KEYS TO THE GAME

By Steve Henson

Oct. 27, 2002 12 AM PT

Steve Henson’s keys to the game, and how the Bruins measured up:

Quarterback Matt Moore must make enough plays to enable the Bruins to win the field-position battle in what should be a low-scoring game. Moore made enough big plays, throwing a 22-yard touchdown pass to Mike Seidman and hitting Tab Perry for gains of 38 and 49 yards.

2. A Bruin defense that had not forced any turnovers in its losses must do so. Ricky Manning intercepted a pass that led to a field goal and Ben Emanuel blocked a field goal. The Bruins also registered six sacks and held Stanford to 241 yards.

3. The UCLA offense must take advantage of red-zone opportunities, a problem all season. The Bruins scored all five times they penetrated inside the 20, four times on field goals and once on a touchdown run by Tyler Ebell.

UCLA Sports

Steve Henson

Steve Henson is a reporter with the Fast Break sports team at the Los Angeles Times. He previously served as an assistant editor and reporter in the Sports department. Henson was a leader in digital-only newsrooms from 2007-19 as a senior editor and columnist at Yahoo Sports and as senior editor at the USA Today Sports Media Group. This is his second stint at The Times, having covered the Dodgers and UCLA as well as doing enterprise, investigative and features writing from 1985-2007. Henson was awarded first place in sports features in 2021 by the L.A. Press Club and has been honored several times by the Associated Press Sports Editors (APSE) and also by the California News Publishers Assn., the Football Writers Assn. of America and U.S. Basketball Writers Assn.

KEYS TO THE GAME

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