It wasn’t always pretty – in fact, it rarely was – but ultimately UCLA claimed its first win of the season over Virginia on Saturday, aided by a standout defensive performance that gave the Bruin offense an 18-point lead to work with.
The offense desperately needed it.
After a first drive, which started with a 48-yard pass and ended with a 44-yard missed field goal – all in the game’s first 64 seconds – it took the Bruins over 40 more minutes to finally produce their first offensive score of the game.
It wasn’t always pretty for the Bruin offense, but when it mattered most, it was.
Take UCLA’s first, and only, offensive score. Virginia had recently chopped down a 21-3 Bruin lead to just 21-17, and clearly had momentum at their backs. So when redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley saw a gap in the middle of the Cavaliers’ cover-zero defense on a third and goal, he had just one thought in his head.
“Get to the end zone,” Hundley said. “That’s the name of the game.”
Yet halfway to the goal line, Hundley’s open hole was plugged by Virginia’s freshman safety Quin Blanding, who hit Hundley around the four-yard line. But Hundley wasn’t about to let that stop him.
He squirmed, twisted and finally fell into the end zone to reaffirm his team’s control of the game, just as it felt to be slipping away.
“Sometimes, man, you just got to do it,” Hundley said. “You got to take off and hope for the best, and sometimes you just got to will yourself into the end zone.”
The Bruins needed another act of will to finish the game off.
A one-possession game with 3:07 left, the UCLA offense looked cornered on a third-and-9 from its own 18-yard line. Failing to convert meant Virginia would likely have good starting field position and plenty of time to potentially tie the game.
The Bruins needed nine yards to seal the win.
They got 35.
Hundley, surrounded by a wall of orange jerseys closing in on him, ignored the pressure – of both the pass rush and the situation – and fired a dart to the left side directly into the hands of junior receiver Jordan Payton, who fought off tight coverage to snag the ball in traffic. Payton then scampered to the Virginia 44-yard line, giving the Bruins a new set of downs and ensuring the win.
“It was just huge,” Payton said. “Everyone keeps telling me it was a nice catch, but it’s something you’re supposed to do, you know? It’s a pass and catch thing.”
Payton and Hundley both attributed the clutch connection to the growing trust between them, but Payton also pointed to Hundley’s maturity and composure on the play, an attribute that coach Jim Mora also praised Hundley for after the game.
“Getting pressure in his face, and to step up and make a huge throw like that, that’s definitely where you see maturity,” Payton said. “You see a team captain right there in that situation.”
As for the captain himself, Hundley acknowledged the offense had things to learn from the game, but said he thought his performance went well overall. Though UCLA’s offense had fewer points and yards than Virginia’s, Hundley said he learned something new about his team Saturday.
“No matter what situation we’re put in, we can fight through it,” Hundley said.
Kendricks earns honors
Redshirt senior Eric Kendricks has been around long enough to earn his fair share of recognition for his play. But his performance Saturday isn’t likely to be one he’ll forget anytime soon.
Leading his team with 16 tackles, Kendricks in some way accounted for two of UCLA’s three defensive touchdowns, forcing a fumble that was returned for a score by junior safety Randall Goforth as well as intercepting a pass and bringing it all the way back for a touchdown himself.
It was a good enough performance to earn Kendricks the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Week and the Walter Camp National Defensive Player of the Week honors.
But it wasn’t good enough in Kendricks’ eyes.
“I left a lot of stuff on the field,” Kendricks said. “I made a lot of little rookie mistakes. I pride myself on making the right play and I want to get back to doing the right thing.”
If Kendricks has a game he’s happy with this Saturday against Memphis, the Tigers could be in for a long day.