• Stanford (3-4, 1-4 Pac-12) enters Saturday’s game at UCLA (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) on a two-game winning streak. The Cardinal won at Notre Dame, 16-14, two weeks ago before Saturday’s 15-14 victory over Arizona State. The Bruins suffered their first loss of the season Saturday at Oregon, a 45-30 loss.
• Saturday marked Stanford’s first win without a touchdown since Oct. 24, 1970, a 9-7 victory over UCLA. The Cardinal kicked five field goals in its 15-14 win against Arizona State.
• Stanford has allowed 14 points in back-to-back games, its fewest points allowed in back-to-back wins since the final two games of the 2018 season: a 23-13 win at Cal (Dec. 1) and a 14-13 victory vs. Pitt in the Sun Bowl (Dec. 31).
• The Cardinal trailed 14-6 at halftime on Saturday, but outscored the Sun Devils 9-0 in the second half. The win was just the 10th under David Shaw when trailing at half. Saturday’s win was just the ninth of the Shaw era when the Cardinal scores 19 or fewer points in a game, and the second straight such occurrence.
• Stanford and UCLA meet for the 94th time in program history on Saturday at the Rose Bowl. The Cardinal has won 12 of the last 14 over the Bruins and is 43-47-3 all-time in the series. David Shaw is 10-2 against UCLA, whereas Chip Kelly is 4-4 against Stanford.
• After no field goal attempts the first three games, junior Joshua Karty is 12-for-12 the last four games. He is one of six kickers nationally with at least 10 makes and no misses. Over the last two games, Karty has accounted for 25 of Stanford’s 31 points and made eight field goals. He is 18-for-18 on the season on PATs and now 12-for-12 on FG attempts. For his career, he is 45-for 45 on PATs and 22-for-27 on field goals. His five misses have come from 49, 51, 54, 55 and 58 yards.
• For his performance Saturday, Karty was named a Lou Groza Award Star of the Week and won the Pac-12 Special Teams Player of the Week award for the second time in three games. His conference award marks the first time a Stanford player has won it three times in the same season since the award started in 1987. Karty is also the first Pac-12 player to win the award three times in a season since 2018.
• With starting EDGE defender David Bailey out Saturday vs. Arizona State due to injury, several Cardinal defenders stepped up in his absence. Senior Aeneas DiCosmo got the start in Bailey’s place and had three tackles, a sack and a QB hurry. Junior Lance Keneley stepped into an increased role and led the team with a career-high 10 tackles with 1.5 TFL. True freshman Ernest Cooper made his career debut, tallying five tackles, 2.5 tackles for loss and a sack. The 2.5 tackles for loss were the most by a Cardinal in a game this season.
• Stanford leads the Pac-12 and is 19th nationally, allowing opponent offenses to convert just 28-of-91 (30.8%) of third downs so far this season. Over the last three games, the Cardinal has held opponents to just 11-of-38 (28.9%).
• Junior tight end Benjamin Yurosek celebrated #NationalTightEndsDay to the tune of 10 catches for 78 yards in Saturday’s win over Arizona State. His 10 catches were a career high, and marked the second-most catches by a tight end in the David Shaw era (Zach Ertz, 11, at Oregon in 2012). Yurosek now has 28 catches on the season, second-most on the team, for 250 yards, fourth-most on the team.