It was a sight Bruin fans could get used to.
Stanford quarterback Trent Edwards dropping back in the pocket,
looking left, looking right, looking middle, and finding nothing.
No open receivers, no options other than to tuck the ball and run
with it.
It happened time and time again Saturday in the Bruins’
21-0 victory over the Cardinal, and the credit for that goes to
UCLA’s secondary.
“We dominated,” senior free safety Ben Emanuel said.
“We can say that we dominated because they scored zero
points.”
With the tremendous play of the Bruin secondary, namely
cornerbacks Matt Clark and Trey Brown and safeties Jarrad Page and
Emanuel, UCLA recorded its first Pac-10 shutout since 1987. One
week after getting torched by Arizona State quarterback Andrew
Walter for 415 yards and six touchdowns, the Bruin secondary looked
like a completely different unit, a unit capable of stopping
anyone.
“We just made mistakes in the past,” said Page, who
finished with an interception and seven tackles. “Today we
didn’t make those mistakes.”
“This is the best game we’ve played in terms of
discipline. We just wanted it. We wanted it in our
hearts.”
Because of its tremendous defensive execution, UCLA held
pass-happy Stanford to only 224 yards passing on 46 attempts, with
71 of those yards coming on a completion to tight end Alex Smith
late in the fourth quarter.
Edwards was clearly frustrated, as the Bruins did a great job
disguising coverages and making it very difficult for the Stanford
signal caller to get anything going. Edwards told Page after the
game that he had no idea what to expect on each play, as the Bruins
also forced him into three costly interceptions.
“I can’t even describe it,” Clark said.
“Defensively, we finally showed everyone what we can
do.”
“The defensive line got a lot of pressure on the
quarterback and forced him to throw some balls up there and the
secondary was in position to make plays all day.”
Clark was perhaps the most impressive performer on the entire
Bruin defense, consistently batting down balls and surrendering
nothing in his coverage. Though some thought 6-foot-7 Stanford
receiver Evan Moore would present a match-up problem for the
5-foot-9 Clark, the Bruin corner was never too worried about
it.
And why worry? Moore was held to only two receptions for eight
yards on Saturday, when he had been averaging 63 receiving yards
per contest.
“Everybody makes a big deal about (his height),”
Clark said. “He’s a talented receiver, I’m not
taking anything away from him or anything, but it didn’t
bother us at all when we were preparing for him. We went in with
the mind-set that this was another receiver ““ lock him up and
play hard.”
After the game, everyone was singing the praises of the Bruin
defense and the secondary in particular.
“I know our coverage in the secondary was superior, and
Matt Clark stood out to me,” said defensive coordinator Larry
Kerr, who coached from the booth instead of the sideline
Saturday.
UCLA shut down every facet of the Stanford offense, making
Edwards’ Saturday an exercise in futility. Though the
Cardinal was averaging 26.6 points per game coming into Saturday,
something about the Bruins’ defensive game plan changed all
that.
Coach Karl Dorrell said after the game that his team played some
two-deep coverages, with the safeties lending help to the corners.
He said the corners were settling at a depth where they were
comfortable not to get beat. And because they matched up well in
terms of quickness with the Stanford receivers, they were able to
make some good plays on the ball.
“Our defense really came out to play at the perfect
time,” Dorrell said. “We got a shutout against a very
good offense, stopped the running game, did great things in pass
coverage and got some interceptions.”
Even the one question mark in the secondary turned into a
definitive exclamation point Saturday.
Brown, a redshirt freshman, played well in his first college
start, finishing with eight tackles and one pass break-up.
“He played solid,” Dorrell said. “He played
like he had some experience.”
And the guys with the actual experience showed up in a big way.
Page anchored the defense in the back, Clark blanketed receivers
all day, and Emanuel, who finished with one great interception and
had another negated by a penalty, was always active around the
ball.
“The secondary played a whale of a game,” junior
linebacker Justin London said. “That gave the D-line a chance
to go after the quarterback.”
Because UCLA had real success stopping the run Saturday, the
secondary was finally able to prove what it is capable of, the
Arizona State game notwithstanding.
“This is the best game we’ve played,” Page
said. “We didn’t give up anything. It wasn’t
there.”
Just ask Edwards.