Sep 2, 2007

McNally hustles from sideline to sideline

By John Reid / Staff

One of the hardest collisions of Stanford's 45-17 defeat to No. 14 UCLA at Stanford Stadium Saturday came right before the end of the first half. The Cardinal had scored its first touchdown of the year with 48 seconds left when Derek Belch kicked off after his made extra point. UCLA return man Matt Slater was getting it in high gear down the Bruins' sideline before he ran into the Cardinal's Bo McNally, who had a full head of steam of his own. McNally's hit was so hard his helmet flew off. Slater was credited with a 29-yard return to the UCLA 30, but if McNally didn't make the tackle, Slater could have been off to the races. Only Belch, the last line of defense, was left to make the tackle on Slater.

"I haven't lost my helmet on a hit since high school," said McNally, who prepped at Highlands High in Salt Lake City. "We're taught to pursue the football. I was just running."

McNally, a free safety, was the game's leading tackler with 15 tackles, 10 solo. It's never a good thing to have the free safety leading his team in tackles. But, let it be said, McNally saved the Cardinal's bacon on numerous occasions or else the margin of defeat could have been much worse.

"McNally was all over the field," Stanford coach Jim Harbaugh said. "I'm always pleased with Bo. He was close to making a couple of interceptions."

The fact McNally was able to play vs. the Bruins was a remarkable one. He broke his right wrist six weeks ago doing a summer drill and didn't practice until two weeks ago.

"It was frustrating not being able to practice," McNally said. "I spent a lot of time helping the younger guys."

McNally, who had two interceptions in the Cardinal's lone victory last year at Washington, spent a lot of time Saturday trying to track down Bruins running back Kahlil Bell. So did the rest of the Cardinal defense. Bell, strong and fast, rushed for 195 yards on 19 carries, including a 59-yarder. On one play in the first half, Bell broke five tackles, including a futile effort behind the line of scrimmage from Cardinal defensive tackle Ekom Udofia.

"Bell is a good back," McNally said. "We were expecting (Chris) Markey to get most of the carries. Not to take anything away from Bell, but we missed a lot of tackles. We missed five tackles and they got three TDs. It's a game of inches. We need to do a lot better job of tackling."

Bruin quarterback Ben Olson had a lot of time to throw, passing for 286 yards and five TD passes as the Bruins racked up 624 yards of offense.

"We played a lot of base defense and didn't blitz much," McNally said. "We had the coverage a lot of times, but it was a perfect throw and perfect catch."

Stanford (0-1) has an extra week to prepare for its game with San Jose State on Sept. 15.

"Coach Harbaugh said we'll be better between weeks 1 and 2," McNally said. "We need to work on a few things."



BLAKE'S BACK: Former Gunn lineman Tom Blake, No. 2 on the Bruins' depth chart at defensive end, had a sack for minus-14 yards to end the game. The Bruins had four sacks in the game for a total of minus-71 yards. Blake sat out last season after transferring from UC Davis.

"I'm glad I transferred to UCLA," Blake said. "I wanted to go to a bigger program."

Stanford was down just 14-7 at the half, but was outscored 31-10 in the second half as the Bruins looked like a different team after the intermission.

"We got off to a slow start, but picked it up mentally in the second half," Blake said.

Former Sacred Heart Prep star Tyler Holland, a tight end, also saw action for the Bruins.



E-mail John Reid at jreid@dailynewsgroup.com.