UCLA Football Ends Season With Another Loss, 28-18

Tonight’s game felt like a mercy killing.

Sure, the UCLA Bruins got on the scoreboard first with a 19-yard pass from Dorian Thompson-Robinson to Jaylen Erwin with 8:26 to go in the first quarter, but the UC Berkeley Golden Bears responded with not one, but two touchdowns of their own.

The first one came on a pass from Chase Garbers to Makai Polk that went for 44 yards with 3:04 left in the first quarter and the second came on a 10-play, 72-yard drive which was capped by a one-yard run by Garbers with 9:56 to go in the half.

At that point, the game was effectively over. Sure, the Bruins attempted to comeback from the deficit and they were successful at moving the football. After all, DTR completed 23 of 39 passes for 278 yards with a touchdown and an interception, but when your offense struggles to get into the end zone—and the Bruins did indeed struggle to put points on the board—you can’t win. And, when your defense is consistently giving up long touchdown drives, it becomes even tougher.

The Bruins’ best drive of the game probably came in the third quarter when UCLA was down 21-10. DTR led the team on a 9-play, 80-yard drive that led to a touchdown by Joshua Kelley. The two-point conversion came on a pass from DTR to Delon Hurt and that cut the UC Berkeley lead to just three points.

But UC Berkeley came right back and marched 75 yards in six plays including a 10-yard touchdown run by Christopher Brown Jr. to put the Bears back up by ten, 28-18.

UCLA was unable to do anything with the football in the fourth quarter, despite having the ball three times. The first fourth quarter drive ended with an interception thrown by Thompson-Robinson while the second ended with a punt. Then, on the final drive, which saw Austin Burton take over after an injury to DTR, Burton and company moved the ball well. Soon, it was fourth down and one from the Berkeley two-yard line when a run by Demetric Felton was stuffed for a three-yard loss turning the ball over on downs and ending the game.

If there was a bright spot from tonight’s game, it was the fact that Joshua Kelley gained 76 yards on 19 carries, giving him a total of 1,060 yards for the season and his second straight 1,000-yard season.

Meanwhile, Chip Kelly is now just 7-17 in two seasons in Westwood.

Changes need to be made because this isn’t working.


Go Bruins.