UCLA Defense Ready for Prime Time as Bruins Beat Buffs, 28-16
The Bruin defense sacked Shedeur Sanders seven times and held him to just 217 yards passing.
If any of the 71,343 fans in attendance had any doubts left about the UCLA defense coming into tonight’s game, those people should be believers after the Bruins shut down Shedeur Sanders and the high-flying Colorado offense.
The Buffaloes came into tonight’s game averaging nearly 350 yards passing per game, but the UCLA defense wasn’t having that. The Bruins held quarterback Shedeur Sanders to just 217 yards passing, and, as usual, UCLA gave up just one touchdown.
How good were the Bruins tonight?
Well, the short answer is: good enough. UCLA gained 218 yards on the ground, one more yard than the defense gave up to the Colorado air attack. Meanwhile, Ethan Garbers, who wasn’t great in the first half, finished the game 20 of 27 for 269 yards and two touchdowns.
The Buffs took the opening kickoff and drove 62 yards before their offense stalled on the UCLA 13 and Coach Prime settled for three points on a 31-yard field goal.
Meanwhile, Ethan Garbers trotted out and did his best impression of Dante Moore on the Bruins’ opening drive by throwing an interception on third and five from the UCLA 30.
Despite the short field, the Bruin defense held again and forced a 39-yard field goal that gave the Buffs a 6-0 lead.
After the teams traded punts, UCLA got the ball on their own 40. Chip Kelly kept the ball on the ground until they got down to the Colorado three when Garbers found Carson Steele in the end zone for a three-yard touchdown pass, putting the Bruins ahead 7-6 and it put UCLA up for good.
In fact, that was the score at half time. But that leaves out the important part of the second quarter story.
The Bruin offense found itself stuck in neutral as UCLA gave the ball to Colorado on three consecutive drives. First, Carson Steele fumbled on the Buffalo 20 following a big 18-yard gain. Then, on UCLA’s next drive, Colin Schlee threw the ball into the hands of two-way phenom Travis Hunter at the Buffaloes’ 41-yard line. UCLA’s kicking game continued to struggle as R.J. Lopez hit the upright on a 24-yard field goal attempt on their next drive. Finally, on the Bruins’ final drive of the first half, Steele fumbled again. This time, he lost it on the Colorado 6-yard line, killing another scoring opportunity for UCLA.
To the Bruins’ credit, the offense looked much improved in the second half.
They came out from the locker room and, after taking the kickoff to start the half, Garbers found Logan Loya for 49 yards and the Bruins were in business with the ball on the Buffaloes’ 26-yard line. On the next play, Garbers connected with Maliki Mataveo for his second touchdown pass of the game, giving the Bruins a 14-6 lead.
After the teams traded punts, the defense continued to play well when it counted. They stopped Colorado’s next drive on the 16-yard line, forcing another Buffalo field goal.
When the Bruins got the ball back, Garbers led the team on a 13-play, 80-yard drive which ended when T.J. Harden scored on a three-yard touchdown run, putting UCLA up 21-9.
UCLA’s next drive led to another Bruin touchdown. This time, it was an 11-play, 75-yard drive that took just over six minutes off the clock as Collin Schlee ran it in from the Buffs’ 7-yard line. At this point, it looked like the Bruins were going to cover the 15-point spread as they now had a 28-9 lead.
But the defense was due to give up their one touchdown for this game and they did as Shedeur Sanders led his team on a 9-play, 86-yard drive that saw him find Jimmy Horn, Jr. for a 16-yard touchdown, cutting the UCLA lead to 28-16.
With less than three minutes to go, Coach Prime tried an interesting onside kick which bounced under the jump of the Bruin hands team rather than off a UCLA player, effectively ending Colorado’s chances of a comeback in this one.
And, that’s how this one ended.
The story of this game was again the UCLA defense, which sacked Sanders seven times. The Bruins were led by Laiatu Latu who had two sacks and the Murphy brothers who each had 1.5 sacks.
The sacks compensated for a lack of turnovers by the defense which wasn’t able to turn the ball over in this one, despite punishing the Buffaloes with hard hit after hard hit.
Next week, UCLA heads to the desert for what will likely be a tough game against a surging Arizona Wildcats team led by head coach Jedd Fisch. Kickoff is set for 7:30 pm on Fox Sports 1.
Go Bruins!!!
Thanks again for supporting The Mighty Bruin. Your paid subscriptions make this site possible. Questions, comments, story ideas, angry missives and more can be sent to @TheMightyBruin on Twitter.
I haven't seen an aggressive Bruin defense like this in years. Wayne Cook commented about this in the post game broadcast, the Bruins always managed to give up 20 when it was third and 19. An God, do I love those uniforms!
Watching Arizona, next weeks game definitely won’t be easy.
UCLA will be the 5th ranked team in a row they played - in their previous 4 they lost to UW by 1 TD, took SC to 3 OTs, and beat Washington St and a highly ranked OSU. Hopefully Bruin defense from today can travel and get good pressure