“If you watched the game but never saw the scoreboard, I think you’d think we would have won the game, and that was disheartening”. UCLA is still in the thick of the Pac-12 South race despite losing several key defensive players to season-ending injuries and relying on freshman quarterback Josh Rosen, who has passed for at least 325 yards in each of the last two games.
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“To overcome the things that we overcame in terms of personnel was staggering”, Mora said. I’m sure someone could tell me.
But UCLA cashed in on a pair of quick-strike touchdown plays and thwarted a potential Colorado go-ahead scoring drive to escape with a 35-31 victory, in front of 51,508 at the Rose Bowl.
The Buffaloes dominated possession to an extraordinary degree, forcing UCLA’s depleted defense to stay on the field for 55 more snaps than its Colorado counterpart.
“We have been able to do that”, MacIntyre said.
UCLA coach Jim Mora has a legitimate gripe with an obvious home-field disadvantage at the Rose Bowl. The Buffaloes then took a 31-28 lead on Carr’s TD run and a 2-point conversion. “It’s going to be a great game, and I think we’re setting ourselves up to have a really good shot at winning it”. We’ve got a few good ones. Our quarterback can run and throw it, too.
UCLA did make the most of its relatively meager 59 plays. Liufau threw for 312 yards, completing 37 of 58 passes and throwing two touchdowns. His top target was Jordan Payton, who hauled in eight passes for 134 yards. Liufau completed a 62-yard pass to Devin Ross before Carr had a six-yard touchdown run with 12:04 remaining.
UCLA gobbled up the field on big plays, racking up seven plays of 20-plus yards. Liufau now has 7,178.
Colorado torched UCLA with its multipronged rushing attack throughout the afternoon, and the Bruins didn’t have an answer as the Buffaloes mounted a second-half charge.
An Ishmael Adams interception deep in the red zone that he returned 96 yards for a touchdown turned out to be a huge play for the Bruins.
Those two momentum-turning plays would prove to be pivotal as Colorado stuck to its game plan.
“We were just watching the game and rooting for the defense”, Rosen said.
NOTES: UCLA led 21-6 at halftime and now is 30-0 under Mora when leading at the half….
When Liufau was picked off in the second quarter, it ended a streak of 118 consecutive passes without an interception for the junior.
The second half started ghoulishly for UCLA. Havner started 48 games from 2002-05….
“That was the longest game I’ve ever played on defense ever”, said linebacker Jayon Brown, who led the Bruins with 18 tackles. But, he said, “We kept playing and kept playing and kept playing, and made stops when we had to make stops”.
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The Colorado Buffaloes (4-5) almost earned their first road win over a ranked team in 13 years Saturday afternoon, but the No. 24 UCLA Bruins (6-2) withstood the Buffaloes’ second-half push to emerge with a 35-31 win at the Rose Bowl.
