UCLA QB Brett Hundley has been great all year but wasn't at his best against Stanford in the Pac-12 title game. (AP) |
Here are three Weekly Woes from Week 14:
QB Brett Hundley, UCLA: Hundley has been so great this year that it's weird to see him on this list. But the pickings were slim, and so was UCLA's margin for error against Stanford in the Pac-12 championship game. So Hundley's near-quick-pick-6 to Cardinal DB Ed Reynolds was especially painful. So was his spike with 47 seconds left on 1st-and-10, which cost the Bruins a critical down and kept them from having a closer game-winning field goal attempt.
LS Kevin McDermott, UCLA: Tough to pin a loss on a long-snapper, but, well, that's what happens when the difference between a few feet is the Holiday Bowl and the Rose Bowl. McDermott's snap to holder Jeff Locke was amiss, which threw a screw into the machinery of Ka'imi Fairbairn's would-be game-tying field goal with less than a minute left. Instead, the 52-yard attempt sailed left, and the Bruins are now heading to San Diego, instead of getting to sleep in their cozy beds for a premiere home bowl game in their own stadium.
RB Stepfan Taylor, Stanford: Taylor sure found a bad time to clam up, and it almost cost the Cardinal a trip to the Rose Bowl. While his 78 yards on 24 carries and a score don't seem too bad, compare that to the 20-carry, 142-yard, two-touchdown performance he punished UCLA with just a week earlier. While Taylor added a solid 55 receiving yards, he didn't impact the game the way he has for Stanford in some of its biggest games. This is a guy who had 153 rushing yards against USC, 189 against Cal, 142 against Arizona and 161 in a win over Oregon. He can do better than 78 yards against UCLA.
For all the Pac-12 news you can handle, follow @CBSSportsPac12, @JohnBreech, and @TheCoolSub on Twitter