The only good – a word here I am using incredibly generously -- that comes out of that is knowing that this loss doesn’t have too many long term implications; there are still two meaningful games left to play, both of which are eminently more winnable on paper than this one was. Winning the Axe – against what is the weakest Stanford team in a decade -- could at least make eligibility for a low-tier bowl seem sweet. Qualifying for postseason play with an ugly slugfest in front of an apathetic Rose Bowl crowd, much less satisfying.
Knowing the way things have arced downward this year, though, you’re probably kind of expecting to get a 3-point win over UCLA – if you’re expecting anything at all -- rather than the catharsis of a celebratory field-storming against Stanford, which is a result many would take begrudgingly, but not happily.