UCLA vs. Oregon Week 8: Postgame Takeaways
The Bruins were featured in another up-and-down game this weekend, only they weren't able to pull out the victory this time around.
UCLA football (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) lost to No. 10 Oregon (6-1, 3-1) 34-31 at the Rose Bowl on Saturday. The Bruins took a quick early lead before seeing it disappear almost immediately, instead having to make a desperate comeback effort in the final moments after things continued to go downhill.
These are four of the biggest takeaways, narratives and questions to come out of Saturday's game.
Start strong, finish strong ... not enough
First impressions and last impressions are undeniably important, but they clearly don't paint the full picture.
The Bruins outscored the Ducks 14-0 in the first quarter and after allowing a long touchdown run a couple plays into the fourth quarter, they ended the game on a 14-0 run. UCLA came out of the gates firing on all cylinders and then showed a serious sense of urgency down big late.
Both are admirable and you would think those would both be qualities of a winning team, but almost nothing went the Bruins' way in the second and third quarters.
Starting early in the second and going until early in the fourth, Oregon absolutely stomped UCLA with a 37-3 run.
The Bruins' offense was actually fine in that second quarter, moving the ball downfield on both of their possessions and attempting field goals at the end of both. The first one missed, which stings in hindsight knowing UCLA lost by three, but the second one was good. They ran 28 plays for 114 yards, so nothing amazing on a per-play basis, but good enough to get in field goal range at least.
Then UCLA went three-and-out, and then they had their next drive stall at midfield thanks to two consecutive false starts. When the Bruins got the ball back following a fumble, their runs got stuffed and quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson took a sack before they didn't get the call on what could have been a deep pass interference on fourth down.
The offense losing momentum was bad, but the defense collapsing was even worse.
Quarterback Anthony Brown was 18-of-21 for 185 yards in the second and third quarters, passing for 10 of the Ducks' 12 first downs in that span. Although Oregon only rushed for 40 yards in those middle two quarters, they did so on 5 yards per carry with four touchdowns.
Lining off offsides three times in one drive hurt, and another offsides later wiped another interception off the board. But generally, the game plan was a major whiff by defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro. The zones he runs are just useless and a mediocre quarterback like Brown picked them apart.
The defense had two interceptions in the fourth and the offense got back on track to nearly stage a crazy comeback before Thompson-Robinson got hurt and backup Ethan Garbers threw a game-seal pick of his own.
UCLA thoroughly outplayed and outcoached Oregon in the first and fourth quarters, it just couldn't make up for how brutally they got torn apart in that key middle stretch.
Kayvon Thibodeaux isn't done yet
Let's all just take a moment to admire how amazing Thibodeaux is.
On Saturday alone, he had 4.5 tackles for loss, 2.0 sacks and the quarterback hit that forced Thompson-Robinson out of the game. He was a one-man wrecking crew, not to discredit the rest of the disruptive Oregon defense around him.
This is a guy who is on track to be a top-five selection in the 2022 NFL Draft, if not No. 1 overall. Had Thibodeaux been eligible last year, he already would be tearing it up on Sundays.
Thibodeaux transcends the profile of a great collegiate edge rusher. He is a generational talent. Seeing the way he moves all around the line, using his strength, athleticism and high football IQ to beat some pretty talented offensive lineman around the outside or in lanes up the middle.
To call Thibodeaux a future Defensive Player of the Year or Hall of Famer is a bit much since those clubs are so exclusive, but looking at what Thibodeaux has done in limited time this season and what he did to UCLA on Saturday, he is a near-lock to be a perennial Pro Bowler at the next level at the very least.
Offensive line faltering
On the topic of Thibodeaux being an absolute menace, he filled that role Saturday by tormenting UCLA's blockers up front – a unit that was coming off its strongest performance of the season.
Thompson-Robinson did not get sacked, hit or hurried against Washington.
It was quite the different story Saturday.
The Bruins allowed four sacks, two hits and two hurries to the Ducks' pass rush. Thompson-Robinson, who had been nice and comfortable up in Seattle, was fighting for his football life on nearly every dropback at the Rose Bowl.
Things didn't look much better in the ground game – actually, they looked a lot worse.
Oregon racked up 14 tackles for loss Saturday. UCLA had allowed a total of 13 in its previous three games combined. The Bruins had a season-low 110 rushing yards, and running backs Zach Charbonnet and Brittain Brown combined for 80.
The duo had been averaging a combined 166.4 per game leading up to this weekend, including 210 in their last two outings.
The offensive line was getting beat around the edge, on the interior, before the snap and in almost every other way imaginable. Left tackle Sean Rhyan and right guard Jon Gaines II each had false starts.
Right tackle Alex Anderson's holding penalty turned what could have been a 2nd-and-10 at the 49 into a 1st-and-20 at the 39 when the Bruins were trying to move the ball down field down by three in the final minutes. And on that 1st-and-20 that came to be because of Anderson's penalty, Thompson-Robinson got hit hard and was forced to leave the game.
Credit Thibodeaux, linebacker Noah Sewell and defensive lineman Brandon Dorlus for being as good as they were, but everything that could have gone wrong went wrong for UCLA up front.
Pac-12 South chances hanging on by a thread
Losing this weekend really complicated the Bruins' path towards an appearance in the conference championship game.
The one stroke of luck UCLA caught Saturday was Utah losing to Oregon State. That gives the Utes one loss in conference play – still fewer than the Bruins' two, but it doesn't change the fact that whoever wins next week's head-to-head showdown in Salt Lake City will be ahead of the other in the division standings.
Losing to Oregon means less wiggle room across the board, but should UCLA take care of business and beat the teams it's favored to throughout the month of November, then the South champion is really going to be dependent on this upcoming UCLA-Utah matchup.
Winning out would give the Bruins a 7-2 conference record and head-to-head tiebreakers over every Pac-12 South opponent except for Arizona State.
USC, Colorado and Arizona already have three or more losses in conference play, so UCLA would be ahead of that trio. The Utes could win out and still finish no better than 7-2 in this scenario that has the Bruins winning next week, and the tiebreaker would put UCLA ahead of them.
So winning out guarantees the Bruins at least second place in the South – what would it take for the Sun Devils to sacrifice the No. 1 position?
Well, Arizona State would need to finish 6-3 in-conference, which would involve them going 3-2 or worse when they return from their bye this coming week. Oregon State is the best opponent left on the Sun Devils' schedule, and the Beavers just proved capable of beating a solid, hot Ute squad.
Even chalking that one up as a loss for Arizona State, UCLA would need one out of Washington State, USC, Washington and Arizona to steal a win from them. Keep in mind that both the Cougars and Trojans are on interim coaches and that the Wildcats haven't won a game in over two full calendar years.
The Bruins' fate rests partially in their own hands, but they're going to need help from the Beavers and Huskies in order to squeeze out a division title in 2021.
That isn't exactly a winning recipe.
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