UCLA and Stanford

First things first, the Bruins won, and won convincingly. The defense continued to play well, and they look like they've taken a complete 180 under Coach Walker. That's the good news.

The bad news is that there are still a ton of questions:

• They really haven't played a great offense yet. And the one mediocre offense that they've played kind of tore them up in the second half, or at least, got the big plays when they needed to. That said, to the naked eye, the defense does look lightyears better than they have in the past.
• The offense has not been very pretty to watch. Inconsistent. Poor execution. Very unreliable. I do not think this team can mount a drive to win a game late in the fourth quarter, let alone three, like last year's team routinely could.
• The play calling has been pretty atrocious. I'm not sure if the personnel look bad because of the play calling, or if the play calling is conservative because they don't trust the personnel. Either way, it's bad. Although the play action they ran on 4th and goal did fool the camera man. Too bad it didn't fool Stanford.

Ultimately, from what I've seen so far, I can't see this team doing better than 6-6. If they can't beat Washington, they're probably going down to Cal, ASU, Oregon, Notre Dame, and U$C. Arizona and Washington State aren't going to be picnics either, so 6-6 may be a little optimistic. I can't see Dorrell surviving that, but stranger things have happened.