PASADENA, Calif. -- For nearly 60 minutes at the Rose Bowl on Saturday, it seemed like UCLA had finally found a solution for its Stanford problem.

It wasn’t pretty, but that was the idea.

UCLA instituted major schematic changes in the offseason, and they were made with this type of game and this specific opponent in mind. The Bruins were sick and tired of getting physically dominated by Stanford. They wanted to be able to match the Cardinal’s physicality, play a field position game and grind out a win.

After eight consecutive losses to Stanford -- the Bruins’ longest losing streak to a single opponent since the invention of the face mask -- style points were no longer of any consequence.

That’s why UCLA would have been perfectly content, obvious flaws and all, had Saturday’s game gone exactly as it did, save the last 30 seconds.

“We played physically,” UCLA coach Jim Mora said. “I think that we are a physical football team, and we played hard and tough. I’m proud of how we played.”

And he had every right to be proud. The Bruins showed they’ve come a long way.

The last 30 seconds, however, changed how the performance will ultimately be remembered. Stanford quarterback Ryan Burns' 8-yard end zone fade to JJ Arcega-Whiteside put Stanford up 16-13 with 24 seconds left and all but assured the winning streak would live on. A fumble return for a Cardinal touchdown on the last play made the final score, 22-13, more than a little deceiving.

If UCLA had won, perhaps Mora would have called it a gritty, team win. Instead, he had to try to make sense of how, after largely shutting down the Stanford offense all night, the Cardinal went 70 yards in less than two minutes for a game-winning score.

“They made some plays that they hadn’t been making,” Mora said. “We didn’t change coverages or our approach or philosophy. That’s a good football team. They have a reputation for being able to do that, and they did it.”

To understand how differently a game can be framed by a single play, look at what happened 900 miles up Interstate-5 just a couple of hours prior. With 1:43 remaining, Oregon also called for an end zone fade -- this one also from the 8-yard line -- in an attempt to take the lead. Dakota Prukop's pass, though, was intercepted by Ahkello Witherspoon, and Colorado secured its best win since joining the Pac-12 in 2011.

It was essentially the same play -- same side of the field, even -- but it produced wildly different results and ultimately changed how both games were defined.

Colorado gave up over 500 yards of offense, but it didn’t matter because of the final score.

UCLA ran for 77 yards against Stanford, and it’s a glaring red flag.

“It’s something that we need to come up with an answer for immediately,” Mora said of the Bruins’ running game. “I don’t care who we are playing. I don’t care if we are playing the '85 Bears, we need to run the football.”

Through four weeks, UCLA remains somewhat of an unknown. At 2-2, it doesn’t seem appropriate to be all that impressed, but both losses came to top-10 teams and both were very winnable games. If perhaps just two plays would have gone differently, the Bruins would be 4-0 and themselves a top-10 team.

“Coach Mora and his staff did an outstanding job,” Stanford coach David Shaw said. “They kicked our backsides pretty well, early and often, both sides of the ball. They got us on both sides.”

But for the ninth time in a row, UCLA didn’t get Stanford where it mattered.