Tucson Trainwreck: UCLA Looks Unprepared and Loses, 27-17
Chip Kelly's offense looked like Noel Mazzone's offense while D'Anton Lynn's defense looked like Jerry Azzinaro was back calling the Bruin defense.
When UCLA lost their first game of the season, it was due to a lack of offense. Even when the Bruins lost to Oregon State, the offense let the team down. Against Arizona, both the offense and the defense looked completely and totally unprepared for what the Wildcats were doing on the field.
The Bruins began the game with the ball, and true to form, the team failed to do anything on their first drive, going three and out after gaining just four yards. Following a UCLA punt, Arizona starter Noah Fifita did a great impression of UCLA’s Dante Moore by throwing an interception. This one was returned 37 yards to the Wildcat 39-yard line.
The Bruins managed to move the ball 24 yards down to the 15, but then a holding call on Bruno Fina resulted in a loss of ten yards, stalling the drive. Out came Blake Glessner, who got the start at kicker following R.J. Lopez’s recent issues, but he missed a 42-yard field goal attempt.
With UCLA unable to capitalize on the interception, the Cats came back out onto the field and drove 76 yards for the first touchdown of the game.
The Bruins moved the ball better on their next drive. They moved all the way down to the Arizon eight-yard line this time, but again, UCLA shot themselves in the foot. Colin Schlee fumbled on second down, losing seven yards but he recovered his own fumble. Garbers returned for a third-and-12 from the 15 only to get sacked by Taylor Upshaw, losing eight more yards. Facing fourth-and-20, UCLA head coach Chip Kelly sent Glessner out for another field goal attempt and Glessner missed a 43-yard attempt.
When Arizona got the ball, the Bruin defense looked ready to show off its dominance finally. The Wildcats moved the ball down to the UCLA 34. But Fifita’s pass to Jacob Cowing lost five yards. Keanu Williams and Laiatu Latu combined for a five-yard sack. A delay of game penalty moved them back further to the 50. On third and 26, Fifita found Tanner McLachlan for a 10-yard gain, but they were still 16 yards short. So, they punted it away.
The Bruins went three-and-out again, giving the Wildcats the ball again.
With 4:33 left in the half, Fifita led Arizona on a seven-play, 61-yard drive which resulted in a nine-yard touchdown pass to Cowing from Fifita.
With time running down in the half, UCLA’s offense managed to put together their best drive so far. T.J Harden moved the Bruins 12 yards on the ground and 19 yards through with a pair of pass receptions, On second down with the clock down to 22 seconds left, Garbers found Logan Loya for 30 yards before he connected to Carsen Ryan for a 14-yard touchdown to cut Arizona’s lead to 14-7 at the half.
The second half began with the teams trading field goals. In UCLA’s case, it was another case of the offense being unable to get the ball across the goal. This time, the Bruins got as close as the Arizona 4-yard line. But on second and goal, Garbers threw an incomplete pass and he was sacked for a loss of seven on third down. Down by 17-7 now, Kelly opted to try another field goal. This time, Glessner was good from 29 yards out.
When Arizona got the ball back, they quickly moved down the field, scoring in just six plays for their third touchdown of the game to take a 27-10 lead on an 11-yard pass from Fifita to Tetairoa McMillan.
When UCLA got the ball back, Ethan Garbers was sacked on the first play of the drive. In addition to losing seven yards on the play, the Bruins also lost Garbers who went down with a leg injury. Dante Moore entered the game, but rather than call plays to let Moore manage the offense and with UCLA facing a second-and-17, Kelly called consecutive pass plays, both of which went incomplete leading to a punt.
Following what was a rare three-and-out by the Bruin defense, Kain Medrano had one of the team’s highlights when he blocked a punt by Arizona’s Kyle Ostendorp, giving UCLA a short field with the ball on the Wildcats’ 31.
But the Bruins found a way to implode on offense again. After moving the ball 12 yards to the Arizona 19, UCLA lost five yards on a Carsen Ryan false start and, then, lost two more on a pass to Colson Yankoff. Following a three-yard pass to J. Michael Sturdivant and an incomplete pass, the Bruins faced a fourth-and-14 from the Arizona 23. Bruno Fina was called for a false start, moving the ball back to the 28. On fourth-and-19, Moore could only find Harden for a 5-yard pass, turning the ball over on downs with about eight minutes remaining.
Fifita immediately found Rayshon Luke for a 66-yard gain to set up a 22-yard field goal by Tyler Loop, which put Arizona up 27-10.
With 4:40 now left in the game, UCLA got the ball back again and moved the ball 33 yards on three runs by Collin Schlee, but facing 4th-and four on Arizona’s 42, Schlee threw an incomplete pass and turned the ball over to the Wildcats who ran out the clock, sending the Bruins home with their third loss of the season.
The Bruins ran the ball 29 times for just 114 yards while UCLA’s quarterbacks were just 17 of 33 for 157 yards passing. Meanwhile, the defense allowed 129 yards rushing and 300 yards passing.
The loss drops the Bruins to 3-3 in conference play and 6-3 overall. They will need to win their final three games to match last year’s regular season record of 9-3 overall and 6-3 in conference play.
UCLA will host Arizona State at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. Kickoff is scheduled for 6 pm and the game will be broadcast on Pac-12 Networks.
Go Bruins.
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Great write up - thank you!
I am exhausted with watching our lack of preparation and it falls on Chip, who isn't worth one more $ - and yet here we are once again in a season where coaching is non-existent.
Chip's raking in millions and enjoying the good life while our Football program sinks lower and lower into the proverbial quick sand. Lack of recruiting, lack of coaching, lack of leadership and lack of responsibility.
I have said this before but it may bear repeating... With all of the additional money UCLA is going to receive in the BIG, we need to just fire Chip as soon as Jarmond has a solid short list of new coaches in hand and under the radar. The amount of ticket revenue loss will be huge unless we make a change. And we will be demolished in the BIG with Chip.
Jarmond has an opportunity to make his mark and it's time for him to step up and call for Chip's dismissal.
Go Bruins! 💙💛
I’ve seen better high school offenses. The passing game is horrendous. Chip is a fraud! SOS
I don’t blame the defense. They would have had to play a perfect game.