Part 10: Washington State vs. #19 UCLA

          After completing their first shutout victory since 2007, the 19th-ranked UCLA Bruins returned home to the Rose Bowl for their final home game of the season. Due to Veterans' Day earlier in the week, UCLA players wore special USA-themed helmets to support Military Appreciation Day. Their foe was the Washington State Cougars, who are second in the Pac-12 North after defeating Arizona State 38-24 in Washington. Washington State started the season looking like a lousy team and probably had the worst start to the season amongst all of the Pac-12. They opened the season with a loss to a lower-division team. After two wins, the Cougars barely lost to then-24th-ranked California, whom UCLA blew out at the Rose Bowl. The Cougars rode a 3-game win streak before blowing a 43-yard field goal that could've beaten then-8th-ranked Stanford. They defeated Arizona State by two touchdowns the following weekend.
          In the two teams' last meeting in 2012, then-18th-ranked UCLA defeated Washington State up in Washington 44-36. The Bruins and the Cougars were tied 7-7 until UCLA rocketed off by outscoring WSU 30-0 in the second quarter. The Cougars rallied, but did not have enough time to catch up to the Bruins. Former UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley led the Bruins' offense by completing 18 of 21 passes for 261 yards and 3 touchdowns.
          Given that this is UCLA's final game at the Rose Bowl this season, vendors were selling trading cards with the information of each senior Bruin players' statistics over their college career at UCLA just outside of the stadium. Before this game, Fairbairn was one point short of breaking the UCLA record of "most points responsible for". He had his struggles early in his career. In his freshman year, he blew a 52-yard field goal that could've tied the score with Stanford in the 2012 Pac-12 Championship. Stanford won 27-24. In Fairbairn's junior year, he barely missed a 50-yard field goal that could've helped UCLA beat Utah. The Utes won 30-28. But this year, Fairbairn set two personal-best long field goals. He kicked a 53-yard field goal against Arizona State, whom UCLA lost to 38-23. Three weeks later, he kicked a 60-YARD FIELD GOAL against then-#20 California. This was the second longest field goal in Pac-12 history and the longest in UCLA history. UCLA went on to win that game 40-24.
          In the first quarter, the Bruins managed to stop the Cougars' offense by pushing them back all the way to their own 3-yard line. The Bruins marched down the field to kick a 22-yard field goal and lead 3-0. This field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn set the UCLA and Pac-12 records for "most points responsible for". Washington State scored a touchdown on their next drive to take a 7-3 lead. Again, the Bruins responded with a field goal. The score was 7-6. In the second quarter, UCLA scored their first touchdown of the game off of a 14-yard touchdown rush from sophomore running back Nate Starks. On the following drive, WSU quarterback Luke Falk was sacked and had to sit out for the rest of the half. Their backup QB, Peyton Bender threw a touchdown pass WSU receiver Dom Williams to take back the lead to 14-13. To go into halftime, Fairbairn kicked his third field goal of the night. The halftime score was 16-14 UCLA.
          At halftime, all of the senior Bruins were honored as they came out onto the field with their parents. Senior players included wide receivers Devin Fuller and Jordan Payton, kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn, center Jake Brendel, punter Matt Mengel, backup quarterback Jerry Neuheisel (all Bruin fans love this guy), and linebacker Aaron Wallace. After that, a 100-yard United States flag was spread out onto the field for Military Appreciation Day.
