Stanford Sacks UCLA’s Hopes : Bruins: Walker dropped six times and Cardinal wins fifth in a row, 19-7. Milburn returns punt for 75-yard touchdown.

Stanford’s defense, ranked fifth in the nation, is too good not to have a nickname.

This is its best unit since the “Thunder Chicken” defense led the school to Rose Bowl victories over Ohio State and Michigan in 1971-72.

Since Thunder Chickens II isn’t very creative, how about the Lynch Mob because of hard-hitting safety John Lynch?

The Stanford defense, which shut out Notre Dame in the second half of last week’s 33-16 victory at South Bend, Ind., harassed UCLA quarterback Rob Walker in a 19-7 victory over the No. 19 Bruins Saturday night before 55,810 at the Rose Bowl.

The Cardinal defense sacked Walker six times for 44 yards in losses, including a 10-yard sack and a safety by linebacker Ron George that forced Walker to the sidelines with a slight concussion with 2:06 to play. Linebacker Coy Gibbs intercepted a pass by Walker to set up a touchdown as No. 11 Stanford won its fifth game in a row to improve to 5-1 overall, 2-0 in the Pacific 10.

Walker lost 53 yards in nine carries as the Bruins rushed for minus-four yards in 34 carries.

Walker completed 23 of 46 passes for 242 yards with one touchdown and one interception. Wide receiver J.J. Stokes had eight catches for 97 yards, including a 13-yard touchdown.

The injury-plagued Bruins, who were without starting tailback Kevin Williams and wide receiver Sean LaChapelle, who sat out the second half after playing with a cracked rib in the first half, fell to 3-2, 0-2 in conference play.

Lynch recovered a fourth-quarter fumble by UCLA tailback Daron Washington to kill a Bruin drive and made a key block on Glyn Milburn’s 75-yard touchdown punt return in the first quarter.

Milburn, who had 175 all-purpose yards against Notre Dame last week, had 249 yards against UCLA. He rushed for 92 yards in 23 carries, returned three kickoffs for 74 yards and caught two passes for eight yards.

Coach Bill Walsh said the Cardinal would not let down after last week’s comeback victory at Notre Dame.

He was right. There was no dropoff, the Cardinal building a 10-point lead going into the fourth quarter.

With the Bruins behind, 10-7, at halftime, Walker threw an interception on the second play of the second half to set up Steve Stenstrom’s eight-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Mike Cook that gave Stanford a 17-7 lead.

Walker, who threw three interceptions last week in the Bruins’ 23-3 loss at Arizona, had a pass intercepted by Stanford linebacker Coy Gibbs, who returned it six yards to the Bruin 22.

Playing without linebacker Arnold Ale, who broke his lower right leg at Arizona, the Bruin defense limited Stanford to 115 yards in the second half.

UCLA fans were beginning to get impatient with Walker, who was sacked four times for 26 yards in losses and fumbled a snap in the first half.

However, with the Bruins behind, 10-0, Walker threw a 13-yard touchdown pass to Stokes with 46 seconds to play in the first half to cap a 14-play, 84-yard drive that consumed 7:04.

Along the way, UCLA Coach Terry Donahue gambled by going for a first down on fourth and five at the Stanford 40 with 1:30 to play.

Walker, who completed nine of 16 passes for 131 yards in the first half, hit tight end end Rick Daly for 26 yards to the Cardinal 14 to set up the touchdown pass that came two plays later.

Walker, who completed only three of his first 10 passes, hit all six he attempted in the drive for 87 yards. He combined on a 20-yard pass play with Stokes and an 18-yarder with Mike Nguyen in the drive.

He finished with 23 completions of 46 passes for 242 yards.

The Bruins couldn’t contain Milburn.

Milburn, who was averaging 203.6 all-purpose yards, had 140 in the first quarter as Stanford took a 10-0 lead.

He returned a punt 75 yards for a touchdown with 4:38 to play in the first quarter, rushed for 46 yards in nine carries and returned the opening kickoff 19 yards.

Lynch set up the touchdown when he leveled Bruin punter Darren Schager at the UCLA 28.

Milburn ran for 26 yards in four carries as Stanford took the opening kickoff and drove 71 yards in 10 plays to take a 3-0 lead on a 25-yard field goal by Eric Abrams 3:49 into the game.

LaChapelle, who was questionable after cracking a rib in last week’s 23-3 loss at Arizona, played, but his presence didn’t help the UCLA offense, which was shut out in the first quarter.

The Bruins drove to the Stanford Cardinal 29 when Walker connected with Daly on consecutive back-to-back pass plays of 25 and 16 yards, but they came away empty after a 51-yard field-goal attempt by Louis Perez backfired because of a bad snap, which holder Jeff Clark had trouble handling. Clark was tackled for a 10-yard loss by linebacker Dave Garnett.