From the start of tonight’s game, the UCLA Bruins looked flat. Unfortunately, that persisted and the Bruins fell to the Arizona Wildcats, 34-28.

Arizona got the ball first and, despite moving the ball yards on the drive, they punted away to UCLA. But the usually highly potent Bruin offense went three and out on their first drive and kicked it back to the Wildcats.

Arizona started their next drive on the Wildcat 45-yard line. That’s the point where the Bruin defense started to look like swiss cheese. The Wildcats moved 55 yards in 7 plays to take a 7-0 lead.

The Bruins shot themselves in the foot on the next drive. A holding call on the kickoff meant that UCLA started the drive from their own nine instead of the 18. Then, Michael Ezeike was called for offensive pass interference and UCLA was moving in the wrong direction. Soon thereafter, they punted again.

Arizona moved with the kind of precision usually seen from the Bruin offense and they sliced and diced the Bruin defense for 63 yards on 7 plays and another touchdown to take a 14-0 edge.

The UCLA offense finally found its stride on the next drive. Starting from their own 27 this time, the Bruins moved 73 yards on the drive as Zach Charbonnet carried six times on the drive including UCLA’s first touchdown, a 1-yard run, to cut the deficit to 14-7.

Following another Arizona punt, the Bruins drove 99 yards to tie the game on a 51-yard pass from Dorian Thompson-Robinson t o Hudson Habermehl.

Arizona managed to get the final points of the first half with a six-minute, 75 yard drive to retake the lead 21-14.

Having deferred their choice to the second half, the Bruins got the ball following the break. They drove the ball down to the Arizona 21 before the offense imploded. DTR lost three yards on each of two consecutive plays and threw an incompletion on third down to make it 4th and 16 from the Wildcat 27. Rather than taking a chance at that point, Chip Kelly sent Nicholas Barr-Mira out for a 45-yard field goal attempt which was blocked by former Bruin Tia Savea. This missed field goal would come back and haunt the Bruins on the final drive.

The defense stopped Arizona on their next series and the Bruins got the ball back on their own 11. Finally, the offense looked like what we’ve seen all season as they drove 89 yards on 12 plays and Charbonnet added his second touchdown of the game to tie it up, 21-21.

Arizona jumped back ahead on a 35-yard field goal and it was 24 question-21, Wildcats.

UCLA drove 65 yards on nine plays in just under three minutes ..to take their first lead on the third touchdown of the game by Charbonnet, this time for five yards. The Bruins finally had a lead, 28-24.

But that lead was short-lived as the defense couldn’t stop Wildcat QB Jayden de Laura. This time, Arizona moved 82 yards in 8 plays and scored on a 17-yard touchdown pass from de Laura to Tetairoa McMillan. That touchdown put the Wildcats ahead 31-28.

Titus Mokiao-Atimalala return the kickoff to the Bruins 32-yard line, giving UCLA decent field position after the Arizona touchdown. It was at this point in the game that the play calling from Chip Kelly became really questionable. On first down, DTR threw a pass which was incomplete rather than running the ball. On second down, Kelly called a running play to Charbonnet that netted four yards, which would have been fine on first down, but left the Bruins with a 3rd-and-six situation. Naturally, Kelly called a pass play which also went incomplete, bringing fourth down.

That left UCLA in an impossible situation.

Do you go for it on fourth-and-six and risk turning the ball over deep in your territory or do you kick it away and risk a long Arizona drive to seal the game?

Kelly opted to go for it on fourth down, but the risk didn’t pay off and DTR threw another incompletion.

Arizona took over on the Bruin 36 and ran it on six straight plays to get down to the UCLA 11. On second down from the 11, de Laura found Dorian Singer for 4 yards and de Laura gained a yard on 3rd-and-six. Jedd Fisch sent out Tyler Loop for a 23-yard field goal which he hit to put Arizona ahead, 34-28, with 1:07 to go.

This is where the missed Barr-Mira field goal became big. If he had made it, UCLA would have only been trailing by three when embarking on their final drive of the game.

On the final drive of the game, the Bruins moved the ball to Arizona 29-yard line on just three plays, including a defensive pass interference call. But four straight incomplete passes by DTR ended the game.

If the Bruins had been able to make that earlier field goal attempt, Kelly could have brought Barr-Mira in to tie the game, but he never had that chance because of the blocked kick earlier in the game.

Charbonnet finished tonight with 24 carries for 181 yards and three touchdowns while DTR was just 26 for 39 passing for 245 yards and a touchdown.

UCLA will host Southern Cal next weekend at 5 pm on Fox and a victory in that game will go a long way towards taking the sting out of losing this one.

Go Bruins.

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