          To start the third quarter, UCLA stalled on their first drive at their own 47-yard line. So they tried to send out junior wide receiver Kenneth Walker out onto the field to punt like he did against California. At first, it looked like a fake punt, but Walker decided at the last second to kick it away. The only problem was that the punt went sideways. So guess what? It was a ZERO-YARD PUNT. If people are wondering if that was even possible, well, now they know. Washington State took advantage of this and took the lead back 21-16. UCLA's next drive wasn't any help either. Wide receiver Darren Andrews fumbled the ball and it was recovered by WSU. The Cougars kicked a field goal early in the fourth quarter to lead 24-16. After a UCLA field goal, WSU was knocking on the door for a score, but Luke Falk was intercepted by Jaleel Wadood in the end zone. This led to a big scramble by UCLA quarterback Josh Rosen for a 37-yard rushing touchdown. This was Rosen's second career rushing touchdown and his longest run. The two-point conversion to junior tight end Thomas Duarte was successful and UCLA led 27-24 with 1 minute and 9 seconds left to go in the game. But WSU wasn't finished. The Cougars marched right down the field. Then, Luke Falk threw a 21-yard touchdown pass to receiver Gabe Marks with 3 SECONDS LEFT IN THE GAME. The score was 31-27. Trying to come back, Rosen scrambled for a while, but threw an incomplete pass, which sealed the game as UCLA suffered their third loss of the season and moved to 7-3 overall.
          UCLA fans were very, very angry. After the game ended, all of the UCLA fans, myself included, were booing at the referees. The officiating was absolutely horrible. There were AT LEAST 10 HOLDING PENALTIES on Washington State that they did not call, yet they have a better view of the field than all of the fans. UCLA suffered 13 penalties for 75 yards. For Bruin fans, it is like every single penalty is on themselves and not the opponent. I am wondering, do the refs have something against us? Maybe that is so. UCLA should've won this game, but nope. The refs were helping Washington State. Even UCLA head coach Jim Mora got ticked off at the refs for not calling OBVIOUS HOLDING PENALTIES, throwing down his headset and screaming at them. I personally think that the conference should fire these officials because this isn't only happening to UCLA. Below the post is an example of one of the holding penalties that wasn't called by the officials. Arizona State lost to Oregon on a bad call earlier this year. An Oregon receiver barely stepped out of bounds in what the refs called a touchdown, which led to Oregon's 61-55 3OT victory against Arizona State. This has been an issue since I-don't-know-when. I personally think that Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott needs to fire these referees and hire new ones. The main reason why the Pac-12 has not lived up to expectations is the terrible officiating.
          Speaking of the Pac-12 conference altogether, there is no chance at all that a Pac-12 team will make it to this year's College Football Playoff. Then-7th-ranked Stanford lost 38-36 to Oregon at Stanford. Then-#10 Utah lost at Arizona 37-30 in double overtime. Of course, as said in this blog earlier, then-#19 UCLA also lost. USC escaped Colorado 27-24 in Boulder, Colorado in freezing temperature, Arizona State defeated Washington 27-17 at Sun Devil Stadium, and California defeated Oregon State 54-24.
          UCLA fell out of the top 25 once again on Tuesday evening. USC(24th) and Oregon(23rd) both joined the top 25, but will play an elimination game next Saturday in Oregon. Even with this awful loss, UCLA still has a decent chance to clinch the Pac-12 South. Utah lost to Arizona, giving the Utes their second loss in conference play. UCLA has three conference losses and USC has two. If UCLA beats both Utah and USC, the Bruins will own the tiebreaker over both teams. UCLA will play against 13th-ranked-Utah this Saturday on the road. This will be a tough game for both teams as this will be an elimination game for the Pac-12 South. The winner will probably go on to face Stanford, Washington State, or Oregon in the Pac-12 Championship. The loser will have no chance of going to the Pac-12 Championship. After this game, the Bruins will return to Los Angeles to challenge USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum in a rivalry game after Thanksgiving. Let's hope that the UCLA Bruins will recover from this heartbreaking loss to Washington State and defeat Utah and USC to head to the Pac-12 Championship. Gooooooooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is one of the holding penalties that the referees/officials

