UCLA Football: Shootout win at Washington State

The UCLA Bruins football team was trying to avoid their second straight 0-4 start in the Chip Kelly era, a tall task having to go up north to face the high scoring Washington State Cougars.

Give the UCLA Bruins credit: they were following the script of the last two seasons and found themselves down by 32 points in the third quarter 49-17 and then the floodgates opened.

Over the next 20 minutes of football, UCLA would outscore the Cougars 50-17 points to make it a game on their way to a stunning 67-63 win on the road.

This game truly brought all the offensive fireworks, UCLA scored more points in this game than they did in their previous three games combined.

With former quarterback and now NFL pro Gardner Minshew in attendance, Cougars quarterback Anthony Gordon broke his school record by throwing nine touchdown passes in the game.

The two teams combined to score 130 points and each team had well over 1,000 yard total offense each before the game was over. Defense went out the window as the Bruins and Cougars decided it was all about the offense.

Player of the Game: Dorian Thompson-Robinson

The much maligned Dorian Thompson-Robinson put on the show of his Bruins career throwing for for 507 yards five touchdowns while also running for 57 yards and two touchdowns. Using both his arm and legs Thompson-Robinson lead the Bruins on their 32 point comeback, at times he did it while in pain as limped his way through the game.

It was by far his best game coming into the game having been largely inaccurate and ineffective this season Thompson-Robinson finally showed the talent that mirrored his potential.

Play of the Game

After turning the ball over on downs still down by three at 63-60, the Bruins had the Cougars facing a first and 15 at their own 12. Gordon would pass to Easop Winston who had the ball punched out by Krys Barnes and then recovered by Josh Woods.

Winston was ruled down on the field but the referees would review the play and confirm the Bruins recovery. It was the fifth of sixth turnovers caused by the Bruins defense, this after just getting two in their previous three games.

Quote of the Game

“It’s a Pac-12 after dark Saturday night win!!!”-Coach Chip Kelly

Moving Forward

The Bruins finally get off the mat and show some competitiveness on the field, it won’t get easy though as they face the Arizona Wildcats on the road next Saturday again in the evening, perhaps we’ll see more offensive fireworks from the Bruins after dark.