Defense continues to disappoint with porous showing at Stanford
The UCLA defense had a lot of trouble stopping Stanford running back Bryce Love, who ran for 263 yards. His longest run of the game measured 69 yards. (Amy Dixon/Assistant Photo editor)
By Matt Cummings
Sept. 24, 2017 4:11 p.m.
One week after being carved up by Memphis for 48 points, the UCLA defense perhaps put forth an even worse showing in Saturday’s 58-34 loss at Stanford.
The Cardinal finished with 405 rushing yards, the most surrendered by UCLA in a single game since 2005. Stanford, which has boasted an impressive run game year in and year out recently, had not piled up that much yardage on the ground in a game since 2011.
After coach Jim Mora talked throughout the previous week about the need to limit “explosive plays,” the Bruins gave up 11 different plays that would fit Mora’s definition – passes of 20 or more yards and runs of 12 or more yards.
They allowed six runs over 20 yards and now have given up 12 of those on the season, the second-most in the nation and as many as UCLA surrendered all of last year.
“I can’t remember ever being around a run defense that gives up so many big plays in my career,” Mora said. “We’ve got to tackle.”
What makes the numbers from Saturday night even more staggering is that Stanford got off to a slow start. Throughout roughly the first quarter and a half of the game, the Bruins held the Cardinal almost entirely in check.
When Stanford took possession at the 6:32 mark of the second quarter, the Cardinal had scored just six points and racked up just 26 rushing yards on 12 carries – only a shade over two yards per rush.
“Up to a certain point, we were playing lights out,” Mora said. “We were stopping the run, stopping the pass. And then it just went south on us. We couldn’t get a stop.”
Mora wasn’t exaggerating. From that point on, at the 6:32 mark of the second quarter, the Bruins did not get a single defensive stop as the Cardinal reeled off eight straight scoring drives en route to the 24-point blowout.
“We pride ourselves on two things: great tackling and relentless effort,” said senior linebacker Kenny Young. “Throughout the game, as it progressed, the first and second quarter, third quarter, we started missing a few tackles and that hurt us.”
As bad as Saturday night’s performance was, the defense’s season-long numbers are just as embarrassing.
UCLA has allowed an average of 307.5 rushing yards per game, the most in the country, and opponents have scored 43.3 points per game, sixth-worst in the country.
The 2,107 total yards that the Bruins have allowed are by far the most yards coughed up by a UCLA defense in its first four games, dating back to at least 2000.
The Bruins have now given up 500 total yards in three straight weeks. Over the previous four years, they hadn’t given up three 500-yard games in an entire season.
“We’re struggling,” said defensive coordinator Tom Bradley. “We’re shooting ourselves all the times with things. We’ve got to be better tacklers, we’ve got to be better leveraging the ball. There’s a whole lot of things to work on.”
