UCLA Bruins Mauled by UC Berkeley Bears, 33-7, in Final Pac-12 Game
The Bruins gave the ball away four times, resulting in 17 points off turnovers by UC Berkeley.
After last week’s big win over Southern Cal, the Bruin offense came back down to earth tonight as UCLA was crushed by the UC Berkeley Golden Bears, 33-7.
UCLA began the game with the ball on the Bruin 25-yard line following a touchback on the opening kickoff. Ethan Garbers proceeded to move the ball efficiently downfield, completing seven of his first nine passes and getting the Bruins down to the Berkeley 20. After Garbers second incompletion of the drive, he left the game and did not return.
In came Dante Moore who promptly did what Dante Moore does. He threw an interception on his first pass of the game in the end zone for a touchback. The Bears immediately drove down the field, but the drive stalled when Jayden Ott ran for a four-yard gain on third-and-eight from the Bruin 30. Justin Wilcox opted for a field goal and Berkeley took a 3-0 lead.
The Bruin offense couldn’t move the ball more than four yards on their second drive and Chip Kelly sent out the punt team.
Berkeley used three key passes from Fernando Mendoza to move downfield easily, but the Bears faced a fourth-and-one on the Bruin 26 when the UCLA defense was called for another delay of game penalty like they have been called for so many times this season, giving UC Berkeley a first down. But they only moved two more yards and Wilcox sent out Mateen Bhaghani for his second field goal to take a 6-0 lead.
The Bruins looked like they were getting it together on their next drive when they moved 52 yards on 10 plays to the Berkeley 20-yard line. On fourth-and-one from there, Chip Kelly left his offense on the field because the Bruins have no serviceable kicker and Carson Steele was dropped for a three-yard loss, turning the ball over.
Just five plays later, the UCLA defense came up big when Kamari Ramsey intercepted a ball at the Bruin 35, and a personal foul on Berkeley receiver Jeremiah Hunter moved it up to the 50.
Soon, UCLA found themselves facing a fourth-and-two from the Berkeley 5-yard line when Chip Kelly, the Offensive Genius, sent out his field goal team. Sure enough, Blake Glessner sent it wide left and Berkeley took over at their own 20.
On the second play of the drive, Mendoza threw another interception right to Laiatu Latu, who rumbled down to the eight-yard line.
This time, Moore managed to find Logan Loya at the goal line and he got the ball across to give UCLA the lead, 7-6.
But the lead would be short-lived.
On the ensuing kickoff, Jaydn Ott returned it 100 yards for what would become the game-winning touchdown and the Bears now led, 13-7.
The teams traded punts on each of the next possessions. Following a Berkeley punt, the Bruins began their drive on their own 19. This was UCLA’s shortest drive of the night because Dante Moore fumbled on the first play of the drive and the Bears took over on the UCLA 11. Three plays later, Mendoza found Hunter for a 14-yard touchdown to give the Golden Bears a 20-7 lead.
Chip Kelly decided to try to re-group at halftime rather than risk another turnover with 5 seconds left and the Bruin faithful were not happy with the decision to take a knee down by 13.
Things didn’t get any better in the second half.
UCLA only had five possessions in the second half. One ended with another Dante Moore interception. This time, the pass was picked off by Cade Uluave. The second possession ended after Moore threw an incomplete pass on fourth-and-13 from the Bear 36.
After that drive, the Bears added another field goal by Bhaghani. This one was a 32-yarder and it put Berkeley up 23-7.
UCLA’s next possession was their shortest of the night. It began with Colton Yankoff attempting to run back a kick which would have been better off being a fair catch. It turned out that Yankoff gained a good amount of yardage on the return, but then he fumbled and the Bears took over on the Bruin 25.
Four plays later, Mendoza found Hunter for another Berkeley touchdown to make it 30-7.
UCLA’s fourth possession of the half started out well enough. Moore completed passes to T.J. Harden, Logan Loya and Carson Steele to move the Bruins to the Berkeley 39-yard line. Then, the offensive line imploded and Moore was sacked for a seven yard loss. To make matters worse, he fumbled on the play. The saving grace was that it went out of bounds and UCLA retained possession. On each of the next three plays, Moore threw passes to Josiah Norwood, Steele and Carsen Ryan, but none them could catch it and, again, UCLA turned the ball over on downs.
With about eleven and a half minutes left in the game, UC Berkeley took over on their own 46. The Bears milked the clock for almost the next eight minutes. They kept it on the ground for each of their first ten plays of the drive, only throwing a pass in an effort to keep the drive moving on third-and-goal at the Bruin 3. The pass to tight end Jack Endries was complete, but he was immediately tackled by Devin Kirkwood and Ramsey, gaining just a yard. In came Bhaghani who made his fourth field goal of the game, putting the Bears up, 33-7.
UCLA took over with 3:38 left and the offense moved the ball well on the next drive. But, again, it still wasn’t good enough to get the ball across the goal as the Bruins ran 13 plays and moved 51 yards before the clock ran out.
Chip Kelly, the Offensive Genius, had managed to lose another game at home and he is back to being a .500 coach since coming to Westwood. His record now stands at 34 wins and 34 losses.
The most frustrating thing I noticed in the fourth quarter was how many yards UCLA had gained compared to what the Bears had. The Bruins finished the game with a total of 380 yards to Berkeley’s 302 yards. Yet the Bears found a way to get into the end zone three times and they had a kicker who was four-for-four on field goal attempts.
The Bruins couldn’t get into the end zone except once early in the game and Kelly obviously has no faith that any kicker on the roster can get the ball through the uprights.
UCLA will now wait to find out what bowl game they will play in after finishing in eighth place in the Pac-12 standings. Something has to change, but it probably won’t.
Go Bruins.
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The game was a fitting end to yet another solidly-mediocre season for the "offensive genius" and an appropriate farewell to the ineptly-managed Pathetic Athletic Conference (soon to be Pac-2). Cal secured their blowout victory because they have a better coach and players who were highly motivated to stick it to UCLA and add another game to their season. For the Bruins to follow up a fairly convincing road win against U$C by coming out flat and totally flopping against Cal at home is embarassing. One could point to all of the mistakes made and current shortcomings of the players, but the primary enabler for the poor performances and utter disappointments over the past 6 seasons is Chip Alford. He's very fortunate to have D'Anton Lynn coach the Bruin defense this season., but we'll see how long he'll actually remain at UCLA.
Instead of people asking how much it will cost to fire Chip Kelly, they should ask how much it will cost to keep him?