It wasn’t picturesque by any stretch of the imagination, but it was productive. At the end of the day that was good enough as UCLA gets its eighth win of the season with a 42-14 win over Cal at the Rose Bowl Saturday night. Not many people saw it. The announced attendance of 36,156 was the second lowest of the season, coming in just slightly better than the Hawai’i game in the season opener. So, the first and the last home games of the season had the lowest attendance figures.
With the Bruins now 8-4 overall, they secure a spot either in the Las Vegas Bowl or the Holiday Bowl in San Diego. Logic says the Las Vegas Bowl is going to take Arizona State. That would leave the Bruins in San Diego between Christmas and New Year’s. A representative from the Holiday Bowl was in the press box for the game.
Cal came into the game having put up more than 600 yards against Stanford the week before. Saturday against UCLA there was a mix of Cal’s offensive ineptitude and solid UCLA defensive pressure. Bears quarterback Chase Garbers threw for 250 yards last week. Saturday night it took well into the fourth quarter to even get to 100. He finished 16 of 31 for 12 yards and two interceptions.
That’s not to say UCLA was a passing juggernaut. Dorian Thompson-Robinson was 19 of 28 for164 yards. He threw for three touchdowns. What they did get was 282 yards rushing, including 106 from Zach Charbonnet and 102 from Thompson-Robinson. At halftime, the two quarterbacks had a combined 132 yards passing. There was nothing that said work of art about this, but it was effective enough.
UCLA opened the scoring in the first half with a 41-yard field goal from Nicholas Barr-Mira. He broke his streak of five consecutive games with a miss.
In the second quarter, Garbers scrambled and was picked off by UCLA’s Jay Shaw, who returned it 18 yards to the Cal 40. Later in the drive, Thompson-Robinson found a wide-open Kyle Philips behind the zone defense in the back of the end zone for a four-yard touchdown pass and the 10-0 lead.
Cal cut the lead on the back of running back Christopher Brooks who picked up 32 yards on the drive including an 18-yard touchdown run.
The one part of the UCLA game that was decidedly poor, special teams, bit UCLA on the ensuing kickoff. The ball went right through the hands of Kazmeir Allen and was recovered by Cal at the Bruins 13-yard line. Garbers connected with Kekoa Crawford to the one yard line. From there, Garbers ran it for the touchdown and the 14-10 lead. UCLA special teams also gave up over 110 yards on two kick returns to Nikko Remigio. Cal’s lack of putting together a viable offense along with UCLA’s aggressive defense prevented any real damage being done.
UCLA took the lead back for good when Allen took an inside handoff eight yards to the goal line, just getting to the front pylon. Cal tried to respond but Quentin Lake picked off Garbers pass around midfield to end any threat. It was Lake’s second consecutive game with an interception.
UCLA ramped up even more in the second. Thompson-Robinson drove them 71 yards downfield, with the drive ending on a touchdown pass to Greg Dulcich. The tight end just got his right foot down in the end zone before going out of bounds. The lead was now 24-14 and the Bruins were well on their way to scoring 32 unanswered points.
Thompson-Robinson was not having one of his more prolific passing games. He didn’t pass the 100-yard passing mark until there was only 3:45 left in the third quarter. But with his running ability, and the yardage picked up by Charbonnet, it was enough to keep the ball moving throughout the second half.
Barr-Mira added a 46-yard field goal near the end of the third quarter to make it 27-14.
Charbonnet added a one-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter and the scoring was capped off with a Thompson-Robinson to Philips pass for four yards and a touchdown for the 42-14 final.
Garbers was asked about the change in going from 250 yards passing one week and then falling flat against UCLA. “They flat out beat us. There’s nothing special they did. They just played their game plan, and in the end, we lost, they won. Their defense beat our offense. It’s as simple as that,” he said.
Twenty-one players were announced in Senior Night ceremonies prior to the game. A small handful of them still have eligibility left if they wanted it and could come back next year. As head coach Chip Kelly hugged each of them as they were announced, he would later say the emotion of the moment was really just for the fans and not the players or him. “It’s big to win any game, it doesn’t matter if it’s senior night or junior night or freshman night,” Kelly said. “Our kids want to play football and they want to continue. The cool part about it is we get one more opportunity. We don’t know where we’re going or who we’re playing, but this group doesn’t have to break up. So, this really wasn’t a finale or anything.”
Thompson-Robinson said the focus of the team has been elevated really going back to halftime of the Colorado game. “I think focus, playing each play as its own individual play and not trying to focus on the end result which is obviously scoring or getting a 3-and-out [on defense]. When you focus on each individual play, you can consistently be locked in,” the quarterback said.
The Las Vegas native made a strong pitch for the Bruins to get a bid to the bowl in his home city. The Las Vegas Bowl will have the choice after the Rose Bowl and the Alamo Bowl. UCLA does not historically travel well for bowl games. Plus fans will have already traveled multiple times for basketball games in Las Vegas before the bowl game is even played on December 30th.
The Bruins are also not an overall draw. They averaged just 45,819 at the Rose Bowl this season. That is the second lowest season average since they moved to the stadium nearly 40 years ago. The lowest season average of 43,849 was in 2019. With the Bruins tying Arizona State for second place in the Pac-12 South, and with ASU having beaten the Bruins earlier this season, it is highly conceivable that the Las Vegas Bowl would pick the Sun Devils. That would put the Bruins in San Diego for a game on December 28th.
By then, it would be assumed UCLA would have a new contract extension for Kelly. The expectations were that UCLA would compete for the division title. They came into the season with the one of the most experienced teams in the country. The wins came against teams are a combined 32-63, and carry a 33.7 win percentage.
So while 8-4 may not be as electrifying as the fans want, it was productive enough for many, presumably including the athletic department administration. Kelly is not thought to be a candidate for any of the many jobs currently open, so there is no rush. But there also seems little point in delaying the apparently inevitable. Kelly again deflected a question about the topic, saying he just leaves all of it to his agent. It seems unlikely that he has no insights on the progress being made on an extension. It’s just assumed by most that it is coming.
