SANTA CLARA — If one had to pick three factors that defined UCLA’s play this season, the team’s high-flying passing game, its penalty troubles and its inability to stop the run would rank high on the list.
When the Bruins soared this year, they did so in large part thanks to the arm of freshman quarterback Josh Rosen. Their failures were mainly self-created, an abundance of penalties and their porous run defense at fault for many of their stumbles.
In a way, the Foster Farms Bowl was a microcosm of the team’s year, a game defined by these three factors. And as in the Bruins’ four other losses this year, the latter two were instrumental to their failure. UCLA had seven penalties for 56 yards on the day; the team gave up 62 carries for 326 yards and four touchdowns – both of these combined to hamstring the Bruins in an embarrassing 37-29 loss to Nebraska.
“We just didn’t perform well tonight, as coaches and as players,” coach Jim Mora said. “And that’s our responsibility.”
COLUMN: The “Bruin Revolution” two years later.
Tonight, Rosen was in mostly fine form, putting up 319 yards and three touchdowns. He lit up the first half, leading the Bruins to 21 points and allowing them to keep up with the Cornhuskers and enter the half with the game tied. And after the team fell behind big late in the game, he put together several brave drives, pinpoint throws picking Nebraska’s defense apart to lead the team back from the brink.
But even when Rosen and the Bruins soared, their successes masked a troubling undercurrent of mistakes. While the Bruins racked up three touchdowns and a fourteen-point lead in the first half, the Cornhuskers surged right back, muscling the Bruins for 151 rushing yards and three touchdowns of their own.
Two of those drives were aided by Bruin penalties. First came a holding call that gave the Cornhuskers new life when it seemed like they had been stopped on third down – they went on to score on that drive. Next came a personal foul that gave Nebraska 15 free yards, the Cornhuskers again scoring on the drive.
“Those two personal fouls really hurt us because they extended drives,” Mora said. “It’s an amazingly competitive environment out there, and you have to find a way to get close to the edge and never step over it.”
And when the UCLA offense stumbled early in the second half, three successive drives resulting in punts, the team’s mistakes caught up with it. Nebraska ran the ball time and time again, and UCLA had no answer. The Cornhuskers steamrolled the Bruins in the second half, racking up a 37-21 advantage early in the fourth quarter.
“Football is always better when you can come in and impose your will on the other team,” said Nebraska head coach Mike Riley. “And we really set out there with that game plan tonight.”
READ MORE: The many Bruin shortcomings in Saturday’s game.
Even more surprising than the high volume of Nebraska’s yardage was the ease with which the team ran the ball. Up the middle, to left tackle, on double reverses and sweeps to the right – nearly every Cornhusker run play resulted in a positive gain.
They broke tackles, too, something Bruin nose tackle Kenny Clark alluded to after the game as a key component of Nebraska’s success. Even on the last drive of the night, UCLA needing a stop to keep the game alive, the Bruin defense just could not hold the Cornhuskers short.
“They ran 62 times against us and it felt like they could wear us out,” Mora said. “We’re a little light on defense, and they took advantage of that.”
And as the clock ticked to zero on the Bruins’ season, as the team stumbled off the field disappointed for the fifth time this year, the parallels to their other losses were clear. The Bruins flew high in 2015, but in the end, their mistakes and their weaknesses were just too much to overcome.