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Luck shines as Stanford dominates UCLA

Oct 2, 2011 - 7:08 AM Stanford, CA (Sports Network) - Andrew Luck missed on just four of his passes all night and threw for three touchdowns to power sixth-ranked Stanford to a 45-19 rout of UCLA.

Luck completed 23-of-27 passes for 227 yards. Stepfan Taylor rushed for 112 yards and a pair of scores for Stanford (4-0, 2-0 Pac-12), which has the nation's longest winning streak at 12 games. This marks the program's best victory string since 1939-41, when Stanford won 13 straight games over the course of three seasons, tying a school record.

UCLA won its conference opener last Saturday, defeating Oregon State in Corvallis. One week later, the Bruins (2-3, 1-1) ran into a buzz saw offense, as the Cardinal totaled 442 yards of offense.

"We talk all the time about efficiency," Stanford coach David Shaw said. "When Bill Walsh put the West Coast offense together, we talked about being efficient, gaining ground every single play. Our honorary captain Condoleezza Rice talked about acquiring real estate, just chewing up real estate play after play and our guys did that in the first half."

The play of the night for Luck actually came in the receiving department. On a gadget play, he made a one-handed grab along the sideline before tumbling to the ground. The pass came from Drew Terrell during a 99-yard drive.

"Drew made a heck of a throw under pressure," Luck said. "It's tough for guys to come in a football game who have never thrown and make a throw. He did a heck of a job and I just try to put my hands up there and catch the ball and hoped I had a foot in bounds."

Richard Brehaut connected on 18-of-33 passes for 202 yards and a pair of touchdowns to Joseph Fauria for UCLA, which also got 96 yards on the ground from Johnathan Franklin.

The Bruins took the opening possession 79 yards, but that was one yard too short. Brehaut was stopped on a 4th-and-goal.

"We were moving the ball the whole game, they weren't stopping us," Brehaut commented. "We had a couple of missed opportunities in the first half, that fourth down I have to find a way to get in the end zone and it's a whole different ball game."

Stanford then marched 99 yards in 16 plays, capped by Luck's 18-yard TD pass to Coby Fleener, a one-handed grab.

Brehaut fumbled after being sacked early in the second, and the Cardinal turned that into a 14-0 lead courtesy of Taylor's two-yard TD run.

Jordan Williamson's 23-yard field goal was countered by Brehaut's 12-yard TD pass with eight seconds left until halftime.

Luck threw 51 yards to Fleener for a score on the second play of the second half.

"We came out with a lot of energy," UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We had an unbelievable amount of energy and [Stanford] came out and scored in two downs. We've got to be better than that."

Fauria caught his second TD pass of the night less than four minutes later, a 13-yarder, but the Bruins failed on the extra point try and fumbled on a punt return later in the quarter. The Cardinal capitalized when Tyler Gaffner scored on a 16-yard rush with 2:43 remaining in the third for a 31-13 difference.

Josh Smith scored on a seven-yard run early in the fourth, but Jeff Locke's extra point try failed.

The Cardinal sealed the victory with a pair of late TDs - a one-yard run by Taylor and a five-yard pass from Luck to Chris Owusu.

Game Notes

The Cardinal have won eight straight home games and are 19-2 in their last 21 at Stanford Stadium...The longest unbeaten streak in Stanford history is 15 games, set over three seasons from 1925-27. Under the direction of the legendary "Pop" Warner, Stanford won its last two games of the 1925 season, posted a 10-0-1 record in 1926 and won its first two games of the 1927 campaign before losing to Saint Mary's.