Few teams have run hot and cold more so than UCLA. One week, the Bruins beat Arizona State 62-27 and the next, they lose at home to Utah. That Jekyll-and-Hyde nature was on display Saturday night.
After underwhelming in the first half against No. 12 Arizona, No. 22 UCLA dominated the second half and upset the Wildcats, 17-7, in the Rose Bowl.
Coming into the game, Bruins head coach Jim Mora talked about his team's consistency issues and how sometimes the players are lacking focus. From there, he veered off into a critique on society in general, per Everett Cook of the Los Angeles Times:
This generation is so easily distracted, because of all the access to the Internet and Facebook and Twitter. When we were kids, you had to think about stuff. Nowadays, I don’t know that kids have to think about things for as long as we used to have to. So my point to them is put that stuff away and think about what we’re doing here. Don’t go immediately to a distraction. When we have a practice, think about what happened in the practice instead of going and picking up your photo and looking at the latest Instagram photo. That’s a challenge with this generation.
Whether or not Mora's words sunk in is anybody's guess, but UCLA had one of its more impressive performances of the season on Saturday night.
The Bruins shot themselves in the foot with penalties, racking up 118 yards on 11 flags, but that proved to be a non-factor in large part because the UCLA defense held Arizona to 255 yards as a team. Wildcats quarterback Anu Solomon had an awful night, going 18-of-48 for 175 yards, one touchdown and an interception.
He was under constant pressure from the Bruins' front seven, seemingly having to scramble on every down. Sports reporter Jackie Mesa Pepper felt that it was probably a better idea to stay silent about the Wildcats' weak pass protection:
Arizona had no running game to speak of, either. Terris Jones-Grigsby led the team with 50 yards on 11 carries.
The UCLA offense struggled to find the end zone, but the Bruins amassed 46 total yards, 320 of which were courtesy of Brett Hundley . The star quarterback had 189 passing yards and a touchdown in addition to 131 rushing yards.
The general theme for the Pac -12 this year has been chaos, and once again, the conference watched on as one of its top playoff contenders fell. CBSSports .com's Tom Fornelli joked that the Bruins were only there to throw a monkey wrench in the Pac -12's plans:
UCLA often goes as far as Hundley can carry it, and in the first two quarters, he wasn't able to carry the Bruins very far.
The first half was a defensive battle, which came as a surprise considering the two teams were combining to average 76 points a game.
Solomon struggled mightily, going 4-of-14 for 30 yards. He added 29 yards on the ground to somewhat cover up his problems through the air. Jones-Grigsby chipped in 31 rushing yards of his own.
On the other side, Hundley didn't fare much better. While the Bruins star was efficient through the air, completing 10 of his 14 passes, he only managed 65 passing yards. NFL.com's Daniel Jeremiah was critical of Hundley 's pocket presence, which has been an ongoing issue throughout the year:
Arizona broke the deadlock in the first quarter with a 14-yard touchdown pass from Solomon to wideout Cayleb Jones. The Wildcats received a nice boost on the drive in the form of 30 penalty yards courtesy of UCLA linebacker Myles Jack, per Ryan Kartje of the Orange County Register:
In the second quarter, Ka'imi Fairbairn connected with a 24-yard field goal to cut the deficit to four points, 7-3, for the Bruins. He'd missed a 37-yarder a drive earlier.
As bad as the UCLA offense looked in the first half, Arizona was even worse. The Wildcats punted on five straight possessions, failing to do anything with their slim lead.
That haunted 'Zona in the second half when the UCLA offense awoke from its slumber.
Running back Paul Perkins handed the Bruins their first lead of the game with a five-yard touchdown run in the third quarter:
After a three-and-out from the Arizona offense, Hundley hit wide receiver Jordan Payton for a 70-yard pitch-and-catch to increase UCLA's lead to 10 points, 17-7 (via Pac -12 Networks):
Hundley tied Cade McNown's school record for touchdown passes in the process:
That TD proved to be enough for the Bruins. Arizona failed to build any sort of momentum offensively, quickly giving the ball back to UCLA and in turn wearing down the defense. Solomon in particular looked lost.
A Hundley fumble in the fourth quarter opened the door slightly for 'Zona, but a blocked 26-yard field goal with two minutes to play was the death knell for the Wildcats.
UCLA has three winnable games ahead, but the Bruins are still outside favorites to make the Pac -12 championship. To have any hope of doing so, they'll have to beat Washington on the road and the combination of USC and Stanford at home.
This is Arizona's second conference loss of the season, so the Wildcats are in the same boat. They have Colorado, Washington, Utah and Arizona State all to come.
//from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1tuFK9G
via IFTTT November 01, 2014 at 11:03PM
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