After a week away from game action, the Stanford football team finally returns to work at home this Saturday against UCLA, hoping to pick up right where it left off and continue the nation’s longest winning streak.
- Star quarterback Andrew Luck struggled against UCLA in the Rose Bowl last year, completing fewer than half his passes for just 151 yards. Luck and his strong tight end core will look to exploit a battered Bruins secondary which has allowed 229 yards per game through the air this season. (SIMON WARBY/The Stanford Daily)
The Cardinal (3-0, 1-0 Pac-12) authored three dominant performances before its bye week and is a large favorite against the Bruins (2-2, 1-0), but all eyes will be on a Stanford defense that is missing junior linebacker and team-leading tackler Shayne Skov — and with good reason.
The Bruins boast two solid running backs in Johnathan Franklin and Derrick Coleman, each of whom have amassed nearly 300 yards rushing already. Chances are they’ll go right after the heart of a Cardinal defense that is ranked number one against the rush in the country, allowing only 36 yards per game, but the defense won’t tolerate any drop in performance despite the loss of Skov.
“We’re going to play hard, make sure we do our own jobs, and yeah, they are really good running backs and they run hard,” said senior safety Delano Howell. “But we just have to make sure and be physical, and that’s the type of defense that we think we are.
“We’ve got [junior linebacker] Jarek Lancaster stepping up and we have a lot of confidence in him, and we’re just going to have high expectations for our performance,” Howell continued.
In addition to the ground tandem of Franklin and Coleman, the Bruins’ pistol offense also relies heavily on wideout Nelson Rosario, who, at 6-foot-5 and 219 pounds, will be the biggest target the Cardinal has faced all season. Rosario leads the team with 15 receptions for 277 yards and made one of the most spectacular plays of the young college football season by pinning a ball on the back of a Houston Cougar defensive back and falling to the ground — with the ball and cornerback still safely in his possession.
After the Cardinal secondary allowed Arizona quarterback Nick Foles to complete his first 17 passes two weeks ago, Howell said he and the rest of the defense respect the threat that Rosario poses.
“We understand he’s big and he’s a great athlete and he’s a great playmaker,” Howell said. “So what we’re going to have to do is step up and understand when there is an opportunity to go up for the ball, we’re going to go up for it.”
Additionally, the defense will be looking to force some turnovers after failing to record a one against Arizona last week. In last season’s game against UCLA, the Cardinal snagged two picks and took away two fumbles — including a fumble return for a touchdown by senior safety Michael Thomas — on its way to a dominant 35-0 road victory, Stanford’s first win at the Rose Bowl since 1996.
Howell allowed that the defense was going to have to improve on last week’s performance, particularly against quarterback Richard Brehaut, who has yet to throw an interception this season.
“[The lack of turnovers] is not because of a lack of opportunities,” Howell said. “We have opportunities, we just have to make sure we take advantage of them. It’s as simple as that.”
On the opposite side of the ball, though, Stanford will face a defense that gives up 30.8 points per game and is largely responsible for the Bruins’ two losses through four games. In the first game of the season, Houston quarterback Case Keenum piled up 310 yards while completing 30 of 40 passes en route to a 38-34 upset victory, and the Texas Longhorns lit up the scoreboard with 488 yards of offense in a 49-20 victory two weeks ago.
That should leave star quarterback Andrew Luck licking his chops to get a hold of the depleted Bruin secondary (four players are currently nursing injuries), particularly after he only completed 11 of 24 passes for 151 yards in last year’s Cardinal victory.
So far, Luck has been everything he was expected to be in the preseason, as the 2010 Heisman runner-up has passed for 786 yards and eight touchdowns with just one interception and is coming off an efficient 20-for-31, 325-yard, two-touchdown performance against the Wildcats.
That said, Stanford’s offense will hope to convert opportunities in the red zone more effectively this weekend after being forced to kick a pair of field goals in the first half after two drives stalled inside the 20 against Arizona.
Junior tight end Levine Toilolo didn’t hint that the offense was doing anything out of the ordinary in order to try to push the offense into the end zone more often, though.
“We’ll have periods during the week where it’ll be a third down day or a red zone day, but we’re just coming out and working on the basics of our gameplan,” Toilolo said.
After the past week’s bye, the Cardinal will get no more rest for the remainder of the season, as it takes on eight consecutive Pac-12 teams before finishing with a nonconference matchup against Notre Dame in the regular season finale. With such a daunting road ahead (and the added challenge of classes, which began Monday), both Toilolo and Howell anticipate that the Cardinal will remain focused on its goals.
“[Head coach David Shaw] came up and gave some wise words, that once we walked in the door, it’s all football from there on out. I think everybody’s taken it to heart that during the time that we do have to focus on football, everybody’s got to be locked in,” Toilolo said.
“We have a very competitive conference … it’s very difficult to go undefeated, even very early [in the season],” Howell said. “We know that our road is going to get more difficult from here on … so we’re just keeping a humble heart and making sure we play hard.”
Stanford and UCLA kick off from Stanford Stadium at 7:30 p.m Saturday night. The game will be televised on FSN.
Contact Jack Blanchat at blanchat “at” stanford.edu.