UCLA Football Looks to Rebound From Loss, Fend Off Rival Stanford
For more than a decade, the Cardinal were the biggest thorn in the Bruins' side.
But as the blue and gold come off a loss in their biggest regular season contest in a generation, their upcoming rivalry game is a relative step down in stakes.
No. 12 UCLA football (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) started the year undefeated, only to drop their most recent road game at Oregon on Saturday, losing their grip on first place in the Pac-12 and falling largely out of the College Football Playoff discussion as a result. The Bruins have now lost 10 of 11 to the Ducks, which is nearly as rough of a stretch as the one they faced from Stanford (3-4, 1-4 Pac-12) prior to the past few years.
The Cardinal won 11 in a row in the head-to-head series from 2009 to 2018 before coach Chip Kelly's squad finally snapped that streak on the road in 2019. A blown fourth quarter lead led to an overtime loss in the unorthodox, COVID-impacted 2020 season, but the Bruins bounced back with another road win in 2021.
Stanford is looking to get back on the board when UCLA hosts them at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, even though the Bruins are 16.5-point favorites this time around.
Sixth-year safety Mo Osling III was around at the tail end of the extended rivalry losing streak, and while he remembers what it felt like when the Cardinal repeatedly beat them down, the veteran defensive back said the grudge he holds against them isn't anything unique.
"I’ve got a chip on my shoulder with every team in the Pac-12," Osling said. "We want to beat them all."
Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson played the full game in UCLA's win over Stanford in 2019, only to leave the 2020 loss with an injury in the first half. In 2021, he was in the middle of leading a potential go-ahead drive in the final two minutes before getting knocked out with another injury.
Thompson-Robinson took just one play off that time, though, and he returned to the field to throw a game-winning touchdown to receiver Kyle Philips.
A win Saturday would make Thompson-Robinson the first Bruin quarterback to record three career wins against the Cardinal since Cade McNown, in addition to righting the ship following the loss up in Eugene.
"I hate losing, I know a lot of guys on this team hate losing, I know coach Kelly hates losing, so we don't wanna feel like that ever," Thompson-Robinson said. "It's never the goal, so we're always trying to go out there and put on the best show for our fans, for sure."
Stanford's last three wins over UCLA were all shootouts, as the Cardinal offense averaged 51.7 points per game across those contests.
The Bruins' defense, meanwhile, is coming off its worst statistical outing of the year, allowing 45 points to the Ducks without forcing a punt until garbage time hit midway through the fourth quarter. The Cardinal may not have Heisman Trophy dark horse Bo Nix leading their offense, but they do have Tanner McKee – a 6-foot-6, 22-year-old junior who has already left quite the impression across the conference.
"The one thing about this year in the Pac-12 is there's some really, really good quarterbacks," Kelly said. "We faced one last week, Utah's got a great one, (Washington's Michael) Penix is a great one, Dorian's playing really well, (USC's) Caleb Williams is playing really well. But I think it starts with Tanner ... he's a really good decision maker."
McKee is having a less efficient season in 2022 than he did in 2021, with his passer rating, completion percentage, touchdown rate and adjusted yards per attempt all going down while his interception ratio has gone up. His 134.1 passer rating ranks No. 8 in the Pac-12, and it is the second-lowest of the seven FBS starting quarterbacks UCLA has faced this season.
Still, Kelly made a point to compliment McKee on how he runs the run-pass option, and how he has been able to make the most of his big targets on the outside – 6-foot-2 Michael Wilson, 6-foot-3 Elijah Higgins, 6-foot-4 Bryce Tremayne and 6-foot-5 John Humphreys.
Averaging 47.5 pass attempts and 304 passing yards per game the past two weeks, McKee has been moving the ball down the field with regularity. He does not have a touchdown in either game, though, with Stanford's last 24 points all coming off field goals.
Those kicks proved to be enough to beat Notre Dame 15-14 and Arizona State 16-14, turning a four-game losing streak into back-to-back victories that could help save coach David Shaw's job.
UCLA is averaging 39.9 points per game and hasn't scored fewer than 30 this season, though, so the Stanford defense that allowed 40-plus to all three ranked teams it has faced thus far will have to somehow bottle up Thompson-Robinson, running back Zach Charbonnet, receiver Jake Bobo and the rest of the gang in order to get back to .500.
The Bruins, on the other hand, could vault back into the top-10 and keep their conference title hopes alive with a win on Homecoming weekend.
Kickoff between UCLA and Stanford is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
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