UCLA Bruins Go Dancin' With Wolves; Get Eaten by Lobos, 35-10
Tonight's game felt like a repeat of the season opener against Utah.
If you didn’t watch tonight’s UCLA football game, you are forgiven. It was pretty much a rerun of the Utah game. The Bruins were outscored in the first half and the second half only made it worse.
The game started out decently enough. New Mexico got the ball to start the game and while Jack Layne completed a 20-yard pass on the Lobos’ first play, they went three-and-out on the next series of downs. That may have been the highlight of the game for the Bruins.
UCLA got the ball on their own 10-yard line and moved the ball OK until the drive stalled. On third-and-3, Jalen Berger was stopped for a three-yard loss and the Bruins had to punt.
On the Lobos’ second drive, they pounded the ball, running it seven of eight plays including six running plays in a row. All told, they moved 64 yards and the drive was capped by a one-yard plunge by Scottre Humphrey to give New Mexico a 7-0 lead.
On the Bruins’ next drive, they started on their own 17, moved six yards and punted again.
Meanwhile, New Mexico began their next drive on their own 41. After picking up three on first down, Jack Layne found Scott Miller on a 14-yard pass. That and a 15-yard personal foul moved it to the UCLA 27. While that was the end of the first quarter, it wasn’t the end of the Lobos’ drive. They moved it all the way to the UCLA 8-yard line. Needing two yards on fourth down, Layne found Simon Mapa for all eight yards and the Lobos now led, 14-0, with 12:43 left in the first half, but this game was already over.
UCLA managed to put together a 10-play, 78-yard drive on their next possession as Nico Iamaleava found Titus Mokiao-Atimalala in the back of the end zone to cut the New Mexico lead in half.
After the teams traded punts, New Mexico began their final drive of the first half on their own 24. With 1:26 left and facing fourth-and-1 on the UCLA 3-yard line, Layne kept the ball and tried to pick up the first down. He was a good half-yard short and the Bruins took over with 1:09 left.
Rather than taking a knee and heading to the locker room, UCLA decided to try to get some more points on the board before half. They actually managed to get to the New Mexico 47 with a second left, but a false start moved them back to their own 47.
The Lobos went into a Prevent defense with four guys back on the goal line. So, the Bruins decided to hand the ball off to Anthony Jones. While he picked up a huge gain of 33 yards, he was stopped at the New Mexico 20-yard line and it was 14-7 at the half.
The Bruins’ first drive of the second half was over in all of eleven seconds. The play sequence was Nico underthrows Mokiao-Atimalala, Nico underthrows Javian Thomas, and Nico floats one over Kwazi Gilmer’s head, followed, of course, by another Bruin punt.
New Mexico took over at their own 38 and drove all the way down to the Bruin 5. On fourth-and-one, Deshaun Buchanan ran the ball to the Bruin 3. It would have been enough for a first down, but Key Lawrence forced a fumble and the UCLA defense stopped New Mexico inside the five again.
UCLA’s second drive of the half looked at lot like the first one. It was Nico incomplete to Mokiao-Atimalala on first down. This time, Anthony Woods ran on second down, but he only picked up three yards. Third down saw another Iamaleava incompletion, this time, with Woods as the intended target.
But, hey! Special teams tried to help keep the Bruins in the game.
When Michael Buckley muffed the punt, Kyle Miller recovered it and UCLA had a first down on their own 41-yard line.
Amazingly enough, Iamaleava actually completed a pair of consecutive passes. First, he found Mikey Matthews for a 28-yard gain. Then, he found Kwazi Gilmer for six more. It was Bruins’ ball on the New Mexico 25. That was as close as they would get to the end zone, however.
Javian Thomas lost two yards on a running play. And, that was followed by consecutive false starts on Garrett DiGiorgio. So much for the D in D.R.E. That brought up a 3rd-and-16 which saw Iamaleava scramble for four yards. On 4th-and-12 from the Lobos’ 33, Foster sent in Mateen Bhaghani for a 51-yard field goal which cut it to 14-10.
New Mexico’s next drive was a Bruin killer. The Lobos went on a 13-play, 75-yard drive that started with 3:34 left in the third quarter and ended with a two-yard run up the middle by Damon Bankston for a touchdown with 10:44 left in the game. The extra point gave New Mexico a 21-10 lead.
They would eventually tack on two more TDs to finish the mauling with a final score of 35-10.
It was another embarrassing loss for the Bruins.
Iamaleava finished going 22 of 34 for 217 yards with a touchdown and an interception. He also gained 33 yards on the ground while Woods carried ten times for 64 yards. Mikey Matthews led the UCLA receivers with three receptions for 67 yards.
The good news is that the Bruins cannot lose next week. The bad news is they can’t win either because they have a bye. They travel to Evanston, Illinois on Saturday, September 27th for a game against Northwestern. The Wildcats play Oregon tomorrow at 9 am PT on Fox if you want to see what the Bruins will be up against next.
Go Bruins.
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