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STANFORD – Stanford followed its best game of the season with its worst.
One game after beating No. 15 Washington, Stanford (3-4, 2-3 Pac-12) was held to 198 yards of offense in a 34-16 loss to UCLA at Stanford Stadium on Thursday night.
The Bruins (2-5, 2-2) scored touchdowns on their first two drives and led by double digits the entire second half to break an 11-game losing streak against the Cardinal, which had been the longest active streak in the Pac-12.
“I’ve been coaching long enough to not be surprised,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “All you can do is prepare and push, so sometimes you step back a little bit when things are going well. … We’ve got to close the door on this one, learn the lessons that we need to learn and open the door on the next week.”
Here were the biggest takeaways from a deflating Thursday night performance for Stanford:
QB STRUGGLES
Because of injuries to K.J. Costello and Davis Mills, redshirt freshman Jack West made his first career start, making it the first time since 1974 that Stanford started three different QBs in a season. It did not go well for the redshirt freshman from Alabama, who finished 15 of 32 for 143 yards and was sacked seven times against the worst pass defense in the Pac-12.
“I gotta play better,” West said. “End of the day, I have to put my team in better situations. There’s a lot to learn from, which I will do.”
West was playing behind a line featuring three true freshmen starters, and UCLA varied pre-snap movement and pressures, but most of the sacks appeared to occur because he held on to the ball for too long. After leading Stanford to a field goal on the opening drive, West was sacked on three straight third downs, and Stanford wound up going the next 12 offensive possessions without a point.
The Bruins also loaded the box to force West to pass, as Pac-12 leading rusher Cameron Scarlett was held to a season-low 34 yards on 13 carries.
Still, while Stanford’s offense was stifled – the two touchdowns came on a blocked punt and a 6-yard run by Scarlett with 2:50 remaining – Shaw said that he never considered making a change at quarterback, though he declined to give his reasoning.
Regardless, it’s clear that Stanford needs to hope that Costello’s thumb or Mills’s leg heals in time for the next game next Saturday against Arizona.
DEFENSE DOESN’T DELIVER
With the offense bottled up, Stanford’s defense needed to dominate like it did against Washington if the Cardinal was going to have a chance to win.
Instead, the Bruins’ Joshua Kelley ran for 176 yards on 18 carries and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson showed no ill effects from a leg injury that kept him out of the previous game, throwing two first-quarter touchdowns to Kyle Philips and constantly scrambling for first downs.
“You give Chip Kelly a guy like that and we’ve seen that movie before,” Shaw said of the UCLA coach and quarterback.
Stanford tightened up after that – Paulson Adebo intercepted his second pass of the season, Casey Toohill had eight tackles and three QB hurries and Thomas Booker had nine tackles, including 1.5 for loss – but it was too late.
“We had some moments, but no one wants to write about our moments,” Toohill said. “At the end of the day we gave up 34 points. We had things to build on but we need to build on those things faster. (Booker) was disruptive in the backfield. With how defenses operate, just one guy making those plays and being disruptive just isn’t enough. We need every guy to do that.”
MORE INJURIES
It wasn’t just the offense that has been beset by injuries. Starting strong safety Kendall Williamson missed Thursday’s game, adding to the defense’s woes. And now even special teams have been affected.
After kicking a 42-yard field goal on the opening drive, preseason all-conference kicker Jet Toner suffered what appeared to be a right leg injury while covering the ensuing kickoff.
“It’s not often that you see a kicker get hit on a kickoff, so I need to see that film and see how that happened,” Shaw said.
Shaw said that Stanford was probably the healthiest team in America for 10 years, starting when Jim Harbaugh came to The Farm, but now the pendulum has swung back the other way.
“And there’s no commonality,” Shaw said. “We’ve looked at all the commonality as far as workouts, as far as shoes, as far as surface, as far as positions and what we’re asking them to do, as far as practice, et cetera, and there’s no correlation. It’s just football.”
Stanford returns to action at home on Saturday, Oct. 26 against the Arizona Wildcats. Kickoff is 12:30 p.m.