The shaky fourth quarter definitely made it hard to chalk up yesterday's game as a defensive triumph, but ultimately, within Colorado's 35-32 win over Stanford, tangible evidence of an all-around defensive improvement can be found.

CU allowed a 58% (7-of-12) third down conversion rate to UCLA; Stanford converted just 31% (5-of-16).

The Buffs allowed 478 total yards and 175 rushing yards to UCLA; the Cardinal mustered 397 and 70, respectively.

UCLA averaged 7.4 yards per play on offense; Stanford averaged 5.2 against Colorado.

The Bruins had 16 plays of 15 or more yards against the Buffs; the Cardinal had nine such plays yesterday.

While there is much that the Buffs can clean up defensively, and allowing 32 points — 16 in the fourth quarter — doesn't exactly warrant notching any moral victories, Colorado's defense turned in a bend but not break performance against the Cardinal.

"I feel we played as well as we needed to finish the game," head coach Karl Dorrell said. "We're 2-0 with a chance to get better. We're pleased at where we're at but we still have so much work to do."

Nate Landman led Colorado's defense with 14 tackles, including one for loss, while Carson Wells placed second with six tackles, two of which were for loss.

Wells also recorded a pair of pass breakups, too.On that note, the Buffs had nine PBUs, with Isaiah Lewis (2), Christian Gonzalez, Mekhi Blackmon, Terrance Lang, Nigel Bethel and Joshka Gustav all recording one.

Against UCLA, the Buffaloes had five, with three of those five coming via Lewis.Again, Stanford ran circles around the Buffs in the fourth quarter, scoring an alarming 16 points to ensure a nailbiting finish to the game.

Late-game Cardinal touchdown drives of nine plays and 86 yards, 11 plays and 73 yards and then 13 plays and 80 yards spoiled an otherwise stout defensive performance by the Buffs.

However, even though those lengthy scoring drives leave something of a bad taste in the mouth, ultimately Colorado was able to win in large part due to the shutdown performance in the first half registered by the D.

Specifically, the Buffs holding firm on early Stanford drives that reached Colorado's 30, 15 and 10-yard line — all of which resulted in Cardinal field goals — proved to give CU just enough of a cushion to escape Stanford Stadium with a W.

"If they can't score, they can't win," Wells said. "We (didn't) want to let them into the red zone, but once we let them in the red zone, (we wanted) to hold them to field goals. That was our plan going into the week. We did a good job of that in the first half (but we've got to do better in the second half."