neglected to call. UCLA fans kept shouting, "HOLDING!

 WHERE'S THE FLAG?!". A "flag" is a penalty marker indicating that a

player on one of the teams is breaking a rule in football. As a result, the

team will either have extra yards to have to gain back (offense) or

the opposing team will have less yards to need to pick up for a 

1st down (defense). UCLA was on defense in this play while Washington State 

was on offense. You could see that UCLA defender Deon Hollins (black jersey #58)

 was being held by a Washington State offensive lineman. If the referees called 

this penalty, Washington State would have had to cover 10 extra yards on 

offense to pick up a 1st down.

Part 9: #23 UCLA vs. Oregon State

          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!!!!!

Part 8: Colorado vs #24 UCLA

          After rebounding from back-to-back blowout losses, 24th-ranked UCLA football will finally receive a rest from a rough football schedule against four of five teams in the top 20. UCLA went 3-2 (3 wins and 2 losses) in this stretch. UCLA defeated #19 BYU 24-23, #16 Arizona 56-30, and #20 California 40-24. The Bruins lost to Arizona State 38-23 and #15 Stanford 56-35. Among these teams as of now, only Stanford remains ranked, sitting atop the Pac-12 at #8 in the country. In total, only 3 Pac-12 teams are ranked: #8 Stanford, #13 Utah, and of course, #24 UCLA. The Bruins are tied for second in the Pac-12 South Division with USC, only one win behind Utah, whom UCLA will play near the end of the season. Back on Thursday night, Arizona State fell out of Pac-12 South Championship contention with a triple overtime loss to the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 North Division.

          Back to that rest that UCLA will get, the Bruins started off by playing against the Colorado Buffaloes, who are last place in the Pac-12 South, at the Rose Bowl. The Buffaloes went into this game coming off of their first Pac-12 Conference win in, pretty much, forever (not really forever, but first win in a long time against a Pac-12 team), by defeating the Oregon State Beavers 17-13. Last year, UCLA (ranked 25th at the time) barely survived the Buffaloes 40-37 in Colorado. The Bruins led 24-14 going into halftime before being outscored 17-7 in the second half. After two overtimes, UCLA prevailed 40-37 off of an 8-yard touchdown rush by former Bruins quarterback (currently Green Bay Packers backup QB) Brett Hundley.

          On UCLA's first drive, the Bruins moved 91 yards, capped off by a 31-yard touchdown pass from UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen to Bruins junior running back Paul Perkins. The score at the end of the first quarter was 7-0 UCLA. Midway through the second quarter, on a Colorado 3rd down and goal, Buffaloes quarterback Sefo Liufau threw an interception to UCLA cornerback Ishmael Adams, who returned it 96 yards in the other direction for a pick-6. UCLA led 14-0. Colorado answered with a field goal to cut it to 14-3. After Colorado kicked it off, UCLA freshman wide receiver Stephen Johnson III returned it to UCLA's 28-yard line. But the Bruins were marched back 10 yards off of a holding penalty. This set up an 82-yard touchdown run by Paul Perkins to make the score 21-3. Colorado kicked a field goal going into halftime making the score 21-6 Bruins.
          UCLA's offense barely spent any time on the field as Colorado's offense had 61 plays, the most plays allowed in a half. The main reason the Bruins had a lead was because of their quick scoring offense. UCLA's injury-plagued defense, however, allowed over 250 yards of offense from Colorado in the first half.
          The third quarter is when the Buffaloes took advantage of UCLA's depleted defense. On the first Colorado drive of the half, all of their plays were rush plays. The Buffaloes scored a touchdown off of it, cutting the score to 21-13. Sophomore UCLA running back Nate Starks answered with an 11-yard touchdown run to expand the lead to 28-13. Colorado began to go wild here. After a Buffaloes field goal to end the third quarter, Josh Rosen was sacked and fumbled the ball. It was picked up by Colorado and returned for the touchdown by Buffaloes defender Samson Kafovalu. The score was 28-23. Colorado took their first lead of the game when CU running back Patrick Carr rushed for a 6-yard touchdown. The two-point conversion was successful and Colorado led 31-28. UCLA's offense responded with a 3-play 67-yard drive that took only 27 seconds. The drive was capped off by a short touchdown run by UCLA freshman running back Soso Jamabo. Looking for last hopes, Sefo Liufau threw a pass late in the fourth quarter, only to be intercepted by UCLA freshman defender Nate Meadors, thus ending the game with the score being a 35-31 UCLA victory.
          The UCLA Bruins football team reached bowl game eligibility with their sixth win of the year. UCLA senior kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn is 10 points shy of tying or breaking the UCLA record of responsibility for most points. There are only at least 5 games left this season for UCLA: the four leftover regular season games and the bowl game. All the Bruins need to do is win the rest of their regular season games in order to reach the Pac-12 Championship. If that happens, UCLA would need to play against Stanford, who is currently 8th in the country and who also trashed UCLA two weeks ago. In case anyone wanted to know if "history would be repeated", that unfortunately did not happen as USC defeated California 27-21 in Berkeley. In other Pac-12 South games, 13th-ranked Utah defeated Oregon State 27-12 in Salt Lake City and Washington pounded Arizona 49-3 in Seattle.
          On Sunday morning, UCLA moved up in the AP top 25 to number 22. This will be the last time I mention UCLA's ranking in the AP top 25. On Tuesday November 3, the first College Football Playoff top 25 was released. UCLA was placed at number 23. Next week, UCLA football will travel up to Corvallis, Oregon to take on the Oregon State Beavers, who have the worst overall record in the Pac-12 Conference and are sitting dead last in the Pac-12 North Division, winless in the Pac-12. Last year, Oregon State did fail to reach a bowl game, but late in the season, the Beavers shocked then-#6 Arizona State 35-27 in Corvallis. I hope that UCLA does not let an upset loss happen and will continue an exciting season. After this game, the Bruins will play against the Washington State Cougars in their final game at the Rose Bowl this season. Washington State barely lost to #8 Stanford 30-28 off of a botched 43-yard field goal. Back to the Oregon State game, I hope that UCLA wins this game. Gooooooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
       
