All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 6 vs. Arizona
For as messy of a performance as it was, there were a few Bruins who stood out among their peers down in Tucson.
UCLA football (4-2, 2-1 Pac-12) visited Arizona (0-5, 0-2) on Saturday and ended up winning 34-16. Taking a look at each unit individually, here are the three student-athletes who have earned the All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game awards.
Offensive Player of the Week: RB Brittain Brown
This award could go to the Bruins' run game as a whole, but it's Brown who made his mark late.
He very nearly gave the game away late in the third quarter, fumbling the ball deep in Arizona territory when a single point would have made it a two-score game. The run itself was pretty good, breaking a few tackles and fighting to stay up even after converting the third down, but the giveaway was inexcusable.
On his very next touch, Brown made up for his error and went 48 yards for the game-sealing touchdown.
Brown finished the night with 146 yards on 12 carries, so even without that long score, he still averaged 8.9 yards per carry across his other 11 attempts. Six of his touches either directly or indirectly led to first downs, and he was just totally on his A-game on nearly every play besides the fumble.
Charbonnet had 117 yards of his own, and even quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson recorded three total touchdowns despite his career-worst night through the air, but it easily Brown who came away as the biggest winner Saturday.
Defensive Player of the Week: DL Otito Ogbonnia
No one should ever get credit or be praised for hurting an opposing player, but Ogbonnia's big sack on quarterback Jordan McCloud was undoubtedly a turning point in Saturday's game.
The Bruins had just fumbled the ball away and had been unable to pull away all night. Their usually aggressive and disruptive defense hadn't recorded a sack through three quarters, and they were on the verge of giving up a game-tying score.
Ogbonnia bull-rushed his way through the Arizona offensive line though and almost singlehandedly caused the pocket to collapse around McCloud. Unfortunately, McCloud's leg got caught in the pile and he was forced to leave the game, but in terms of what went down on the field, Ogbonnia forced a fumble and recovered it himself as well.
UCLA got two more sacks in the fourth quarter once Ogbonnia opened the floodgates, and he was a big part of the Bruins allowing just three points in the second half.
Ogbonnia had five tackles and 1.5 tackles for loss to go along with his strip sack, and he really stood out in what turned into a solid team defensive outing after such a shaky start.
Special Teams Player of the Week: K Nicholas Barr-Mira
As reliable and fundamentally sound as ever, Barr-Mira managed to beat out a slightly flashier competitor in this category.
Receiver Kazmeir Allen had one big return for 74 yards that set the Bruins up at the Wildcats' 20, but the offense was unable to convert it into a touchdown. Instead, Barr-Mira was the one who made sure they came away with points on the drive, hitting a 23-yarder to open the third quarter and stop the bleeding from the end of the first half.
Barr-Mira drilled another kick in the fourth quarter, one that came from 43 yards out and made it an 18-point game.
Two field goals in an 18-point game don't seem huge, but Barr-Mira just helped calm things down in general. He hit both of his attempts, as well as all three extra points, and his nine total points were tied for the third-most in a single game in his career.
It was also nice to see Barr-Mira get back on track after he missed kicks in each of his last two appearances. Barr-Mira was perfect, and that kind of steady presence was exactly what UCLA needed in such a weird game overall.
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