UCLA Defense Torched for Almost 650 Yards as Bruins Lose to Southern Cal, 48-45
Meanwhile, DTR turned the ball over four times, throwing three interceptions and losing a fumble.
It’s hard to win a football game when your defense gets torched for 649 yards in total offense. That’s exactly what the UCLA defense allowed Southern Cal to do tonight.
That poor performance was exacerbated by four turnovers by UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
In spite of that, the Bruins only lost the game by a field goal.
Those certainly weren’t the only mistakes to be had tonight by UCLA. Chip Kelly called a timeout right before a missed field goal Southern Cal kicker Dennis Leary, allowing the Trojans to have a second shot at the field goal. Leary was successful on the subsequent attempt. Without that second quarter field goal, this game may have gone to overtime.
But I’m getting ahead of ourselves.
The Bruin defense actually started the night with three stops. On the Trojans’ first drive, the defense got a stop on 4th and 1 on the UCLA 19. Southern Cal QB Caleb Williams tried to go up the middle only to be rejected by UCLA’s Gabriel Murphy.
Following a quick three-and-out series by the Bruins, Southern Cal got the ball back on their own 45. This time, the Trojans drove to the UCLA 14 and Lynch attempted a 32-yard field goal which went wide left.
The Bruin offense settled down on their second drive, marching 80 yards in 14 plays with DTR plunging in from a yard out for the first score of the game.
On the second play of the Trojans’ next drive, Caleb Williams threw a ball right to Kain Medrano. It wasn’t clear who he was throwing the ball to, as Medrano was the only player from either team in the area.
On the first play of the Bruins’ drive, Michael Ezeike was all alone and DTR hit him for a 30-yard TD pass to give UCLA a 14-0 lead after the first quarter.
The Trojans came back to score the next ten points on a six-yard touchdown run by Williams and Lynch added a 44-yard field goal to make it 14-10, Bruins.
UCLA responded with a six-play, 63-yard drive and another DTR touchdown run. Southern Cal came right back with a 79-yard drive which was capped by an 8-yard touchdown run by Austin Jones.
Thompson-Robinson ended the next two UCLA series by throwing interceptions and, while they couldn’t capitalize on the first one, they did come away with three points to end the half as Chip Kelly called a timeout just before Southern Cal snapped the ball. While the first kick was quite short of the crossbar, the second try had enough leg and the teams went to the locker room with the Bruins leading 21-20.
The play selection to start the second half wasn’t very good either. UCLA moved the ball down to the Southern Cal 24-yard line and the offense sputtered again. A run by Zach Charbonnet lost six yards. With 2nd and 16, Thompson-Robinson completed a 2-yard pass to Keegan Jones. Third and 14 yielded another incomplete pass and Kelly sent out Barr-Mira for a 46-yard field goal and UCLA now lead, 24-20.
The Trojans scored quickly on a four-play drive after getting the ball back. Williams found Jordan Addison on a 35-yard pass which put Southern Cal ahead 27-24.
On the third play of UCLA’s next drive, DTR fumbled the ball away on the Bruin nine-yard line. Southern Cal took a ten-point lead soon thereafter on a two-yard run by Jones, 34-24.
The good news at this point is that the Bruins didn’t quit and they responded with another TD, this time from DTR to Michael Ezeike for six yards and the score was now 34-31.
On the first play of the fourth quarter, Williams found Kyle Ford for a 16-yard TD pass to take a 41-31.
Following a bizarre short kickoff by the Trojans, UCLA took over on their own 45 and Thompson-Robinson immediately found Kazmeir Allen for a 55-yard TD pass.
Southern Cal came back and drove 75 yards on 10 plays to push the lead back to ten points, 48-38.
The Bruins cut the lead back to a field goal following Ezeike’s third touchdown catch of the game and they trailed, 48-45.
The Trojans got the ball back with 6:38 to go and UCLA needing a stop. This drive ran the clock down to 2:27, but the Bruins got the ball back on their own 11 following Southern Cal’s only punt of the game.
UCLA drove down the field quickly, looking for a game-winning touchdown or, at least, a game-tying field goal. The Bruins got neither as DTR had a 3rd-and-5 pass intercepted on the UCLA 49.
And that was the ball game, ending UCLA’s hopes of playing in this season’s Pac-12 Championship Game.
UCLA will conclude their regular season when they travel to UC Berkeley for a game on Friday afternoon. Kickoff will be at 1:30 and the game will be broadcast on Fox.
Go Bruins.
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Your headline makes it sound like DTR costs us the game, but from my vantage point, he put the team on his back the last part of the game. Yes he fumbled, but he got hit hard by a player no one blocked. He also scored 4 passing TDs and 2 rushing TDs. He did try to do too much at times, but I honestly can't blame him, given the incredibly porous defense that never stopped $UC after the first ten minutes, and some questionable play calls by you-know-who. Hell, if not DTR, then who? Charbonnet played excellent as usual, but they were obviously keying on him.
Anyone who's played the game knows that the guys on defense played hard and gave it their best, but it's matter of having the horses and let's face it, we don't. Who's responsible for this? The Bruins have hardly played tough defense anytime during the Kelly experience. There was an equally bad defense on the field last night, and if I was a Toe Jams fan I'd be embarrassed that they could have easily lost to a team giving up 650 yards and 4 turnovers. Blow on!