The No. 14 UCLA Bruins almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat before downing the No. 11 Kansas State Wildcats 40-35 in the Valero Alamo Bowl Friday night inside the Alamodome in San Antonio.
The overarching theme of UCLA's season—and arguably the Bruins' past few seasons—was that it could look dominant one week and utterly hopeless the next. The Bruins beat Arizona State on the road by 35 points on Sept. 25 and then lost to Utah at home a little over a week later. Later in the year, they also followed up a nice victory over USC with a defeat to Stanford.
CBSSports .com's Tom Fornelli made the point that UCLA was one of the most maddening teams to watch all season:
The Bruins provided the full UCLA 2014 spectrum in the Alamo Bowl, looking at some points unstoppable and then helpless at others. They nearly squandered a 25-point halftime lead before running back Paul Perkins found an opening and burst through the Kansas State defense for a 67-yard touchdown run to make it 40-28 with a little over two minutes left in the game.
Prior to the run, Kansas State had outscored the Bruins 21-7 and dominated possession in the second half. UCLA had run 15 plays for 62 yards in the third and fourth quarters before the scoring drive, compared to 43 and 208, respectively, for the Wildcats.
K-State wideout Tyler Lockett made it interesting with a 27-yard touchdown reception, but Perkins recovered the ensuing onside kick to extinguish the Wildcats' comeback attempt.
The Bruins averted a potential disaster, and it was fitting that Perkins saved the day since he was arguably their best player. He rushed for 194 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries. The Wildcats simply had no answer for the sophomore's speed when he got into the open field.
As a team, UCLA rushed for 331 yards, compared to 31 for Kansas State. With that kind of disparity, it's surprising that the Wildcats were even within striking distance in the second half.
Kansas State quarterback Jake Waters attempted 48 passes, the highest total of his career. Although he had 338 yards and two TDs through the air, Grantland's Matt Hinton found his team's reliance on the passing game a bit concerning:
In what is almost certainly his final college game, Brett Hundley didn't exactly go out with a bang, throwing for 136 yards and a touchdown 12-of-24 passing. He did add 96 yards and two TDs on the ground.
UCLA head coach Jim Mora revealed on Dec. 11 that Hundley would forgo his final season and head to the NFL, per Ryan Kartje of the Orange County Register:
Hundley 's UCLA career might have not gone exactly to plan, considering he was labeled a Heisman Trophy contender before the season. Still, the junior quarterback helped the Bruins win a total of 29 games during his three seasons, and beating a top-15 team like Kansas State is a good way to go out.
UCLA demonstrated how deadly it could be in the first quarter, scoring on its first three drives of the game, with a 27-yard field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn sandwiched by two rushing touchdowns from Hundley .
Hundley put the Bruins ahead a little over two minutes into the game with a 10-yard touchdown run and then made it a 17-point game with a minute and 25 seconds left in the first quarter following a 28-yard TD scamper.
Pac -12 Networks provided a nice visual for how much the field opened for the signal-caller:
Kansas State answered with two field goals from Matthew McCrane to cut the deficit to 11 points, 17-6, in the second quarter. The Wildcats missed a major opportunity, though, before McCrane 's second and left points on the board.
Lockett , a second-team All-American return man, took a Matt Mengel punt 41 yards to the UCLA 15-yard line. Despite that great field position, K-State went three-and-out, with Lockett dropping an easy pass in the end zone on third down. Mike Hammett of 1150 KSAL in Salina , Kansas, felt that play was a microcosm of Kansas State's game to that point:
Perkins compounded the Wildcats' misery 7:29 from halftime, breaking free for a 32-yard touchdown run to give the Bruins a 24-6 advantage:
Hundley picked up his first passing touchdown in the game with 19 seconds left in the half, finding a wide-open Devin Lucien from seven yards out to grab a 31-6 lead.
As Kartje noted, UCLA was thoroughly dominating the Wildcats heading into halftime:
Fox Sports' Tim Brando felt that UCLA's performance was all the more impressive given how few times this season Kansas State was decidedly outplayed:
The Wildcats received the ball to start the second half and embarked on an impressive 17-play, 75-yard drive that ate 7:37 off the clock. Waters capped it off with a three-yard touchdown pass to Lockett . The two connected for the two-point conversion to trim UCLA's lead to 17 points, 31-14.
Then, a mere two plays after Lockett 's TD, Perkins fumbled on his own 30-yard line. Linebacker Dakorey Johnson recovered to give the Wildcats possession on the UCLA 21-yard line.
Kansas State nearly wasted another red-zone possession, but Waters converted on a 4th-and-1 on the 12 to keep the drive alive. A personal foul penalty from Myles Jack on the next play put the Wildcats at the 2 with a 1st-and-goal. Running back DeMarcus Robinson then punched it in to make it a 10-point game, 31-21, with 3:25 left in the third quarter.
Kellis Robinett of The Kansas City Star and The Wichita Eagle felt that that TD helped breath life into the Wildcats faithful seated inside the Alamodome :
A 44-yard field goal from Fairbairn stopped the bleeding for the Bruins.
The problem for the Wildcats was that they were not only fighting against UCLA; they also had the clock with which to battle. After Fairbairn 's field goal, Kansas State had 15:33 seconds to make up 13 points. While that might seem like a lot of time, the Wildcats offense isn't built to score a lot of points in a short amount of time.
Waters made it a one-score game in the fourth quarter, 34-28, but the scoring drive took a little over six minutes, leaving the team with 4:54 to stop UCLA and then march down for the potential game-winning TD.
Hinton joked that they knew no other way than eating up every single second of a game:
Perkins' run likely hastened the inevitable, effectively putting the game out of reach for Kansas State. Too many things needed to go right for the Wildcats even after Lockett 's late TD in order for them to win.
A bowl victory is a nice way for UCLA to end the season, but there's no question that until the Bruins become a more consistent team, they'll continue to be on the outside looking in on the Pac -12 championship race.
Finding an adequate replacement for Hundley will be Mora's top task of the offseason.
Coming up short after such a ferocious second-half comeback is a disappointing conclusion to the 2014 campaign for the Wildcats, but they arguably played above expectations overall. Most expected Baylor or Oklahoma to run away with the Big 12, but K-State finished one game behind the co-champion Bears and TCU Horned Frogs.
As long as Bill Snyder's prowling the sidelines, Kansas State will continue to be in the conference title discussion.
from Bleacher Report http://ift.tt/1xhz290
via IFTTT January 02, 2015 at 07:48PM
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