UCLA vs. Oregon College Football Week 8: Postgame Takeaways

After beating back-to-back ranked opponents, the Bruins could not pull it off against a third.

No. 9 UCLA football (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) lost to No. 10 Oregon (6-1, 4-0 Pac-12) 45-30 at Autzen Stadium on Saturday. The Bruins’ nine-game winning streak dating back to last season was snapped as a result, and they have now lost eight straight in Eugene.

These are three of the biggest takeaways, narratives and questions to come out of Saturday's game.

The loss isn't on the offense, but the gameplan wasn't ideal

When a team scores on their first five drives and six of seven overall – with the one failure to put up points coming on a fourth down throw into the end zone – it's hard to blame the offense for the end result.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson put up decent enough stats, throwing for 262 yards and two touchdowns on 69.2% completion and rushing for another 38 yards. Running back Zach Charbonnet was virtually unstoppable, rushing for 151 yards and a touchdown on 7.6 yards per carry. Before Saturday, the Bruins were 11-0 when Charbonnet rushed for over 100.

There were two major problems that stood out, though – the inability to finish drives and a refusal to gameplan for a shootout.

Taking field goals and crossing your fingers for a stop was never going to work, considering Oregon was averaging 49.8 points per game since Week 2. Slow, methodical drives were not going to get it done – UCLA needed to try to take the top off the defense, and it never really did.

The performance felt a lot like the one against South Alabama, when the Bruins played a little too small and cutesy to meet the full potential of their offense.

Again, that isn’t on the players, who performed admirably, relatively efficiently and according to coach Chip Kelly’s plan. The issue was the plan itself, evidently.

Kelly may have overthought things, or he may have had too much confidence in his defense. He had put together great gameplans against Washington and Utah, so it isn’t as if he’s incapable of drawing things up correctly. Saturday was just an off day for the coach, who fell to 0-4 against his former team as a result.

Defense might have shown its true colors

Part of the reason why settling for field goals wasn't a winning strategy was because the Ducks were obviously going to put up points.

Some of the Bruins' team stats were a bit inflated, like that fact that they led the Pac-12 in points per drive and yards per play entering Saturday. While many recognized that UCLA's defense was far better on paper than it was in reality, the extent of that discrepancy was bigger than expected.

The secondary was getting carved up from start to finish, with quarterback Bo Nix playing a near-perfect game. His quarterback rating out of 100 was 96.3, and the Bruins' defensive backs hardly gave him any resistance.

There were defensive pass interference calls, missed tackles, blown coverages, massive pre-snap cushions and more. The inability to stop short passes near the line of scrimmage felt similar to the Alabama State game, but the Ducks actually have the talent to take the top off the defense.

Defensive coordinator Bill McGovern had gotten a lot of credit for turning things around over the past two months. As it turns out, UCLA simply played inferior opponents with bad offenses or let its offense build an early lead to help take control of the game.

In a back-and-forth scoring battle, the Bruins could not hang on that side of the ball. That may not hurt them against Stanford, Arizona State or Arizona, but it could come back to haunt them against USC in November.

It's time to readjust expectations

It's safe to say that many people in UCLA circles got a little ahead of themselves these past few weeks.

While a spot in the College Football Playoff is technically still a possibility, it would involve winning out and also depending on other teams like Tennessee, Clemson, Michigan and TCU to lose and not win their conference championships. Basically, the Bruins don't control their destiny anymore.

UCLA does still control its own destiny when it comes to the race for the Pac-12 title, though, so it's best that fans shift their attention to that.

The Bruins will be heavily favored against Stanford, Arizona State and Arizona, which would put them at 10 regular season wins.

If UCLA can beat USC, they lock up a spot in the conference championship game. If they can't, they have to hope the Trojans lose another game somewhere along the way.

A national championship or Heisman trophy do not appear to be in the cards anymore, but that doesn't mean the season is over. Fans should regroup without making excuses or coping for too long, and they should not give up on this team entirely.

There is still plenty at stake moving forward, and UCLA should be expected to reach double-digit wins this season.

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