For one half of football on Saturday, UCLA looked just like it did last year.
The Bruins were conservative and inconsistent on offense, not capitalizing on their first trip to the red zone and forcing their defense onto the field for too much time. Their first offensive series went run, run, pass, missed field goal.
They let Stanford score 7 points on them and went into halftime with just a 14-7 lead.
The offense, in short, was not looking the part of a unit that was supposed to be new and improved under new coordinator Jay Norvell.
“I think we were probably just a touch conservative in the first half,” coach Karl Dorrell said. “We decided (at the half) let’s get the ball to some of our play makers and see if they can make some plays.”
By the standard of Dorrell’s first four years, the play calling in the second half was beyond reckless.
On the second series of the half, Norvell called for a flea-flicker, which quarterback Ben Olson completed to Brandon Breazell for a 59-yard gain.
Outside of the last few minutes of the various comebacks from the 2005 season, it may have been the least conservative play call of the Dorrell era. And according to Norvell, there may be more in store.
“We did a lot of study on this team, and that was one of the things they were vulnerable to,” Norvell said. “We don’t need to save anything. We’ve got a lot of plays. We’ve got more plays than we’ll ever use in one season.
“We’re going to do whatever we have to do every week to find a way to score points.”
And score points the Bruins did. Up just seven points at the half, the Bruins finished with a comfortable 45-17 victory over the Cardinal.
Stanford is coming off of a 1-11 season and is under a new head coach, so the game against the No. 14 Bruins was little more than a tune-up for UCLA.
And in the final analysis, the Bruins will have things to work on.
Shockingly for the Bruins, many of those things are on the defensive side of the ball.
“I wouldn’t say it was a terrible game defensively,” defensive coordinator DeWayne Walker said. “It could’ve easily been a game where they got 600 yards of offense against us. They had 85 plays.
“We still have 11 games left. We have a lot of time left to get back to where we want to be.”
Sophomore cornerback Alterraun Verner had a forgettable game, getting lost on a couple of pass plays that led to big gains for the Cardinal.
Even defensive end Bruce Davis, an All-American last year, had a quiet game. But overall, he was positive on the defensive plays.
“I think the defense played great, minus three or four missed tackles,” Davis said. “If we don’t do that, we’re talking about three points on the board.
“Every time they threw the ball, they checked to me and slid my way. But if they’re going to slide to me, and my teammates are going to make plays, I can go without having a sack this whole year.”
Olson threw for five touchdowns with no interceptions, statistically the best game of his career. The touchdown total matches his entire touchdown total from last year’s injury-plagued season. While his passes were at times off the mark, his receivers made him look nearly perfect.
Wide receiver Joe Cowan, coming off a knee injury that kept him out all of last year, scored two touchdowns, one of which came on a 77-yard slip screen that traveled only 10 yards in the air. The Bruins, taking advantage of the aggressive Stanford defensive scheme, used quick slants and slip screens for big gains throughout the game.
Breazell also made a nice one-handed grab for Olson’s first completion of the game early in the first quarter.