          P.S. Heads up to basketball fans! Basketball season will be starting really soon! UCLA has already won an exhibition game against Cal State L.A. The 2015-2016 Bruins basketball team attended the Colorado game at the Rose Bowl and will travel to the Maui Invitational in Hawaii early in this season.

Part 7: #20 California vs. UCLA

          After two dreadful blowout losses to Arizona State and Stanford, UCLA football arrived back at the Rose Bowl banged up, unranked, and fourth of six in the Pac-12 South Division. But they still have a chance to keep their Pac-12 Championship and College Football Playoff hopes alive, beginning with a game at the Rose Bowl on Thursday night against the 20th-ranked California Golden Bears, who had a bye week the previous week after falling short 30-24 against then-5th-ranked Utah in Salt Lake City. The loss to Utah was Cal's only loss coming into this game. The first half went very well for the Bruins. After a Cal field goal, UCLA had 23 unanswered points. First, there was a 42-yard field goal by UCLA senior kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn. Then UCLA freshman quarterback Josh Rosen threw a touchdown pass to junior tight end Thomas Duarte. Then Rosen found senior wide receiver Devin Fuller for a 19-yard touchdown pass. Afterwards, Fairbairn kicked a 20-yard field goal. The score was 23-3 before Cal junior quarterback Jared Goff threw a great touchdown pass to wide receiver Kenny Lawler to cut the lead to 23-10. On the following UCLA drive, Ka'imi Fairbairn set a new career-long UCLA record with a 60-yard field goal. This was also the second longest field goal in Pac-12 conference history. The last time any kicker has kicked a field that was 60-yards or longer was Rice University's Chris Boswell in 2013.
          The halftime show was hilarious for Bruin fans. Both Cal's and UCLA's marching bands performed "The Fall of Troy" together. This story was based on the Greek myth that featured Odysseus. There were also band members dressed as Trojans. At the beginning, after Menelaus and Helen's wedding celebration, Trojans stormed in and stole Helen. The Greeks went over to Troy to battle against them, but they lost. So the Greeks created a wooden horse and loaded a few people inside the horse. It was sent over to Troy and fooled the Trojans, who hailed this huge horse. Afterwards, the Greeks stormed into Troy and defeated the Trojans. After the show, it was stated that history will repeat as both Cal and UCLA's football teams will defeat the USC Trojans football team later this season.
          The Bruins received the second half kickoff and scored off of it with Josh Rosen throwing his third touchdown pass of the night to Devin Fuller for 21 yards. After a Cal punt, UCLA had a chance to load up more points on the Bears, but that was stopped after Bruins defender Kenny Lacy committed a holding penalty. A holding penalty is when a player tries to block a player on the opposite team but making contact above the shoulders. This led to UCLA's first punt. A punt is when a team on offense kicks the ball to the opposing team when they think they cannot convert on fourth down. Cal scored on the following drive, but failed the two-point conversion. The score was 33-16. But the Bruins responded as UCLA freshman running back Soso Jamabo ran the ball into the end zone from 2 yards out to extend the lead to 40-16. The final score was 40-24 since Cal scored a touchdown plus had a successful 2-point conversion. UCLA managed to bounce back after two harsh back-to-back losses to seal their fifth win of the season. UCLA is only one victory away from becoming bowl eligible. That means that if a team has six victories, they can play an extra game at the end of the football season to know their final place at the end of the season.
          UCLA returned to the top 25 on Sunday morning. The Bruins are now ranked 24th in the country while Cal dropped out of the top 25. This is the beginning of a rebuilding time in this football season for UCLA. The Bruins' chances at making it to the Pac-12 Championship have risen significantly as then-3rd-ranked Utah suffered their first loss of the season to USC, who is tied with Arizona State and UCLA for second in the Pac-12 South Division, unfortunately. As of now, for UCLA to win the Pac-12 South, the Bruins need to win out, meaning that they need to win the rest of their games this season. The Arizona Wildcats can provide some assistance for UCLA's Pac-12 title hopes by also winning out, although they just barely lost 45-42 to the Washington State Cougars. Arizona State, who beat the Bruins 38-23 at the Rose Bowl earlier this year, needs to lose a game because they hold the tiebreaker over UCLA. Both of ASU's in-conference losses come against USC and Utah. They had a bye week this week and they will play against the Oregon Ducks of the Pac-12 North Division. The Ducks may give ASU their third conference loss of the year. Colorado has no chance whatsoever of winning the Pac-12 South despite defeating Oregon State this past weekend. USC can just do what they do, and Utah needs to lose to UCLA later this season, thanks to USC ripping open Utah's weaknesses to other teams.
          UCLA will play against Colorado this Saturday, which is Halloween, surprisingly. The game is at the Rose Bowl and game time starts at 12 noon. Cal will play against USC up in Berkeley (Yes, UC Berkeley is referred to as Cal) on the same day. I hope history does repeat itself as Cal will beat USC. I also hope that 24th-ranked UCLA will defeat Colorado and become bowl eligible. Gooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!!

