STANFORD “”mdash; The Daily Bruin road trip made it to NorCal without any mishaps. We’ve seen a fair amount of UCLA fans wandering around and they didn’t seem too optimistic. On to the keys for UCLA.
Insert Andrew Luck pun about being good here
Every print paper in the Los Angeles area has exhausted all of the Stanford quarterback Andrew Luck-related pun headlines so I thought we would save you the trouble. To put it simply, unless Luck leaves the game with with an injury, it’s going to be tough sledding for the UCLA defense. By Luck’s standards, he had a less than stellar game last season at the Rose Bowl (completed under 50 percent of his passes) and the Cardinal still rolled to a 35-0 victory. The UCLA front seven will need to pressure luck, something they haven’t done well so far this season, totaling three sacks to date.
Find a way to shore up the defensive backfield
Four starters in the defensive backfield (Tony Dye, Dalton Hilliard, Sheldon Price and Alex Mascarenas) missed practice time this week because of injuries. Needless to say, it’s not the best week for fresh faces to be getting their first game action. Coach Rick Neuheisel called all of the injured players game-time decisions so we’ll see in a few hours how many of them actually play.
Allow quarterback Richard Brehaut to get comfortable
UCLA might just have to outscore Stanford if it wants any chance at winning this game.
“We’re going to have to score a lot of points,” Neuheisel agreed.
Against Stanford, which ranks No. 1 in the nation in rushing defense, throwing the ball just 11 times won’t work like it did last week against Oregon State. The Cardinal are limiting opposing rushing attacks to 36 yards on the ground as opposed to 265 through the air. Brehaut will need to throw it early and often in this one.