BOULDER, Colo. ””mdash; On redshirt freshman quarterback Brett Hundley’s second rushing touchdown of the night, he had everyone looking the other direction.
Hundley faked the handoff to redshirt senior running back Johnathan Franklin, fooling the entire Colorado defense and many camera crews as well.
And much like Hundley, the Bruins have everyone looking in the opposite direction after bouncing back from their first loss of the season to beat the Colorado Buffaloes 42-14 in Boulder, Colo.
UCLA (4-1, 1-1 Pac-12) limited the Buffaloes’ offense on their way to a victory, UCLA’s first conference win of the season. Colorado (1-4, 1-1) had only put up one touchdown on the scoreboard for much of the game until the waning minutes of the fourth quarter.
The Bruins’ win comes right off the heels of a disappointing loss to Oregon State that dropped UCLA out of the Associated Press’ list of top 25 college football teams in the nation. After this win the Bruins find themselves back in the AP rankings at number 25.
“It was vital for us to get this win,” Franklin said. “We have to keep working, we’re not satisfied at all. We have to push each other; our leaders have to step up and we’ll be okay.”
Despite the eventual result, the UCLA offense had trouble getting started early on, with its series plagued by penalties and sacks.
“We still feel like offensively there’s a lot of things we can do better. We hurt ourselves in the first half with penalties and some drops and just not executing the way that we’re capable of executing,” coach Jim Mora said.
However, upon getting the ball back after a Buffaloes punt, the Bruins drew first touchdown by Hundley.
Redshirt junior receiver Darius Bell added in another score early in the second quarter and after Hundley’s second keeper for a touchdown, the Bruins headed into the tunnels at halftime up 21-7.
After the opening kickoff of the second half, the Bruin offense once again had issues but was jumpstarted by its defense.
Midway through the third quarter, Colorado quarterback Jordan Webb completed a pass to tight end Vincent Hobbs who had beat UCLA freshman cornerback Randall Goforth for a gain of 31 yards.
However, redshirt sophomore safety Tevin McDonald chased down Hobbs and punched the ball out, forcing a fumble that the Bruins recovered.
The UCLA offense capitalized on that turnover with an eventual touchdown pass from Hundley to redshirt senior receiver Joseph Fauria.
The defense didn’t stop making plays there. On Colorado’s very next possession, junior safety Stan McKay intercepted a Webb pass that was tipped by redshirt sophomore linebacker Eric Kendricks.
And again, the Bruins’ offense took the field and finished their defense’s work with redshirt sophomore running back Jordon James carrying the ball untouched 25 yards into the end zone.
“That was big time. Our defense has been doing a great job on (forcing) turnovers,” Hundley said. “Just getting the ball on those extra possessions helps so much.”
For insurance, the Bruins put the game well out of reach with redshirt junior running back Damien Thigpen’s touchdown on a 23-yard reverse that put the team up 42-7 early in the fourth quarter.
Hundley had a better showing against Colorado after a rough performance last week. The quarterback was played a part in four of the touchdowns the Bruins scored against the Buffaloes.
“Every week he does a couple things he didn’t do well last week, better this week,” offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said. “It’s going to be a process through the whole season. I like the way he’s starting to feel comfortable with some of the things we’re doing offensively.”
But the improvements and the win for UCLA weren’t without a major loss. Redshirt freshman wide receiver Devin Lucien was seen on the sidelines in warmups and a sling during the game.
“We don’t have a definitive prognosis but it looks like he broke his clavicle,” Mora said. “We’ll do X-rays and evaluate it from there and then we’ll see what we have to do from there.”