UCLA scored on all but one of its possessions at Oregon on Saturday, not counting a kneel-down before halftime.
Against another top 10 opponent on the road, the Bruins would certainly have taken that. But to stay in the top 10, UCLA’s offense needed help from the defense.
Bo Nix spoiled that thought in Oregon’s 45-30 win at Autzen Stadium. The Oregon quarterback took UCLA’s stellar defensive stats coming into the game — 344.8 total yards and 99.0 rushing yards per game, both ranking in the top two in the Pac-12 — and smashed them.
Oregon had 545 yards of total offense — the most UCLA has allowed this year — and scored on its first seven possessions. The Bruins had slowed down Washington’s Michael Penix Jr. and Utah’s Cam Rising, both dual-threat quarterbacks, just enough in the previous two games. But Nix, who threw for 283 yards and five touchdowns in completing 22 of 28 passes and ran for 51 more yards, executed nearly every offensive play to surgical perfection.
“They were just having their way,” defensive back Stephan Blaylock said to reporters.
UCLA remains in Pac-12 championship contention. But the defense, a question mark coming into the season under new coordinator Bill McGovern, has some midseason soul-searching to do as the Bruins prepare to face Stanford at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.
Allowing nearly 400 yards of total offense to South Alabama in Week 3 raised some eyebrows. But the Bruins stopped Washington and Utah when it mattered most, leading to the conclusion that this was a new defense this year.
“I thought our defense has been really good all year,” coach Chip Kelly said. “Sometimes you’ve got to give credit to the other team.”
Nix and the Ducks turned back the clock for UCLA to last season’s Jerry Azzinaro-led defense that allowed a Pac-12-worst 260.2 passing yards a game. Run or pass, the Ducks saw lots of open space. Oregon had 283 passing yards and 262 rushing yards.
UCLA had plenty of chances to get off the field, but Oregon was 3 of 3 on fourth down and 6 of12 on third down. The pass rush was nearly non-existent, with no sacks and Laiatu Latu recording the lone quarterback hurry. Nix, the fourth-year transfer from Auburn, has been sacked only once this season.
“At times, maybe some other quarterbacks in our league, we might have gotten to him,” Kelly said. “We couldn’t get to him.”
Oregon’s offense produced back-breaking drives just when stops might have gotten UCLA back into the game. There was a 10-play, 88-yard touchdown drive right before halftime after UCLA had cut the lead to 24-13 and was going to get the ball first in the second half.
“Anytime they needed to get a first down, they got a first down,” Blaylock said.
Then, after a field goal coming out of halftime made it a two-possession game again, Oregon went on a 15-play touchdown drive that took more than seven minutes. The drive included a third-down conversion and back-to-back fourth-down conversions.
And there was the gutsy onside kick early in the second quarter that kept UCLA off the field and allowed Oregon to build a two-score lead with consecutive touchdown drives.
“It’s obviously frustrating,” quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson said of watching the onside kick from the sideline. “Everybody on the team wants to play.”
UCLA’s prolific offense, behind Thompson-Robinson and running back Zach Charbonnet, is what will carry this team. It carried the Bruins last year, as the offense led the Pac-12 in points per game, but the defense kept them from turning a good season into a great one.
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The defense had allowed points in previous contests this year, but it did enough to keep the team in the game. Every defensive possession was an opportunity to either protect a lead or give the ball back to the offense in a close game.
On Saturday, the defense was grasping for anything to keep the game within striking distance.
“It’s something we didn’t see coming into the week,” Blaylock said. “It’s a different feeling. But it’s something we got to sit with, and just improve on.”
BRUINS’ RANKING FALLS
UCLA fell three spots to No. 12 in the AP Top 25 poll following its loss to Oregon. Oregon, meanwhile, takes over as the top-ranked Pac-12 team at No. 8. USC – which was idle Saturday – also leapfrogged the Bruins into a tie for No. 10 with Wake Forest.
There’s a lot of season left, but the UCLA-USC matchup on Nov. 19 at the Rose Bowl could be for a spot in the Pac-12 Championship Game.