After reaching bowl eligibility last week in a 35-31 victory against the Colorado Buffaloes, 23rd-ranked UCLA Bruins football traveled up to Corvallis, Oregon to take on the Oregon State Beavers. Game time was at 1:30 PM Pacific Time. The Bruins looked to continue to control their own destiny through winning the rest of their games and possibly winning the Pac-12 South. Oregon State sits at the bottom of the Pac-12 North, with only 2 wins all season and failing to reach bowl eligibility. The Beavers are winless in Pac-12 Conference play, losing 5 straight overall after starting the year 2-1 (2 wins and 1 loss). Last week, OSU lost 27-12 at then-13th-ranked Utah.
In the two teams' last meeting in 2012, Oregon State upended UCLA (ranked 19th that week) at the Rose Bowl 27-20. This would be the Beavers' second straight upset win against a top 20 team. Their first in that season was a 10-7 victory against then-14th-ranked Wisconsin in Corvallis. This was also in former UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley's first season as a college quarterback. OSU former quarterback Sean Mannion led the Beavers offense with 379 passing yards and 2 touchdowns. Before this game, UCLA had not defeated a team from the state of Oregon since 2011.
The first quarter was scoreless, but on OSU's last drive in the quarter, Beavers quarterback Nick Mitchell fumbled the ball, and it was recovered by UCLA's Jacob Tuioti-Mariner. This set up a 38-yard field goal by UCLA kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn. On OSU's following drive, Mitchell's pass was intercepted by UCLA defensive back Randall Goforth. This led to an 8-yard touchdown pass from UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen to tight end Thomas Duarte to make the lead 10-0 Bruins. On OSU's next drive, Beavers punter Nick Porebski punted the ball all the way to UCLA's 4-yard line. This did not stop UCLA's offense as Rosen threw a 63-yard pass to wide receiver Kenneth Walker. This led to a 10-yard touchdown pass to Duarte again. The score was 17-0. then Nick Mitchell threw another interception into the hands of Bruins defensive back John Johnson. The next play, Duarte caught a 51-yard pass, followed up by a 7-yard rushing touchdown by UCLA running back Paul Perkins.
Josh Rosen had a very good first half, using a lot of big passes for 252 first-half passing yards. Oregon State, on the other hand, was having a very bad game, with 111 less total yards then Josh Rosen's yards alone. The Beavers had 3 turnovers: two interceptions and a fumble. All three of those turnovers led to UCLA scores: a field goal off of the fumble and two touchdowns for two picks (interceptions).
The third quarter only added to Oregon State's misery. the Bruins started the quarter with an 11-yard touchdown rush by running back Nate Starks to make the score 31-0. This was followed by an interception from Nick Mitchell to UCLA defender Jaleel Wadood. It led to a UCLA field goal. By the end of the third quarter, UCLA running back Soso Jamabo ran the ball 30 yards for a touchdown to expand the lead to 41-0. This wound up as the final score of the game as the Bruins completed their first shutout in the Jim Mora Era (2012-present) and got their seventh win of the season.
The Bruins had an impressive game defensively since no points were allowed and only 246 yards were allowed. Meanwhile, the offense had a season-high 674 yards in possibly their best win of the season. This game was the second game that UCLA's defense allowed less than 5 points. The other game that was well-played defensively was a 37-3 victory against UNLV in Las Vegas. Oregon State had less total offensive yards than the yards Josh Rosen produced alone. Rosen completed 22of 33 pass attempts for 333 passing yards and 2 touchdowns before being pulled out for garbage time in the fourth quarter. Garbage time is when a team that has a blowout lead in the fourth quarter pulls out all of their starters to prevent unnecessary injuries. Place kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn managed to come within 1 point for tying the UCLA all-time record for "most points responsible for".
Elsewhere in the Pac-12 South, Colorado was blown out 42-10 by #11 Stanford, Arizona State completely lost their Pac-12 title hopes with a 38-24 loss to Washington State, #12 Utah hung on to beat Washington 34-23, and USC escaped Arizona 38-30. With Utah's win, UCLA remains tied for second place for the Pac-12 South with USC. UCLA has yet to play against both USC and Utah, as those two games will finish out the regular season for the Bruins.
On Tuesday afternoon, UCLA leaped up to 19th in the College Football Playoff top 25. The Bruins are riding a 3-game win streak and will look to extend it against the Washington State Cougars at the Rose Bowl. Washington State has had an up-and-down season this year. To start the year, the Cougars lost to a lower-division team 24-17 in Washington. This was followed by two wins before starting conference play with a loss to then-24th-ranked California, whom UCLA blew out at the Rose Bowl. They rode a 3-game win streak until blowing a 43-yard field goal that could've boosted the Cougars to a win against then-8th-ranked Stanford. The Cougars rebounded with a 38-24 win against Arizona State last Saturday. This game is the final game at the Rose Bowl for UCLA. Kickoff is at 7:45 PM Pacific Time. The Bruin football players will wear special USA-themed helmets as the game will be dedicated to Military Appreciation Day (Veterans' Day is on Wednesday November 11). I am pretty sure that Washington State will fight as hard as they can, even if they have a disadvantage on offense.
The Cougars have an "air raid" type of offense, which means they do a lot of passing plays. In fact, they rank second in the nation in average passing yards per game, with about 417 yards passing per game. UCLA's defense ranks 1st in the Pac-12 in passing yards allowed per game with 199 while Washington State is second with 211. UCLA's defense, however, is ranked 8th in the Pac-12 in rushing yards allowed per game with 198, while Washington State is 11th in the conference with 206. Given that Washington State is 2nd to last in rushing yards per game in the country, UCLA's defense might not have so much of a hard time since they are good at not allowing so many pass yards. Also, UCLA is good at making rushing plays, so that can really get to Washington State's defense. Anyways, I hope that UCLA defeats Washington State to progress to 8-2 (8 wins and 2 losses) and will be prepared for road games at Utah and USC to close the season. Goooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!
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