Looking Back to Move Forward

In the first game on the road and his third start, Ryan Burns faced more than just a hostile crowd and a defining moment. A pumped up UCLA team feeding off the energy in the stadium was smelling victory, and late in the game Burns was looking at under 2 minutes to play and 70 yards from the end zone. Oh yeah, ZERO timeouts.

Did that really happen? Well that’s the kind of finish that does wonders for confidence, both in yourself and from your teammates, coaches, students and fans. And yet, I’m still not completely certain he’ll be the starter at the end of the season, but that kind of ballsy finish speaks volumes to his abilities and will definitely get him at least a couple of more games under center.

Burns may have struggled in the first half, but this was an extremely determined UCLA team that clearly has gotten sick of hearing about their "Stanford problem". Coach Mora challenged his team to compete with Stanford’s physicality with equal effort, and the whole program seemed to attach a true litmus test of their mental toughness to this game. They fought hard…….sometimes illegally (Really? A full review and no targeting call?). For most of the game the Stanford offense had trouble getting traction, particularly in the first half (albeit some were self-inflicted such as penalties or drops), and you have the making of an understandable loss.

And then here comes Ryan Burns who embodied that old expression about an inexperienced quarterback that "grows up in this game." Burns was pretty outstanding on that final drive, and how about the support of his receivers! Let’s start with Trenton Irwin, who stepped up big as Rector drew the attention of the best of the UCLA secondary. I’m allowing him permission from Chris Walsh to be dubbed "Mr. Clutch", since so many of his stellar grabs moved the chains. Now, Mr. Acega-Whitdside really knows how to make an entrance, and will no doubt bore his future grandkids with highlights from his first college game for years to come. He reminds a lot of Teyo Johnson, especially in the red zone.

The O-line had their hands full all night, but came through when it mattered most. That 3rd down run in the red zone was a huge play, both in the call from Coach Shaw, and grit from McCaffrey to get the first down--- with a big assist from A. T. Hall to shove him forward (which was legal as he pushed through a UCLA defensive lineman). As Herbstreit pointed out during the game, if that play hadn’t gotten us the first down, Stanford would have been in the position of rushing to the line to try to run a 4th down play before the game clock expired. There is no question that the success of our beloved Cardinal will hinge on the run game and the trenches, but if Burns can continue to do enough when he puts the ball in the air we just might be unbeatable. You just know Love is going to have some massively important plays as the season unfolds, too.

On the defensive side of the ball, Solomon Thomas continues to make his case as an All-American with his dominant play, Harrison Phillips is a wrecking ball when he’s on the field, and Jordan Watkins is the happiest D-Line surprise I’ve seen since Brennan Scarlett.

Noor Davis has jumped out to a fantastic season start, and the line-backing crew looks almost as deep as the secondary at this point. Ok, maybe a bit less than almost, how do you lose the starting two corners without any drop-off against Rosen and his crushed dreams to wear Cardinal? The secondary is playing far beyond its years, which has everything to do with Coach Akina’s renaissance on the Farm, sort of like what Coach Hart did for the D-Line. Hoffpauir is a tackling machine, for example see the 3rd down 1-on-1 tackle that gave us the ball back for that game winning drive. The play made by Hoffpauir showed his game intelligence as well, in that he got the receiver out of bounds to stop the clock and then wisely let go of the receiver to avoid any chance at a personal foul call (one might say he was better coached than the UCLA defenders?). I’d like to borrow a moniker from Tim Smith, in that I’m going to begin calling him "Magnet", cause the ball just seems to find a way to him throughout the game.

There will inevitably be much, much more adversity in the games to come, it’s just the nature of the Pac-12 (and why some other particular NCAA groups are scared to play 9 conference games), and Stanford will face several more "gut check" moments. Yet, I sure do like the fight in this group.

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Looking Back to Move Forward

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