It’s been said that football is a game of inches. Well, the outcome of today’s UCLA game might have been decided by 39 inches and a boneheaded first quarter call by Oregon head coach Dan Lanning.
That’s because the officials appear to have incorrectly applied a rule on Oregon’s fourth quarter two-point conversion attempt.
With UCLA ahead 17-9 and less than three minutes to play, third-string Duck quarterback Brock Thomas found Evan Stewart for a 44-yard touchdown. Now down by two, the Ducks had to go for the two-point conversion to tie the game. Thomas tried to run it in. He wouldn’t get in, but UCLA linebacker Sammy Omosigho was properly flagged for a facemask penalty.
By rule, the ball should have been placed half the distance to the goal from the first two-point try, which would have been the half-yard line.
But the officials ended up enforcing the penalty from the previous spot, placing the ball at the one and a half. Oregon running back Jordon Davison ran it up the middle and was about a yard short of the goal line, and the Ducks would not tie the game.
Oregon kicked it deep on the ensuing kickoff and following a Bruin punt, the Ducks got the ball back on their own five with 48 seconds left needing a field goal to win. While they managed to get the ball to their own 37 with five seconds left, they were not in field goal range and, on the final play, one of the Oregon pitches was batted away by a Bruin defender and recovered by UCLA.
The reality is that this game never should have come down to that mayhem.
On first play of the game, Nico Iamaleava found Aiden Mizell for 62 yards to set up the Bruins at the Ducks’ 13-yard line. UCLA would eventually settle for the field goal and a 3-0 lead.
Following an Oregon punt, the Bruins got the ball back at their own 10-yard line. On the first play of UCLA’s drive, Iamaleava fumbled attempting to throw and Oregon recovered on the Bruin 1-yard line.
Davison immediately capitalized on a short plunge to give Oregon a 6-3 lead.
Then, Dan Lanning made what, at best, can be called a bonehead play call, or perhaps a greedy one. He called a two-point conversion up by three with about eight minutes left in the first quarter when a PAT field goal would have given the Ducks a four-point lead. The Bruins came up big, stopping Brock Thomas who tried to run it in for 2 points. It was a baffling decision at the time as to why Lanning called that play.
From there, the teams traded punts five times to end the first quarter.
On the first drive of the second quarter, the Ducks drove down to UCLA’s 13-yard line when Davison fumbled and the Bruins took over on their own 15, but they went three-and-out again.
The Ducks’ next drive ended when Anthony Sacca forced a Dylan Raiola fumble which Amier Washington recovered at the Bruin 49. Following a run by Anthony Woods for six and by Iamaleava for 11 along with a pass to Wayne Knight which lost a yard, Knight broke one big for a 35-yard touchdown to give the Bruins a 10-6 lead.
Mateen Baghani had a 27-yard field goal attempt blocked on UCLA’s next drive and, following another Oregon punt, the teams ended the first half exchanging interceptions with two from Iamaleava and one from Raiola. The second pick from Nico ended up being his final play of the day as he did not return in the second half after being hurt a few plays before that interception.
Interestingly, Iamaleava was not replaced by his brother Madden who has stepped in several other times this season. Instead, Ty Dieffenbach took over as UCLA’s quarterback.
In the second half, the Bruin defense continued to step up. Three of Oregon’s first four drives ended in turnovers with a pair of fumble and an interception in between. Unfortunately, UCLA could only capitalize on the interception as Dieffenbach found Knight for a nine-yard touchdown pass to put the Bruins up, 17-6, with 13:31 left.
But, after the interception, Oregon finally seemed to know they needed to do something differently and Lanning opted to replace the ineffective Raiola with Brock Thomas.
Eventually, the Ducks were able to kick a field goal with a little more than five minutes to go to the Bruin lead to 17-9.
UCLA went three-and-out on their next drive and there was just over three minutes to go.
On Oregon’s fourth play of their next drive, Thomas found Stewart for that touchdown I wrote about earlier. If Lanning had gone for one back in the first quarter, they could have gone for one, tied the game, and probably sent it to overtime, but that first quarter decision left Lanning with no choice but to go for two to tie. The Ducks came up short and that was the difference.
The story of this game was defense on both sides. Oregon’s defense held UCLA to a total of 203 yards passing between Iamaleava and Dieffenbach and they held the Bruin rushers to just 140 yards total on 47 carries. Wayne Knight had 22 carries for 103 yards and a TD to go along with 12 receiving yards and a receiving TD.
Meanwhile, the Bruin defense held Oregon QBs to 199 passing yards and Duck rushers to just 73 yards.
Iamaleava threw two interceptions as did Raiola. UCLA also forced two fumbles.
The Bruins will put their undefeated record on the line against Wisconsin next Saturday at the Rose Bowl. Kickoff will be at either 12:30 pm PT or 4:30 pm PT. Start time and TV info should be announced tomorrrow.
Go Bruins!!!
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