UCLA heads to Rutgers after heart breaking loss to Minnesota

The long first season in the Big Ten for the UCLA Bruins football team continued last Saturday night at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena as the Bruins lost a heartbreaker in the last 30 seconds of the game to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, 21-17.

The loss was the fifth consecutive defeat for the Bruins football team, leaving them at 1-5 for the season and 0-4 in the Big Ten. It does not get any easier next Saturday, October 19, with the Bruins traveling to the east coast to play the Rutgers Scarlet Knights at SHI Stadium in Piscataway, New Jersey.

The win for the Golden Gophers improved their record to 4-3 for the season, and 2-2 in the Big Ten Conference standings. But it was not easy, with Minnesota scoring the winning touchdown with just 27 seconds remaining in the game. Minnesota head coach P.J. Fleck reflected on the game in his post-game press conference.

"First and foremost, you got to give UCLA a lot of credit," Fleck said. "My goodness, what a football game. This is what the Big Ten is all about. There are no easy games in the Big Ten. Period. I'm not saying this was easy for them, or it was easy for us. I'm saying there were no easy games."

Fleck added, "This is just a tremendous win for our program, and you got to give UCLA a lot of credit. They've got really good players that play their tail end off and Coach (DeShaun) Foster should be congratulated for that."

The Bruins did play well enough to win this game and probably should have won the game. The Golden Gophers came into the Rose Bowl with the No. 1 ranked pass defense in the country, allowing 114 yards per game. UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers shredded their pass defense, completing 25 of 36 passes for 293 yards.

On their first offensive series of the game, the Bruins drove 59 yards in 10 plays, with Garbers completing five consecutive passes for 54 yards. Running back Keegan Jones completed the drive with a one-yard plunge for a touchdown to give the Bruins a 7-0 lead. The Bruins added a field goal at the end of the second quarter to take a 10-0 halftime lead.

The third quarter for the Bruins was a disaster. The Bruins got the opening kickoff of the third quarter and quickly went three and out, punting back to the Golden Gophers, who then drove 46 yards in five plays, a drive that culminated in a 12-yard scoring pass from Minnesota quarterback Max Brosmer to wide receiver Elijah Spencer to cut the lead to 10-7.

On the next UCLA offensive series, Garbers was intercepted at the UCLA 38-yard line. Six plays later, the Golden Gophers scored again on a two-yard run by running back Darius Taylor, to take a 14-10 lead with 7:16 remaining in the third quarter.

The Bruins finally broke though in the fourth quarter with a 9-play, 89-yard drive, culminating in a 42-yard bomb from Garbers to wide receiver J. Michael Sturdivant for a touchdown, giving the Bruins a 17-14 lead with 6:54 remaining in the game. But Minnesota got the ball back on their own 39-yard line with 2:16 left, and seven plays and 61 yards later they won the game on touchdown pass from Brosmer to Taylor of four yards. UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster was frustrated with how the game ended.

"We started with the lead, like you said, but we just didn't execute in the second half like we wanted to," Foster said. "But the run game, we have to find a way to get that rolling and be consistent. We did not really run the ball the way that we'd like. That's a good team we played against. But we just did not do what we needed to do at the end of the game."

The Bruins have struggled to run the ball and that has led to a struggle to score points. The Bruins are currently ranked 131st out of 133 teams in rushing yardage per game, and they are averaging just 14.5 points per game, which ranks 132nd out of 133 teams. The Bruins have not scored more than 17 points in a game this season.

In this game, the Bruins rushed for 36 yards on 26 carries. The load is being put on Garbers and he had a good game, but he also threw three interceptions, one which was a Hail Mary pass at the end of the game. The running game needs to improve and that is on the coaching staff.

The attendance for the game was just 42,012, with a large contingent of Minnesota fans, as Fleck noted after the game. "We had 15,000 plus in the Rose Bowl. They made the trip out here. In fact, we gave them the game ball. I'm not giving out 15,000 game balls – I'll get the bill for that one. We're going to keep a game ball that says "The Fans" on it with today's date. I know it's not the Rose Bowl game, but I've never been here, and this was special."

The game against Rutgers will start at 12:00 pm EST (9:00 am locally) and will be televised on FS1. Rutgers has a record of 4-2 on the season, 1-2 in the Big Ten Conference. Their lone win in conference was against the Washington Huskies at home. The Bruins are currently in last place in the 18-team Big Ten conference.

The Bruins played well enough to win against Minnesota, and the defense is playing better. As Garbers said after the game, "If anything, this will just motivate us even more because we are still hungry to get a win in the Big Ten." Bruin fans can only hope.