All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 1 vs. LSU
The Bruins went into Saturday as an underdog with tens of thousands of opposing fans taking over their home stadium.
UCLA football (2-0) powered through those obstacles off the field and put on a real show under the lights, beating LSU (0-1) 38-27. 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: QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson
Zach Charbonnet very nearly repeated in this spot after putting up even more yards than he did in his breakout debut against Hawaii, but the leader of the Bruins' offense deserves recognition following one of the best statistical performances of his career.
Thompson-Robinson's raw stats don't jump off the page – 260 yards and three touchdowns is definitely good, but nothing great. Add in an interception, two bad sacks and a long intentional grounding, and you just have a slightly above average game on paper.
Football games aren't won on paper though, they're won on the field.
Thompson-Robinson only needed nine completions to put up those stats, so one third of his caught passes went for six points apiece. 28.9 yards per completion and 16.3 yards per attempt are also wildly efficient numbers, and the 242.1 passer rating he posted was the best of his already illustrious career.
And best of all, the few mistakes Thompson-Robinson did make didn't break UCLA or cost them anything big. His interception only turned into three points as opposed to six, and only one of his long sacks led to a punt that led to an LSU score.
A lot of that can be attributed to the Bruins' defense and special teams, but still, all Thompson-Robinson had to do Saturday was not cost his team any big opportunities or put them in a hole early. His running game was efficient and dependable, per usual, so cutting down on his mistakes and turning almost every one of his chances into a big gain or long touchdown helped Thompson-Robinson lead UCLA to a major win at home Saturday.
Thompson-Robinson is now 3-2 in his last five games against AP top 25 opponents, and he averages 281.6 yards per game on 66.1% passing with 19 touchdowns, 9.4 yards per attempt and a 164.0 passer rating in his eight career appearances against ranked teams.
Defensive Player of the Week: DE Mitchell Agude
Agude was an absolute menace behind the line of scrimmage, even though he only recorded a single sack.
The outside linebacker/defensive end ranked second on the team with six tackles and was one of only two Bruins to wrap up quarterback Max Johnson in the pocket. Agude forced two fumbles out of Johnson, and while LSU recovered them both, just jarring the ball loose did enough to get in Johnson's head at the very least.
On the ground, Agude picked up two early run stuffs that resulted in 1-yard carries and led to the Tigers punting the ball away.
Agude couldn't have done it without the rest of the aggressive, wild blitzers around him, but he arguably made the most of his position in defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro and assistant head coach Brian Norwood's scheme.
An honorable mention goes out to safety Quentin Lake, who was maybe the hardest hitter in the secondary, led the team with seven tackles, broke up two passes and also recorded a quarterback hit.
Special Teams Player of the Week: P Luke Akers
With no blocked punts this week and only one kick return from receiver Kazmeir Allen that essentially acted as a touchback, this award was going to go to one of the specialists.
Kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira did his job, hitting his only field goal attempt and converting on all five of his extra point tries, so that deserves some praise. As does the performance kicker RJ Lopez put on, booting all seven of his kickoffs back into the other end zone for touchbacks.
However, Akers was the unsung hero of UCLA's special teams Saturday. He averaged 44.3 yards on his four punts, one of which got downed at the LSU 10 and another of which traveled 53 yards and wound up at the LSU 21.
The Tigers scored just seven total points on the four drives that started with an Akers punt, and on that one possession that ended in an LSU touchdown, they still had to march 63 yards downfield.
Akers put his defense in positions to succeed, and that has to be commended at some level.
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