Comeback falls short, UCLA crumbles against Oregon

The story had been told many, many times before, just not exactly like this.

The Bruins were hosting their biggest home game in a long time, with the Pac-12 potentially on the line and fans spending the whole week building them up as a threat to make some real noise. Students showed out, the stands looked packed and, through one half, they were in a one-score game with a chance to pull away down the stretch.

Much like how things went down earlier in the year against Arizona State, the wheels fell off fast.

Facing a blowout on their own home turf, the Bruins showed they were tired of that narrative.

UCLA football (5-3, 3-2 Pac-12) at one point led 14-0 over No. 10 Oregon (6-1, 3-1), scoring touchdowns on two of its first three drives. The Bruins then allowed the Ducks to go on a 20-0 run, and it looked like more of the same for a team that had struggled on big stages and at the Rose Bowl this fall.

Then, UCLA strung together 14 unanswered points of its own and got an interception that set up a potential game-winning drive trailing 34-31. Then, quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson went down with an injury, and backup Ethan Garbers threw an interception to DJ James in Oregon territory.

The Ducks kneeled it out and won 34-31.

The Bruins opened things up with a 75-yard drive that ended in a touchdown by running back Brittain Brown. After quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson’s arm was hit as he was throwing to start the next drive, the Ducks picked him off, only for UCLA to get the ball back still up by seven.

A blocked punt set Thompson-Robinson and the Bruins up with a short field, and they made the most of it by feeding receiver Kazmeir Allen for a 5-yard score.

UCLA was up 14-0 having only allowed 34 yards.

From that point on, hardly anything went the Bruins way.

UCLA missed a field goal from 35 yards out. Oregon got touchdowns on each of its next four drives, all ending in short scores by running back Travis Dye. While the Bruins managed to put up a field goal to end the first half ahead 17-14, the Ducks took their first lead one possession into the third quarter.

After punter Luke Akers dropped the snap on what was going to be his first attempt of the day, Oregon scooped it up and converted on the good field position with Dye’s fourth score that made it 27-17. UCLA turned it over on downs, and then allowed quarterback Anthony Brown to take one 43 yards to the house and put his team up 34-17.

All of a sudden, the Bruins scored a touchdown, forced a pick out of Brown and then scored again. Still down three, UCLA needed to stop Oregon from running out the clock on the ground and they proved unable to do so.

That was, until, the Ducks tried airing it out, leading to cornerback Jay Shaw picking off Brown and setting the Bruins up for a potential game-winning drive with 3:00 on the clock.

A couple first downs got UCLA to midfield, then Thompson-Robinson went down with an injury. Garbers converted a few big plays to move the ball into Oregon territory, and then he threw a pick in the final minute when a field goal could have sent the game to overtime.

Entering the day as one of the best rushing teams in the conference, if not the country, the Bruins rushed for roughly half their season average with 110 yards.

UCLA is now winless at home since beating LSU in Week 1, and their hopes at winning the Pac-12 seem to have largely faded away.