All Bruins UCLA Football Players of the Game: Week 7 vs. Washington
The Bruins once again pulled away late, and they once again had a handful of key playmakers to thank for their win.
UCLA football (5-2, 3-1 Pac-12) visited Washington (2-4, 1-2) on Saturday and ended up winning 24-17. 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
Say what you will about Thompson-Robinson, but he nearly threw a perfect game on Saturday.
He went 21-of-26 on the night, and all five of those incompletions can be explained away pretty quickly. The first was a drop by receiver Kazmeir Allen on a screen, the second was thrown away to preserve time for a field goal before the end of the half, the third was a drop by tight end Michael Ezeike, the fourth was a great ball that tight end Greg Dulcich hauled in but had jarred loose by an even better pass breakup and the last was a drop by receiver Kam Brown.
Could the throws to Allen, Ezeike and Brown been better? Of course. And should he have let some routes develop before breaking off to run once or twice? Probably.
But Thompson-Robinson did everything he needed to do to lead his team to victory, both through the air and on the ground.
Outside of completing 80.8% of his passes and posting a 165.3 passer rating, Thompson-Robinson picked up a total of 270 yards and three touchdowns. He didn't have a turnover and didn't take a sack the entire night.
Thompson-Robinson went 8-for-8 passing on the eventual game-winning drive, hitting Dulcich on a crazy shovel pass and then finding him again over the middle for a 9-yard touchdown. Thompson-Robinson also had two carries on that drive that went for 10 yards, and one of them helped the Bruins convert a 4th-and-inches.
When UCLA got the ball back with under five minutes left, Thompson-Robinson managed the clock perfectly and sealed the deal on 3rd-and-5 with two minutes to play by running 8 yards down the left side for a first down.
Call him a game manager if you want – his 7.0 yards per attempt don't scream star quarterback – but he made all the right plays and checked every box Saturday night.
Defensive Player of the Week: S Quentin Lake
Cornerback Devin Kirkwood's game-sealing interception was probably the single biggest play of the night for the Bruins' defense, and it was all the more impressive considering he's a true freshman who wasn't really even targeted for the rest of the night.
Lake was better from start to finish though, getting his interception on the first drive of the game and leading UCLA with six tackles.
Most of his action came in the first quarter, since he wasn't targeted very much through the air in the second half. Most of his work in that second half came as a cleanup guy in the second level when the defensive line started to let the Huskies' ground game get going.
But outside of that first interception, Lake made another big play against quarterback Dylan Morris on the next possession.
Washington had been marching, and they were down inside the 5 until two tackles for loss pushed them back a bit for 3rd-and-goal. The announcers and pretty much everyone in the building knew who Morris was going to in that situation – tight end Cade Otton.
Credit to defensive coordinator Jerry Azzinaro and assistant head coach Brian Norwood for the way they called this play, putting linebacker Jordan Genmark Heath over the middle to force a lob, Lake in man coverage on Otton and safety Stephan Blaylock on the other side to help with a late double team.
Morris, of course, threw Otton's way, and Lake reached up to tip it out the back of the end zone and force a field goal try, saving the Bruins four points in the process.
And in a game in which the UCLA defense struggled with penalties in the defensive backfield, Lake played a clean game.
Lake gave the Bruins everything they needed as a veteran presence, and he was a big part of how they limited the Huskies to just 17 points.
Special Teams Player of the Week: Kickoff Coverage Team
It wasn't a great game for the Bruins on special teams as a whole, a change of pace from the rest of the season. Kicker Nicholas Barr-Mira missed a 54-yard attempt pretty badly at the end of the first half – not anything disastrous, just not particularly clean.
Receiver Logan Loya filled in serviceably for regular punt returner Kyle Philips, and his 17-yard return was a good one, but it his other one only went for 6 and he had to track pretty far back to haul it in. Kickoff specialist RJ Lopez, who usually gets touchbacks on almost all of his kicks, only had one Saturday, and punter Luke Akers didn't pin the Huskies inside the 20 at all.
So as much of a cop out as it feels like, there isn't one player who really did enough to earn this award. Instead, it was a full unit.
Washington continued to take the ball out on kick returns, and UCLA snuffed them out almost every time.
Linebacker Kain Medrano wrapped up the return man at the 19 on the opening kickoff, and then safeties Alex Johnson and Joquarri Price combined to take him down at the 16 later in the first quarter. Linebacker Damian Sellers got a tackle at the 26 on the next kickoff, only for the ball to get pushed back to the 15 thanks to a block in the back.
Receiver Giles Jackson finally broke off a 31-yard return towards the end of the second quarter, but that's really only a 6-yard gain from what he would have got on a touchback.
Just looking at net gains, UCLA forced Washington to lose a total of 19 yards on their four returns. So while the Huskies clearly weren't scared of Lopez's boot, they continued to stumble and lose field position thanks to the Bruins' coverage team.
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