Pac-12: UCLA still looking for a way past Stanford

There are two walls that UCLA hasn’t been able to crash through: Oregon and Stanford.

The Bruins have lost seven consecutive games to Stanford and six to Oregon. The Ducks remain one of the top teams in the nation, but the Cardinal slipped to 8-5 last season after going to the Rose Bowl in 2012 and 2013.

Still, Stanford’s dominating 31-10 victory cost the Bruins a spot in last season’s Pac-12 championship game.

“We went into last year’s Stanford game with a legitimate chance,” UCLA Coach Jim Mora said Thursday during the Pac-12 media days event. “Maybe not a completely realistic chance, but a legitimate chance to maybe get into the [national] playoff. I shouldn’t say we laid an egg. We didn’t lay an egg. Stanford beat us soundly.”

So why has the Cardinal owned the Bruins since 2008? Stanford Coach David Shaw worked around that question.

“I think our games against UCLA have been tighter than most people remember,” he said.

He added: “They’re as talented a football team as you’ll find in the nation, and we know that. We recognize that.”

UCLA plays Stanford in the Palo Alto on Oct. 14. The Bruins won’t play Oregon unless the two teams reach the Pac-12 championship game.