UCLA Football Gets Knocked Out by Washington, 31-19
The Bruins were missing something all night long in tonight's game, kind of the way Mike Tyson was.
Tonight’s UCLA football game seemed to closely resemble tonight’s other big sporting event. If you haven’t watched the Tyson-Paul fight and want to watch it, you may want to stop reading until after you’ve watched the fight because there will be some spoilers.
The Bruins went toe-to-toe with the Huskies tonight much in the same way that Tyson and Paul did. But, in the end, like the 58-year old boxer, the Bruins just couldn’t compete.
The first five possessions in the game basically saw the teams circling the ring without doing much, as each possession ended with a punt.
Unfortunately for the Bruins, Brody Richter’s third punt of the game went just 17 yards to the Bruin 36, giving the Huskies great field position to start their drive. After a three-yard run by Jonah Coleman, Husky QB Will Rogers threw a pass to Cameron Davis which gained 18 yards, putting Washington on the UCLA 15. The Huskies then went back to Coleman who took it the distance for a 15-yard touchdown run.
UCLA drove the ball well on the ensuing drive, but just like you were waiting for Tyson to look like his younger self, neither were able to get the job done. The Bruins drive stalled on the Husky 10 and UCLA settled for a Bhaghani field goal that felt as unsatisfying as one of the middle rounds of the Tyson-Paul fight.
The Bruin defense did a nice job on the next drive stopping the Huskies after six plays including a fourth-and-one on the Washington 45 to turn the ball over on downs.
But again, the Bruins just couldn’t punch it in. UCLA moved the ball down to the Huskies’ 17-yard line, only to have Ethan Garbers get sacked for a 14-yard loss while fumbling the ball away on the play.
Nine plays later, Washington QB Will Rogers found Keleki Latu for an 8-yard touchdown pass to extend the Huskies’ lead to 14-3.
Like Tyson in the second round, it looked like the Bruins were going to put up a decent fight. They moved 65 yards in less than three minutes, scoring on the one-yard pass from Garbers to Kwazi Gilmer. That made it 14-10 and that was the score at the half.
If you turned off the UCLA game at the half to watch the Tyson-Paul fight, you didn’t miss much in the second half.
On the third play of the second half, Devin Kirkwood picked off a pass from Rogers at the Washington 34 and returned it back to the Husky 25. But, like Iron Mike, the Bruins couldn’t quite get their legs moving. Three plays later, UCLA faced a fourth-and-seven, forcing DeShaun Foster to send out the only Bruin who could get his leg moving—Mateen Bhaghani—for a 40-yard field goal to close the gap to just a point, 14-13.
On the third play of the Huskies’ second drive of the second half, Rogers threw his second pick of the half. This time, he was picked off by Kain Medrano at the 50 and who returned it 11 yards down to the Washington 39-yard line.
It would have been natural to think, “Now, the Bruins have them,” much like you might have expected Tyson to show a flash of his younger self and knock out Paul. On the fourth play of this UCLA drive, the Bruins fell flat, just like Iron Mike. In the Bruins’ case, Jack Pedersen caught a 9-yard pass from Garbers, but Pedersen fumbled and the Huskies recovered.
After Rogers threw his second interception, Jedd Fisch had seen enough to throw in the towel and bring in freshman backup quarterback Demond Williams, Jr., who proceed to make Rogers look as sluggish as Tyson. Williams used a combination of his leg and his arm to move the Huskies from their own 20 all the way to the UCLA 27. On third-and-nine, Williams tried to run for the first down, but he only gained four yards and the Huskies settled for 41-yard Grady Gross field goal increasing their lead back to four points, 17-13.
Garbers led the Bruins on a long, slow drive that took more than seven minutes and moved 49 yards on 13 plays down to the Washington 26, where this drive stalled. Foster turned to Bhaghani for a makeable 44-yard field goal try, but it went wide left.
Again, the Huskies used Williams’ arm and legs to move the ball well. In fact, they covered 73 yards on just seven plays, giving Washington a third-and-goal on the Bruin one-yard line. On the next play, Williams found Decker DeGraaf for a touchdown, increasing the Huskies’ lead to 24-13.
UCLA’s next drive was a bit of an odd one. It started well. In fact, facing a fourth-and-one, the Bruins went for it and got the first down with a quarterback sneak by Garbers. On the seventh play of the drive, Garbers was sacked for a ten-yard loss. So, after seven plays, the Bruins were right back where they started on the the Washington 35. On the final play of the drive, Garbers was sacked for a loss of 12 yards by Russell Davis, giving the Huskies the ball back on the Bruin 23.
Of course, the Huskies got the ball down to the UCLA two, thanks in large part to a pass interference penalty on Devin Kirkwood, making it easy for Coleman to punch it in for Washington’s knockout blow which made it, 31-13.
With time running down and UCLA now trailing big, the Bruins drove down the field quickly and even scored on a two-yard TD pass from Garbers to Moliki Matavao. It was almost like what Tyson could have done when Paul put his fists down as the time ran out in the eighth round. Sure, he could have unleashed a final bit of Tyson fury, but it wasn’t going to knock Paul out and it was clear the Bruins were about to do that in this game, too, especially when they missed the two point conversion that made it 31-19.
And, that’s how this game ended.
It was a unanimous decision that Washington had outplayed the Bruins similar to the way the judges’ decision were unanimous in favor of Jake Paul.
The Bruins will now need to beat Southern Cal and Fresno State to become bowl eligible.
Next week, UCLa returns home looking to retain the Victory Bell.
Go Bruins. Beat $c!!!!
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It was the surrender whites!
Tyson sandbagged that match so he could get a payout.
Unfortunately for us, college football doesn’t reward tanking, and even if we did we don’t even have the depth on either line to pretend we could do something like that.
Absolutely crazy to see what happened to Carmody and Jeffers. Starting DE Jacob Busic at DT tells you all you need to know.