Part 6: #18 UCLA vs #15 Stanford

          The 18th-ranked UCLA Bruins traveled up to Palo Alto, California to clash with 15th-ranked Stanford on "The Farm", which is how some people refer to Stanford Stadium. Stanford was predicted to win by 7, a touchdown. In the first quarter, after the Bruins forced Stanford to punt, Josh Rosen threw his sixth interception of the year, which resulted as a pick-6 (an interception returned all the way back to the end zone) by Stanford defender Alijah Holder. UCLA responded with a field goal on their following drive after consecutive penalties on defender Caleb Benenoch cost the touchdown. On the next kickoff, Stanford running back Christian McCaffrey caught and returned it 96 yards, all the way to UCLA's four-yard line. This set up a Stanford touchdown pass from Kevin Hogan to Austin Hooper. But once again, UCLA responded as Josh Rosen threw a 70-yard touchdown pass to Darren Andrews, making the score 14-10 Stanford.
          This is when Stanford rocketed away. The Cardinal scored three more touchdowns to expand the lead to 35-10. First, there was a nine-yard touchdown pass from Hogan to Devon Cajuste. Then, there were two consecutive touchdown rushes by Christian McCaffrey. To close out the half, UCLA running back Paul Perkins ran the ball into Stanford's end zone to cut the score to 35-17.
          The third quarter was no better. Stanford wide receiver Francis Owusu made the most godly reception ever, in my opinion. At first, the play just looked like some trick play, as Christian McCaffrey took the snap, handed it off to Stanford running back Bryce Love, who pitched it back to Kevin Hogan, and Hogan followed up with the touchdown pass, which is already going to be the best play of the college football season, like nobody can beat that play. While I was watching the game, I thought it was an interception by UCLA defender Jaleel Wadood. But I was wrong. If anyone remembers that one catch Kodi Whitfield made against the Bruins two years ago, how about this catch? If you want to see that beautiful catch, check out the link at the end of the post.
          Anyways, back to the game, the score was now 42-17 Stanford. After a UCLA field goal, Christian McCaffrey ran for two more touchdowns to extend the lead to 56-20. One of these scores was off of Josh Rosen's seventh interception of the year. McCaffrey set a Stanford school record with the amount of rushing yards in a single game: 243 yards and four touchdowns. This was still in the third quarter. In total, McCaffrey had 369 all-purpose yards in this game. He currently leads the NCAA in all-purpose yards this season, with 1,518 yards on kickoff returns, receptions, and rushes combined, followed by San Jose State's Tyler Ervin (1,432 yards) and LSU's Leonard Fournette (1,258 yards). At the end of the game, Stanford crushed UCLA 56-35, ending the Bruins' NCAA-long road-game win streak and handing UCLA their second straight loss of the season.
          The Bruins dropped out of the top 25 on Sunday morning while Stanford joined the top 10 for the first time since the postseason top 25 in 2013. UCLA is only three spots away from coming back into the top 25. They have an opportunity to come back as they will play against the 20th-ranked California Golden Bears at the Rose Bowl this Thursday at 6:00 P.M. As a big-time Bruins fan, I hope the Bruins come back after two very disappointing back-to-back losses and snap back by beating a top-20 team. This will be the fourth team ranked in the top 20 that UCLA will play against this season. The previous three were 19th-ranked BYU (UCLA won 24-23), 16th-ranked Arizona (UCLA also won 56-30), and 15th-ranked Stanford (which I talked about in this blog). Goooooooooooooo Bruins!!!!!!!


