By: Eric He

PASADENA — For 57 and a half minutes, No. 7 Stanford was in trouble. The offense was sputtering, the quarterback couldn’t complete a pass, turnovers were ending possessions early and the Cardinal were in danger of being upset by unranked UCLA on the road on Saturday.

But in two minutes and 35 seconds, trailing 13-9, they roared back to life. With no timeouts and a quarterback who had thrown just one complete pass in the second half, it was Ryan Burns helped orchestrate a 10-play, 70-yard drive, culminating in a fade pass to JJ Arcega-Whiteside in the left corner of the end zone for the go-ahead touchdown, spurring a 22-13 win over the Bruins.

The down was second and goal from the 8-yard line, after Burns had completed four passes and Christian McCaffrey converted on a key third-and-3 in the red zone. And it was Burns who trusted Arcega-Whiteside, making his college debut, to make the game’s biggest play.

“One-on-one, that guy can jump pretty high,” Burns said. “I just put it up for him, and he made a great play. Couldn’t be more proud of him.”

Arcega-Whiteside said he had been dreaming of that moment since he was little, but added he was prepared for the fade thrown his way.

“After practice, we always [say], ‘Hey, let’s throw some fade balls, let’s go deep, let’s have fun,’” he said. “Once coach called that play, I was like, ‘Alright, it’s time to have some fun.’”

UCLA had 24 seconds to work with following the touchdown, but quarterback Josh Rosen was sacked and fumbled on the game’s final play, leading to a Stanford touchdown by Stanf Solomon Thomas as time expired to finish off the game.

It was a dazzling final three minutes to atone for a frustrating night of offense for the Cardinal. But the defense was good enough to keep the Bruins from expanding upon a 10-3 halftime lead. Stanford settled for two field goals to cut the deficit to 10-9 with under five minutes to play, though UCLA answered with a field goal of its own to push the lead back up to 4.

Head coach David Shaw, even in victory, was dissatisfied with his team’s performance.

“The youth of our football team showed in the first three quarters,” he said. “You’ve got to come into somebody else’s house and play well. We didn’t play well.”

Stanford scored first with a field goal on its first drive, but on its next drive, Burns was intercepted by UCLA’s Kenny Young, who returned it 40 yards into Cardinal territory.

That set up a touchdown as Rosen found Nate Iese over the middle on a third-and-five play from the 10-yard line. Iese just crossed the plane with the ball just before his knee hit the ground.

The remainder of the half was a field position battle, though Stanford coughed up the ball once more to UCLA. Midway through the second quarter, Burns completed a pass to Francis Owusu, who fumbled the ball after he appeared to be targeted with a helmet-to-helmet hit by UCLA’s Tahaan Goodman. But there was no penalty, and the Bruins took over.

Their ensuing drive ended in a 27-yard field goal and UCLA went into halftime ahead 10-3.

McCaffrey had an uncharacteristically modest game by his standards, finishing with 139 yards on 26 carries and no touchdowns. Still, Stanford outgained UCLA 207-77 on the ground to atone for the Bruins out-throwing them 248-143 in the air.

The running back said that it was important the team still found a way to win despite the struggles.

“We’re never out of a fight and that’s how we went into that game, knowing that it was going to be a dogfight,” McCaffrey said.

Burns admitted that Stanford should never have been down late in the fourth quarter in the first place. The quarterback completed 13-of-25 passes for 137 yards.

“I was not making the best throws, definitely not making the best decisions,” he said. “This is the kind of team we are, though. We’re never going to give up, we’re never going to back down.”

Shaw agreed, speaking about the character of his players to overcome adversity.

“That’s what happens when you recruit well and you recruit great kids, tough kids, smart kids, guys that don’t bat an eyelash when things get difficult,” he said.

Players like Arcega-Whiteside, who had the moment of his life in his college debut. He said his vertical leap is usually around 31 and a half inches, but on that play, he could have reached the sky.

“When you get that adrenaline going, you jump as high as you need to,” he said.