Karl Dorrell’s face walking off the field after the game
said it all.
Generally when a team wins 31-0 at home, it’s a sign of a
dominating performance, and the coach is a pretty happy guy. He may
even buy himself a cookie to celebrate.
Not Dorrell, and not after that game. He looked subdued and
emotionless after his offense struggled to score a single point in
the first half against one of the worst defenses in the country,
and didn’t look any more convincing in the second half.
The fact that Gavin Ketchum’s blocked punt was the
difference at the break is ridiculous. Stanford is terrible on both
sides of the ball, and it played up to its potential Saturday. The
Bruins could have and should have walked all over them, beginning
with the kickoff.
It’s not that the win is not big. In fact it’s huge.
Losing to a team that should not win a game all season when the
defense plays as well as it did Saturday would be like losing a
street fight to an infant ““ you couldn’t really show
your face afterward.
Too often all the blame is placed on the quarterback in college
football, but in this game, Chris Markey and the run were working
while Ben Olson looked out of rhythm and uncomfortable. I
don’t think anyone should lose a starting job over the
performance, but this offense is hanging out in the starting blocks
while the race has already begun.
In a stark contrast, the defense was stifling. From Bruce Davis
and Chris Horton to Trey Brown and Christian Taylor, everybody was
firing on all cylinders and attacking the ball. UCLA recorded seven
sacks for 56 yards, snagged three interceptions, forced two
fumbles, and shut out a Pac-10 opponent, which is never easy to
do.
At this point UCLA looked incredibly different from last
year’s team. A season ago the Bruins were offensive beasts
with Drew Olson, Maurice Drew and Marcedes Lewis leading an offense
that meant serious business. The 2005 defense could not stop the
run and tended to give up big yardage in short periods of time.
This year UCLA’s offense has yet to put it all together
while the defense has been the solid constant. Although
Stanford’s offense was without many of its big weapons, the
game was more about the Bruins’ defense playing well than it
was about Stanford being entirely inept.
It made me wonder what would happen if this year’s defense
could pair up with last year’s offense. The two deserve each
other, and that would be one hell of a team.
Seeing as that won’t happen, the Bruins need to get a lot
smarter about offensive play-calling and Ben Olson needs to get
angry and start playing how he is capable of playing.
The time of year when fans can say, “That performance was
good enough for this game, but it won’t be against a better
team,” is coming to an end. Very soon.
UCLA has maybe one game left where it can have a subpar
performance and be in competition for the win. When Arizona comes
to town next week, it’s the last “figure it out”
chance before UCLA travels to Oregon and Notre Dame. The Ducks and
the Irish are top-tier teams and if UCLA wants to compete, the
defense, special teams and offense all need to have spectacular
days.
If the Bruins’ offense can’t find ways to put points
on the board that don’t involve Justin Medlock, they could
very easily go on a four-game skid, losing to Oregon, Notre Dame, a
surprisingly good Washington State and Cal.
Dorrell and the Bruins’ win against Stanford was just that
and no more: a win in the Pac-10 that keeps their chances at a good
season alive. It was not the rebound that Dorrell and the offense
were hoping for and need to survive conference play this
season.
E-mail Gordon at bgordon@media.ucla.edu.