Link to the catch made by Francis Owusu:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHinglqAAhY

Part 5: What's happening on the Bye Week

           Hey, what's cooking in the world of college football? The 20th-ranked UCLA Bruins are taking a bye week, which is when a team takes the week off of playing. So this week, I'm going to talk about all of the football games that featured the top 25. On Thursday night, UCLA's crosstown rival, the then-17th-ranked USC Trojans played against the Washington Huskies. After the first half, USC kicked a field goal to lead 6-3. Huskies running back Myles Gaskin ran a bunch of big plays as he and quarterback Jake Browning led Washington to a 17-12 victory against USC. On Saturday, some of the games in the top 25 were quite wild. Top-ranked Ohio State escaped a struggling Maryland in a 49-28  Buckeyes victory. Maryland kept the games as close as a 21-21 tie midway through the third quarter, but could not hang on to top the #1 team in the country. Third-ranked Baylor exploded on offense in a 66-7 blowout win against Kansas, one of very few winless teams as of now. Number 14 Ole Miss was coming off of a blowout loss to the Florida Gators. They defeated New Mexico State 52-3 in a cakewalk game. New Mexico State is also a winless team.
            The first of the shockers this past Saturday was the Red River Rivalry game, featuring 10th-ranked Oklahoma and a struggling Texas football team. Texas bounced back from a series of disappointing losses, coming off of a 50-7 loss against then-4th-ranked TCU, taking a 24-17 win against 10th-ranked Oklahoma. Twenty-second ranked Iowa, who upset then-20th-ranked Wisconsin 10-6 the past week, held on to a 29-20 win against Illionois. Number 24 Toledo crushed Kent State 38-7. Both Iowa and Toledo are currently two of a few undefeated teams. The sixth and seventh-ranked teams, Clemson and LSU, cruised in their games. Clemson beat Georgia Tech 43-24 and LSU beat South Carolina 45-24. The Big Ten Conference's big game of the week featured #13 Northwestern and #18 Michigan. This game turned into Michigan's second shutout game against a ranked team, as they defeated Northwestern 38-0. Their other shutout win was a 31-0 game against then-22nd-ranked BYU, who barely lost 24-23 to UCLA the past week. Number 15 Notre Dame cruised past Navy 41-24 and #25 Boise State crushed Colorado State 41-10. As of now, Boise State's only loss this year was a 35-24 game against BYU, who, again, almost upset UCLA. Number 11 Florida had a stifling defense after crushing Ole Miss the past week. The Gators won 21-3 against Missouri.
          This is where the wildness comes in. Number 21 Oklahoma State traveled near the East Coast to take on West Virginia. Going into overtime, quarterback J.W. Walsh ran into the end zone on 4th down and goal to make the score 33-26. But on West Virginia's chance to tie up the game, quarterback Skyler Howard threw an incomplete pass on 4th down and goal, as Oklahoma State went on to continue staying undefeated. Number 19 Georgia was looking to rebound after a humiliating 38-10 loss to Alabama as they traveled to Knoxville, Tennessee to take on Tennessee. Unfortunately, Georgia lost for the second straight time, falling 38-31. Speaking of Alabama, the eighth-ranked Crimson Tide trailed a struggling Arkansas 7-3 at the half. They ran off in the fourth quarter, clinching a 27-14 victory. Second-ranked TCU was given a really bad time as they trailed 35-17 at halftime against Kansas State. The Horned Frogs rallied right back, using a go-ahead touchdown pass from Trevone Boykin to Josh Doctson to get a 52-45 win. Fourth-ranked Michigan State faced off against a flailing Rutgers. The Spartans trailed 14-10 at halftime. But they came right back and beat Rutgers on a go-ahead touchdown run