Terrence Austin returns the opening kick, just a week after he suffered a concussion at Oregon.
Back-up quarterback Chris Forcier carries for six yards on a quarterback draw. When Forcier’s in, watch for some sort of trickery. He also carried last week at Oregon.
A rare drop by wide receiver Taylor Embree stops UCLA’s drive on third and five.
Alex Loukas lines up at quarterback for Stanford’s first play, not starter Tavita Pritchard. Pritchard suffered a concussion last week in the Cardinal’s win against Arizona.
Don’t call him a power-back; Toby Gerhart has tremendous size (6-3, 232 lbs.) but he also has plenty of speed, as he showed on the last 20-yard run.
A bit of redemption for UCLA safety Bret Lockett? He struggled last week at Oregon (and was run over by Ducks’ quarterback Jeremiah Masoli), but he just now forced a fumble when he leveled Stanford tailback Anthony Kimble. UCLA DT Brigham Harwell recovered the fumble.
UCLA quarterback Kevin Craft just scrambled for a first down, but took a crushing hit from Stanford LB Pat Maynor at the end of the play.
Pat Maynor comes up big. The Cardinal’s LB tips a Kevin Craft pass, deflecting it into the hands of cornerback Bo McNally. It’s a bad break for the Bruins, but Craft did force that pass a little bit.
Pritchard is back in at quarterback for Stanford.
Loukas carries for 29 yards and then runs over UCLA CB Michael Norris at the end of the run. The Bruins emphasized quarterback containment this week after Oregon QB Jeremiah Masoli rushed for 172 yards last week…. looks like there’s still some work to do, though.
Loukas and Pritchard are splitting snaps, so it probably has little to do with Pritchard’s injury.
Pritchard overthrows Delano Howell on third and eight. Stanford will punt.
Craft’s tries to find WR Marcus Everett deep, but the pass falls incomplete. This is Everett’s first game back since Tennessee (Sept. 1).
Starting from near its own goal line, UCLA goes three and out and will now give Stanford excellent field position.
UCLA DE Reginald Stokes slipped out of position, and Stanford ran a reverse to Doub Baldwin for 26 yards and scored on the very next play. Stanford 7, UCLA 0.
Stanford has 112 yards rushing and 0 yards passing.
The option play is always said to be tough to execute and UCLA just showed why; Kevin Craft ran too far ahead of Derrick Coleman and then pitched too far in front of him. The play was ruled an incomplete pass, but easily could have caused a UCLA fumble.
Kevin Craft scrambles for a first down- with the protection of guard Darius Savage, who pulled out of his line position on the play. Savage is listed as the heaviest player on the Bruin team (350 lbs.) but he runs very well.