Monday, October 5, 2015

Part 4: Arizona State vs #7 UCLA

            The 7th-ranked UCLA Bruins were coming off of a big road win against the then-16th-ranked Arizona Wildcats, 56-30. Heading back to Pasadena, there was a whole lot of hype about the Bruins being a College Football Playoff contender. The Bruins were going to play against the Arizona State Sun Devils, who were coming off of a 42-14 blowout loss to the USC Trojans, UCLA's crosstown rival, at ASU's home stadium. The Bruins were favored by 13 points. The first quarter was almost scoreless, until Bruins freshman quarterback Josh Rosen got sacked in the UCLA end zone for an Arizona State safety. A safety is when a team's offense is backed up all the way into their own end zone. Safeties give the opposing defense 2 points and a free offensive possession. So UCLA kicked it off to ASU. ASU's returner, Tim White, fumbled the catch, but quickly picked it right back up and returned the kickoff 63 yards, deep into UCLA territory. ASU scored off of that drive to make the score 9-0. In the second quarter, UCLA rolled up 10 points, ending the half on a career-long 53-yard field goal by senior place kicker, Ka'imi Fairbairn. The halftime score was 15-10 ASU. In the first half, Josh Rosen completed 13 of 19 passes for 160 yards. Now if that wasn't bad, the rushing game was horrid for UCLA, as the Bruins had a total of 17 rushing yards. Junior running back Paul Perkins, who came into this game with 128.5 rushing yards per game, barely went anywhere.
               The third quarter did not go well at all for UCLA. Three minutes and 55 seconds in the third quarter, Arizona State senior quarterback Mike Bercovici found a big hole up the middle to run to the end zone, making it a 22-10 ASU lead. The Bruins' defense still struggled as Bercovici found DJ Foster in the end zone to make the score 29-10. By this point in the game, I thought I was having a nightmare, but I was not, sadly. In the fourth quarter, Paul Perkins ran right up the middle to cut the lead down to 29-16. The Bruins failed on a two-point conversion attempt as Josh Rosen threw an incomplete pass intended for UCLA senior wide receiver Jordan Payton. On an ASU third down, Mike Bercovici threw a pass that was intercepted by UCLA defender Issako Savaiinaea.Then, Josh Rosen threw a 17-yard touchdown pass to junior tight end Thomas Duarte, cutting the score to 29-23. After the Bruins put a stop to ASU's offense on the UCLA 47-yard line, ASU punter Matt Haack punted the ball all the way to UCLA's one-yard line. That punt pretty much killed the game and the mood for UCLA Bruin fans, especially me. The UCLA offense went next-to-nowhere on that drive. To keep it a one-possession game, Long snapper Christopher Longo purposely over-snapped UCLA punter Adam Searl to give ASU another safety. If UCLA actually punted, the ball would land in field goal range, and if ASU kicked the field goal, the game would be out of reach. The score was 31-23 ASU. The Bruins' defense tried to give it their all, as they spent the majority of the game on the field. Deep in UCLA territory, when the game was practically over, Arizona State running back Kalen Ballage rushed with a horde of UCLA defenders on him for a 23-yard touchdown. Then that really ended the game. Arizona State gave UCLA their first loss of the season, defeating the Bruins 38-23 at the Rose Bowl. Josh Rosen completed a total of 22 of 40 passing attempts for 280 yards, 2 touchdowns, and one interception. His victorious counterpart, Mike Bercovici, completed 27 of 44 passing attempts for 273 yards, 2 touchdowns, and one interception, just like Rosen. What really stumbled for the Bruins was the 67 total rushing yards that they had. Paul Perkins accounted for 63 of those yards. This is the second straight season in which UCLA came to the Rose Bowl off of a blowout road win (last year was a 62-27 victory against 15th-ranked ASU in Tempe, Arizona, and this year, a 56-30 victory against 16th-ranked Arizona in Tucson, Arizona) against a ranked team which became a fluke as the Bruins lose miserably at the Rose Bowl against an unranked team coming off of a lousy loss at home the previous week (last year Utah beat UCLA 30-28 after losing 28-27 against the Washington State Cougars in Salt Lake City, Utah, and this year, ASU was trounced in Tempe, Arizona by USC 42-14). UCLA tumbled all the way down from 7th to 20th in the Top 25.
              The Bruins were not the only team that struggled as a top 10 team. Third-ranked Ole Miss was crushed in "the Swamp" (Florida's home stadium in Gainesville, Florida) by 25th-ranked Florida 38-10. Eighth-ranked Georgia flopped at home against 13th-ranked Alabama by an identical score as the aforementioned Ole Miss game. Sixth-ranked Notre Dame fell short against 12th-ranked Clemson 24-22 at Clemson's Memorial Stadium. Second-ranked Michigan State held on against a 1-win Purdue team in Michigan 24-21. Finally, top-ranked Ohio State maintained their status as number one in the country after finishing off unranked Indiana 34-27 in Indiana. UCLA is going on a bye week this next week before traveling up to Palo Alto, California to take on the Stanford Cardinal, who are currently ranked 16th in the nation. Let's hope that the Bruins bounce back after their loss to ASU and win against Stanford. UCLA has a very long win streak when not playing at the Rose Bowl, as they haven't lost since falling to #2 Oregon in Eugene, Oregon 42-14 in the 2013 football season. So let's see what happens Thursday after next when UCLA challenges Stanford up in Northern California. Gooooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!

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