss Tagaloa back… only Jaelan Phillips was out, and yes, Phillips is great, but his absence does not come close to excusing this lackluster performance.  So many mistakes, and PI calls, and missed assignments, and missed tackles, and lack of discipline in terms of staying in their lanes…  OMG, what is Sam Darnold and co. going to do to this squad??

Defensive Coordinator Tom Bradley has some serious explaining to do… if he is not ridden out of town on a rail before tomorrow.   One question is why weren’t they blitzing the inexperienced back-up QB more, early?  Why let him collect himself and find his rhythm?  But that wasn’t the dagger — Because even when everyone knew that a handoff to Love was coming, he would still evade the tacklers and find open field, over, and over, and over again.

So that’s 10 straight losses to Stanford, 7 under Jim Mora.  The Defense was the main culprit, but if the Offense had played a little more mistake-free, the game still would have gone down to the wire.  The result was still sort of in doubt with 8 minutes to go — One less early turnover, or one less key drop would have made it a one-possession game in crunchtime.  Even special teams was not blameless, with a Field Goal blocked, and no big kick returns while allowing a couple… So the only unit I can see that is free from blame is the Spirit Squad.  So here are 50 more Spirit photos from the Texas A&M game.  I’m going through 1700 photos from the two home games and editing them chronologically, so this 50 happens to be all Dance Team.  As I go through the pics, I will get to the Cheer Squad too, just not in today’s batch.