by running back LJ Scott. Michigan State won 31-24. In the Sunshine state, #12 Florida State challenged Miami. The Hurricanes had a 24-23 lead that was blown as FSU running back Dalvin Cook saved the game as he did last year, leading Florida State to a 29-24 victory. Fifth-ranked Utah, coming off of a bye week after crushing then-#13 Oregon 62-20, took on 23rd-ranked California in Salt Lake City. In the third quarter, Cal cut Utah's lead to 27-24 after recovering a fumble from Utah running back Devontae Booker. On the final play of Cal's last offensive drive, Bears quarterback Jared Goff threw a pass intended straight for wide receiver Kenny Lawler, only to have it batted down by Utah defender Boobie Hobbs (Seriously, that's what everyone calls the guy. Do not take any offense to this, girls). Utah won the game 30-24 to remain undefeated as Cal suffered their first loss of the season.
            The new top 25 rankings were quite interesting the following Sunday morning, as USC and Georgia dropped out of the polls. Duke and Houston replaced them as Duke became #25 and undefeated Houston became 24th. Duke's only loss is against Northwestern, who is now ranked 20th after a blowout loss to Michigan. Michigan moved up to 12th. Their only loss this year was a 24-17 defeat against Utah at the start of the season. Speaking of Utah, the Utes rose to 4th after their victory against California, who stayed at 23rd in the polls despite losing their first game of the season. LSU and Clemson each moved up one spot as Clemson barged into the top 5, replacing Michigan State, who fell to 7th after a close call against Rutgers. LSU is now ranked 6th. Top-ranked Ohio State remains at #1 while Baylor and TCU swapped positions: Baylor being second and TCU being third. Florida hopped up to #8 after shutting down the Missouri offense in a 21-3 victory. Texas A&M stayed at ninth as they took a bye week. Alabama fell to tenth after barely escaping Arkansas at home. Florida State moved up one spot in the top 25 to #11. Ole Miss moved to 13th and Notre Dame moved to 14th. Oklahoma State and Iowa both leaped 5 spots. OK State is 16th and Iowa is 17th. Oklahoma tumbled to 19th after losing to a struggling Texas team. Boise State jumped to 21st and Toledo moved to 22nd after both teams had blowout wins.
            So where are Stanford and UCLA? Stanford, who had a bye week like UCLA and Texas A&M, moved up one spot to 15th, while UCLA moved to 18th. Both Stanford and UCLA will play each other this coming Thursday. Before this week, Stanford blew out Arizona 55-17 at home, a week after UCLA crushed U of A 56-30 in Arizona. In case you want to know who USC is playing next, well, they have to take on 14th-ranked Notre Dame in Indiana. But back to UCLA, let's hope that the Bruins will bounce back after getting crushed by Arizona State 38-23 at the Rose Bowl. Stanford has been the one team that UCLA always struggles to beat. Bruins head coach Jim Mora currently does not have any wins against Stanford. In the Jim Mora era (2012 football season-present), UCLA has lost to Stanford 35-17 in the Rose Bowl in 2012 and then lost again 27-24 at Stanford at the 2012 Pac-12 Championship off of a missed 52-yard field goal by Ka'imi Fairbairn. In 2013, UCLA's offense was smothered up at Stanford as the Bruins lost 24-10. Finally, in 2014, the Bruins, who were ranked eighth at the time coming off of a 38-20 blowout win against then-#19 USC, blew a conference championship opportunity by losing to a struggling Stanford at the Rose Bowl 31-10. This upcoming game may change things up for both teams, although Stanford is predicted to win by 5. GOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BRUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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!!!!!!!