Cal at UCLA
Now that’s what I’m talking about. If you got a chance to watch the quickly put together game between Cal and UCLA on Sunday from the Rose Bowl you got to see how folks envisioned the Bruins playing under Chip Kelly when he was hired at the end of the 2017 season. They put together a really solid game against a very good opponent who was expected to compete for the PAC-12 North title this year. As Ben Bolch put it in his review for the Los Angeles Times; “UCLA’s offense in the first half looked like a vintage Kelly variety … as in the 2012 Oregon Ducks. The Bruins were, well, a blur, increasing the tempo between many of their plays on the way to scoring 20 points in the second quarter-“ leading to a 34-10 victory over the Golden Bears.
It seems as though Dorian Thompson-Robinson is really coming into his own in Year 3 for the Bruins. When you add in his three TD’s in the air and one on the ground from this past Saturday to his first week’s total he has connected on seven TD’s in the air and rushed for two more in just his first two games of this shortened season. The Bruins were also solid in the running game with Senior RB’s Demetric Felton and Brittain Brown picking up an additional score and 177 of the 244 yard total for UCLA. But as far as the stats go, DTR aside, the best numbers-finally-were put up by the Bruin defense. They held Cal’s Junior QB Chase Garbers to 122 yards in the air, no TD’s, and one interception while completely shutting down the run where Cal collected less than 2 yards per carry, rushing 28 times for just 54 yards and one rushing TD. The defense was in the backfield all game long picking up nine tackles for loss and sacking the QB five times.
You only have to look at the team stats to see how dominant UCLA was in this game. They more than doubled the number of first downs compared to Cal at 23-11, they possessed the ball longer, they rushed for almost 200 yards more, passed for more and doubled the amount of yards per pass and rush of their opponent. They each turned the ball over once with UCLA’s interception leading to a three-and-out while Cal’s led to a Bruin TD. All-in-all I think it was the best game the Bruins have played in the Kelly era. Certainly not the most thrilling as that will always be the 32 point 2nd half come-from-behind 67-63 point win in Pullman against Washington State last year-very much aided by the six Cougar turnovers. I wonder if that’s when the Pirate decided he’d had enough of the Palouse.
No, this was a solid effort from start to finish that required no heroics and makes me excited to see what comes next for UCLA if they can continue playing this way. Up next, according to the schedule, we have Cal on the road in Corvallis against Oregon State and UCLA traveling north to Eugene to take on the Ducks. After this game that might be more interesting than I thought it would be.
Colorado at Stanford
So far so good for Colorado Head Coach Karl Doerrl who is now 2-0 and tied with USC for the division lead in the PAC-12 South. After accounting for over 300 yards and 2 TD’s in the air and on the ground last week, Buffaloe QB Sam Noyer had another solid outing connecting on over 60% of his passess for 255 yards and 2 TD’s against 1 pick and rushed for another 36 yards and 2 TD’s on the ground in a 35-32 win over Stanford on the road. Noyer is fortunate to have a stable of talented Buffaloe receivers including Sophomore Dimitri Stanley, and Freshmen La’Vontae Shenault and Brendon Rice who collectively were responsible for 224 of the 255 yards in the air. If La’Vontae’s last name sounds familiar, it’s because his older brother Laviska collected almost 800 yards and 6 TD’s for Colorado last year before heading for the NFL. Although scoring three TD’s last week, Sophomore RB Jarek Broussard didn’t find the end zone in this one but did carry the majority of the load on the ground-rushing for 121 yards on 27 carries. Besides Noyer, Sophomore RB Jaren Mangham also picked up a rushing TD, carrying the ball 8 times for 18 yards.
For the Cardinal, Senior QB Davis Mills connected on 31 of 56 for 327 yards and 1 TD while spreading the ball out multiple times to five different receivers with TE Scooter Harrington being the only one to hit pay dirt late in the 4th Qtr to get Stanford within three points, 35-32. In the first half Stanford just couldn’t get anything going, punting five times, and when they did get down into the red zone they had to settle for field goals both times. If not for their Senior place kicker, Jet Toner, the Cardinal wouldn’t have put up any points in the first half, trailing 14-9 at the break.
The Stanford running game was virtually non-existant again, 70 yards on 21 attempts, and most of those yards were picked up by the QB. It has become painful to watch. Just five years ago in 2015 Stanford rushed for 3,358 yards, picking up 5.1 yards per carry. Even three years ago in 2017 they rushed for 3,095 yards, averaging 5.9 yards per carry. In 2018 they dropped to 1,673 yards and last year fell to 1,485. This game was a case where a declining rushing game met an upcoming run defense. As I mentioned in our preview of Colorado, their defense improved over the course of last season holding Stanford and Washington to less than 15 points each in back-to-back wins to close out last year’s home schedule. Anchoring the defensive line then and in this game was Terrance Lang, a 6’ 6” 280 pound first team all-conference player who posted 137 tackles and 112 solo tackles last year-second most in Colorado history. Sam Melivier wrote in SB Nation abouot this game; “Hats off to Mustafa Johnson, Terrance Lang and Jalen Sami, who are proving to be one of the premier defensive lines in the PAC-12. Colorado held Austin Jones and Nathaniel Peat to just 30 yards on 14 combined carries after they had rushed for 193 against Oregon.
Stanford will stay at home for another week to host the Washington State Cougars while Colorado’s game against Arizona State has been cancelled due to COVID..