PASADENA — It seemed as if the air had been punched out of the Bruins, out of the Rose Bowl and out of UCLA’s season.
As time expired, junior kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn’s 50-yard field goal went just right, and gone with it was the No. 8 Bruins’ undefeated season.
“I thought (it) was a makable kick. We got to make those,” said coach Jim Mora.
Afterward, some of the players remained motionless on the field. Others hung their heads. A couple lay on the field.
It was clear: This one hurt.
“You know, a lot of people were quiet,” said redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley of the postgame locker room. “A lot of people were quiet cause we knew we missed a big opportunity for us.”
It wasn’t supposed to go this way for UCLA heading into next week’s headliner game against Oregon. The Utah game was supposed to be a stepping-stone to UCLA proving itself one of the Pac-12’s elite, and one of the nation’s top teams, against Oregon next week.
On some level, Saturday night’s game was less of a surprise and more of the inevitable.
UCLA had played it close with subpar opponents for most of the season, and when the Bruins did it for the fifth time on Saturday night, it burned them. It burned them in the form of Utah players jumping up and down on the Bruins’ field, celebrating an upset win, celebrating the gashing hole left in UCLA’s hopes of making the College Football Playoff.
Scoring Summary
First Quarter
The game’s first score came with 5:51 left in the first quarter.
Hundley and redshirt sophomore running back Paul Perkins miscommunicated on a play, and it proved costly. Perkins went out to block. Hundley thought it was a screen pass, so he lofted a pass in Perkins’ direction. Utah’s senior safety Tevin Carter easily snagged the free ball for an interception, returning it 27 yards to put Utah up 7-0.
Second Quarter
Backup quarterback Kendal Thompson, who replaced starting quarterback Travis Wilson in the first quarter, later led a Utah scoring drive, capping it with a 42-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Dres Anderson. That put the Bruins in a 14-0 hole with 13:45 left in the first half.
On the very next UCLA possession, the Bruins rallied behind Perkins. Play after play on the drive, Perkins punished the Utes defense. He capped UCLA’s 10-play, 82-yard drive with a 4-yard rush touchdown.
Just before halftime, Utah added a 48-yard field goal to sling the halftime score as a double-digit Utah lead: Utah 17, UCLA 7.
Third Quarter
In the middle of the third quarter, the Bruins cut that deficit to just three. Sophomore defensive end Eddie Vanderdoes capped off a 13-play, 80-yard drive with a 1-yard TD run.
To end the third quarter, however, Utah pushed its lead back up to 10 when it scored a 6-yard rush TD. By quarter’s end, the first sprinkling of boos had come from the Rose Bowl crowd.
Fourth Quarter
UCLA began the fourth quarter with a bang. On the second play of a drive that began inside UCLA’s 10-yard line, Hundley tossed a 28-yard pass down the sideline to streaking junior wide receiver Devin Fuller, who sprinted the remaining 65 yards upfield for a touchdown.
The 93-yard touchdown pass was the second-longest play from scrimmage in UCLA history, and it brought the Bruins to within three points of the Utes with 12:22 left in the fourth quarter.
After Utah sacked Hundley three straight times on UCLA’s next offensive possession, the Bruins had to punt from inside their own endzone, setting the Utes up with a 1st-and-10 at the UCLA 35. Utah capitalized on its solid field position by knocking in a field goal to extend its lead to 27-21 over UCLA.
UCLA responded with another deep pass down the sideline in its following drive, this one a 40-yard touchdown completion from Hundley to redshirt freshman wide receiver Eldridge Massington down the right sideline. After a successful point by Fairbairn, UCLA took its first lead of the game at 28-27 with 4:50 remaining in the fourth quarter.
The following Utah drive started at Utah’s own 25-yard line and ended at UCLA’s 12. Utah kicker Andy Phillips knocked in his third field goal of the game, which proved to be the game winner, from 29 yards away.
Compiled by Chris Kalra and Matthew Joye, Bruin Sports senior staff.