On a night when the UCLA Bruins valiantly outplayed the Golden Gophers for most of the night, they must head back to the drawing-room after dropping their record to 1-5. An iconic evening charcoaled against the San Gabriel Mountains began with the excitement of a possible Bruin blowout, to the anxiety of an inevitable UCLA second-half collapse, back to the euphoria of an epic fourth-quarter comeback, only to be devastated in the game’s final 30 seconds. So much to unpack both from a strategic and tactical perspective across the good, bad, and ugly from last night’s tussle.
UCLA Bruins Good, Bad, and Ugly
The Good
From an offensive perspective to start the game, it seemed as though coordinator Eric Bieniemy astutely scripted the first 15 plays. The result was Ethan Garbers starting 5/5 and marching the team seamlessly on an emphatic 59-yard touchdown drive courtesy of a re-engaged J. Michael Sturdivant, having his best game of the 2024 season by far with seven receptions for 107 yards and one touchdown.
TJ Harden was also magnificent as a receiver, culminating in a 32-yard reception from the flat where he was part Houdini and part whirling dervish as he scissored his way inside the Golden Gophers’ red zone to setup the Bruins’s second score to go up 10-0 at the half. Garbers was also gutsy, inspirational, and artistic on their go-ahead fourth-quarter drive culminating in the prettiest deep ball parabola of the season to Sturdivant for the 42-yard score.
However, the greater impact and star power for the Bruins was on the defensive side of the ball. UCLA held Minnesota to only 234 yards of total offense as the fortification of Femi Oladejo on the defensive edge has now provided the Bruins a much-needed defensive physicality. Now that Oladejo and Jay Toia both require double teams up front, Carson Schwesinger has been the predominant beneficiary exploiting gaps in blocking schemes when he overloads on either side of Oladejo or Toia.
Schwesinger finished with 12 tackles, two sacks, and a staggering 4.5 tackles for loss. With the junior former walk-on as the Bruins’ primary north-south clogger, coupled with Kain Medrano as the preeminent east-west linebacker, UCLA now has four bona fide stars on the defensive front seven that should keep them in the vast majority of games to season’s end.
The Bad
Simply no other way to slice it – UCLA has the worst offensive line in the BIG-10 and one of the least capable in the entire country. Yet another game where the Bruins couldn’t muster any semblance of a ground game given the lack of running lanes and linemen repeatedly getting submerged back behind the line of scrimmage to blow up runs at the point of attack.
The Bruins finished with a paltry 36 rushing yards on 26 attempts. Jalen Berger was the team’s leading ground gainer with 20 yards on an anemic 2.5 yards per carry. Garbers was once again running for his life and even though the three Golden Gophers sacks didn’t seem like a vaunted number, the consistent pass rush forced the senior into untimely interceptions as a direct result of getting hit in the arm from a collapsing pocket or rushing throws before receivers get to intended spots.
Now, Garbers needs to play more conservative football and perhaps give up on plays sooner – resulting in a greater number of sacks and fewer interceptions, but it’s extremely hard to wire a quarterback with bad habits given insufficient line execution or talent.
The Bruins also went through too significant an offensive dry spell – the TJ Harden reception was the only explosive play from the second possession of the game until the late game Garbers’ heroics, a span of approximately 40 minutes of game action. For as good as Eric Bieniemy was in the game’s first 15 plays, he reverted to his bad habits over the next 40 plays with five and seven-step drop passes and slow-developing, delayed run concepts that consistently put UCLA behind the chains.
The Ugly
Ultimately, this game was lost due to UCLA’s inexplicable lack of discipline. On a night where the Bruins stifled the Golden Gophers, who simply bullied USC on the ground in the second half the week prior, holding star running back Darius Taylor to 41 yards rushing, they committed 10 penalties for 105 yards.
The flags were so consequential that Minnesota’s three touchdown drives of 46, 38, and 61 yards were all aided by significant UCLA miscues that further shortened the field. The Golden Gophers only had to earn 31 of the 46 yards on their first scoring drive and only EIGHT of the 38 yards on their second march to pay dirt.
UCLA gave this game away in a manner that is completely antithetical to DeShaun Foster’s first philosophical pillar: discipline. The manner in which Saturday night’s outcome was achieved only heightens questions about Foster’s readiness and viability to be the Bruins’ long-term solution as head coach. With the concept of a bowl berth orbiting further from reality, UCLA must now focus on simply getting better every day prior to next week’s cross-country road trip against yet another feisty, smashmouth, blue-collar team in Rutgers.
Fours Up.