All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 10 vs. Arizona State

Awarding the Bruins' top offensive, defensive and special teams players in their win over the Sun Devils on Saturday.
All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 10 vs. Arizona State
All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 10 vs. Arizona State

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The Bruins nearly let a big second half lead slip away in Tempe, but they continued to ride their biggest names to victory.

No. 12 UCLA football (8-1, 5-1 Pac-12) held off Arizona State (3-6, 2-4 Pac-12) on Saturday, walking away with a 50-36 win. 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 Game: QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson

With Zach Charbonnet out, the Bruins were going to need to shake things up on offense, especially if they were going to succeed on the ground.

They did just that, and a lot of it can be attributed to Thompson-Robinson's dynamic, highlight-reel performance on the road.

Thompson-Robinson threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns on 13-of-20 passing, more than bouncing back from his interception on the first play of the game. The fifth-year starter posted a 177.9 passer rating after that pick, and he was even more efficient on the ground.

Taking out the two sacks Thompson-Robinson took for 10 yards, he rushed for 130 yards and two touchdowns on eight carries. That's good for 16.3 yards per carry, and that doesn't even take into account his successful reads that led to big gains for Kazmeir Allen, Keegan Jones and Colson Yankoff coming out of the backfield.

Thompson-Robinson also made some big plays to go along with his big numbers, hurdling two defenders to once again go viral with his signature move.

From start to finish, Thompson-Robinson was trash talking, blowing kisses, laughing, smiling and doing basically whatever he wanted while continuing to back it up. Thompson-Robinson seems to be at his best when he's playing with emotion, and Saturday's big night is only further proof of that.

Defensive Player of the Game: LB Darius Muasau

During the middle chunk of the game when UCLA's defense was actually getting stops, Muasau was a massive part of that effort.

Arizona State, after scoring on its first two drives, came up empty handed on its next five. The Bruins held them to 57 yards on 21 plays in that span, and Muasau added some key tackles and quarterback hurries that help the defense stabilize.

Muasau led UCLA with 12 tackles, as well as 2.0 tackles for loss, 1.0 sack and one quarterback hit. Even when the defense, as a whole, started to fade down the stretch, Muasau was still playing well over the middle, hurrying quarterback Trenton Bourguet and spending a decent amount of time in the spy.

Like Thompson-Robinson, Muasau was showing emotion throughout the contest, celebrating his big hits in the backfield and showing nice poise as one of the defense's most important leaders. 

Muasau was not perfect, as he was a little slow to the ball on passes behind the line of scrimmage, but he had a lot on his plate and did enough to hold the Sun Devils off long enough for the Bruins to put it away.

Special Teams Player of the Game: KOS RJ Lopez

It was a relatively uneventful game for the Bruins' special teams unit, with kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira not attempting a field goal all night long. He did punt twice, and both were standard, acceptable kicks that were fair caught near midfield.

The Sun Devils kicked away from Kazmeir Allen all night long, leaving it to Titus Mokiao-Atimalala to fall forward on a few line drive kicks. Logan Loya fair caught each of his punt returns and wasn't able to improve the Bruins' field position in any of those situations.

Lopez, meanwhile, was probably the best at just doing his job Saturday night. Arizona State took two returns out of the end zone, but Daniyel Ngata didn't advance past the 25 either time.

When an offense puts up 50 points, that obviously means a lot of kickoffs. To not allow a single return past the touchback mark is impressive, and it's also a significant achievement to end the game with six consecutive touchbacks.

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Sam Connon
SAM CONNON

Sam Connon was the Publisher and Managing Editor at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s All Bruins from 2021 to 2023. He is now a staff writer at Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s Fastball. He previously covered UCLA football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country and golf for The Daily Bruin from 2017 to 2021, serving as the paper's Sports Editor from 2019 to 2020. Connon has also been a contributor for 247Sports' Bruin Report Online, Rivals' BruinBlitz, Dash Sports TV, SuperWestSports, Prime Time Sports Talk, The Sports Life Blog and Patriots Country, Sports Illustrated and FanNation’s New England Patriots site. His work as a sports columnist has been awarded by the College Media Association and Society of Professional Journalists. Connon graduated from UCLA in June 2021 and is originally from Winchester, Massachusetts.

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