UCLA walked into its regular-season finale a year ago, needing just one win to capture the division and move on to the Pac-12 championship game.
Yet Stanford dashed those hopes.
The Bruins, who were coming off an emotional third straight victory over crosstown rival USC six days earlier, were flattened, 31-10. They didn't play the next week.
This season presents an almost identical stage.
Last Saturday, the Bruins pulled out a hard-fought 17-9 win at Utah, positioning themselves within one win of a rematch with Stanford, the Pac-12 North champion, in the conference title game in Santa Clara on Dec.