Stanford Comfortably Cruises Past a Pathetically Coached UCLA

It's all over in Palo Alto. Stanford Cardinal led by the "All World" Andrew Luck just finished up disposing Rick Neuheisel's Bruins by a score 45-19 (hey we will fill this box in when the game is over in next few mins).  Here is the box score. While the score doesn't indicate a complete blowout, don't be fooled. It wasn't close. The Trees controlled the game from start to finish and never faced any credible threat from predictable Neuheisel's soft, error prone, undisciplined, and defensively clueless Bruins.

I guess the Bruins showed some signs of life. We started the game with a beautiful drive only to get throttled with predictable play calls the goal line. We ended the first half with a nice drive thanks to hook ups between Richard Brehaut and Joe Fauria, who overcame the usual clock mismanagement, confusion from the sidelines thanks to the coaching staff. We put together a nice drive to start the second half that resulted in yet another Fauria TD. Yet as day to day observers of this program, none of us were really fooled or got their hopes up.

When it mattered Bruins didn't get it done. We either killed ourselves with stupid mistakes, turnovers, and as usual pathetic conservative "playing not to lose" Donahue/Dorrellian and now Neuheisilian mindset. From what I saw it looked like Neuheisel never believed Bruins any chances to win this game. It's why once again he handcuffed the team with his conservative mindset throughout the whole game and coached like his main goal was to keep the score "respectable." It's why we saw run up the middles in first drive and sending out Taylor Embree to "catch" punts instead of returning them. Bruins never had a real shot. They played for a "moral victory" and made themselves look soft and pathetic doing it.

I am not doing the "Eye Test" GPA thread on Monday am as I am up late Saturday/Sunday morning writing up the post game thread for yet another predictable UCLA loss under Neuheisel. So I will do up  "flash" impressions, which folks can build on next few days. Again here are the 6 categories from our "Eye Test":

1) Is our defense prepared for each and every team we play?
2) Do we call offensive plays to catch our opponents off guard?
3) Do our players look like they know what they should be doing at all times?
4) Do our players play for 60 G-D minutes every game?
5) Do our players execute?
6) Do we have leaders on the field?

Let's see what we have here:

1. Once again, Joe Tresey's defense was a MASSIVE FAIL. The game was pretty much over after our offense got stuffed thanks to Neuheisel's conservatism at the Stanford goal line. Luck carved up the Bruin defense in a 16 play drive in the first series putting the Trees up 7-0. I had to laugh when offensive pass interference put the Stanford back in the 15 yard line on 2^nd and goal. It just gave Luck more room to make our defense look stupid. The night was easy and effortless one for the Trees, as they chewed up clock, toyed around with our front 7 and converted 10 of 14 third downs. Then there was the first drive in second half. LOL. I guess they made the Trees punt once. Ooooh, we are supposed to be impressed? Not really.  These guys continue to be embarrassing especially when we see the DBs celebrating after making meangingless stops even when the team is getting clowned on the scoreboard. The defense perhaps looked "prepared" in Tresey and Neuheisel's imaginations. To rest of us they looked liked their usual vespa clowns.
2. Uhm, I guess the offense looked great in that very first drive. Brehaut was perfect in that drive. Bruins mixed in their running game with runs from the Jet Ski, Derrick Coleman, and even Jordon James. There was a beautiful quick out to James, which the Joy Stick took for a 20 yard gain. Brehaut also looked pretty good in the drive that ended the first half. So yeah, the offense except for one turnover looked all right. However, the momentum of this game was sealed by coaching. First there was the goal line series in the first half, when predictable run plays in four straight downs throttled the Bruin drive and pretty much any chance to win the game. Second there was the muffed punt by Taylor Embree in second half, who keeps getting sent out there to "catch" punts by Neuheisel because he is supposed to be "sure handed." You know, the good old playing not to lose mindset.
3. I think it's tough to blame the players. They are doing what they "know" and what they have been "taught" to do at Spaulding. It's not the players' fault that they are giving the DBs such huge cushion or that our defensive rushes look so pathetic. Not the players the fault when the slam the ball repeatedly up the middle. So, yeah they look like they "know" what they are doing but what they have been "taught" - especially on D. It is not fun to watch.
4. Yes, our players played hard for most of this game. It didn't matter much because they were playing without any credible coaching schemes on the defensive side.
5. We didn't get it done on fourth and goal but as I mentioned in category number 3, tough to fault the players, then the coaches are making predictable calls. When the Bruins finally stopped the Trees in the second half and forced them to punt, our offense came out empty in a three and out. Once again we blew multiple extra point conversions.  Oh, and I guess Taylor Embree gets to return punts because he is "safe." EPIC FAIL.
6. Brehaut and Fauria are leaders of this offense. The vespa clowns continue to be leaderless. As for the special teams? We need to come up with a vespa clown like nicknames for this unit.

Those are my initial impressions when it comes to the "Eye Test." I am reluctant to assign any grades right now because emotions always run so high in these post game threads. I will defer that to gbruin who is going to be doing the GPA post for Monday.

As for the big picture everyone here knows what the expectations are for rest of this football season. Bruins will need to win every game at home, at least one of their two remaining road games against Arizona or Utah (both of whom looked pathetic today), and beat Southern Cal. The frontpagers will not accept anything less.

So there you go. If you have thoughts, quick takes or extensive reflections, by all means fire away. Remember if you have extensive thoughts , put them up in the fanpost section. Otherwise, this is your post game thread.

GO BRUINS.