UCLA Football Beats Utah: By The Numbers

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The now-11th-ranked UCLA Bruins skimmed by the Utah Utes, 34-27 on Thursday night. Here are a few numbers to try and characterize this wacky, back-and-forth contest.

5.0

The number of yards per play, identical for both UCLA and Utah. While this game appeared pretty offense-oriented, five yards per play seems pretty low for two upper-tier Pac-12 offenses. For this, you can point to the Utes’ and the Bruins’ running games, with each averaging 3.0 and 3.5 per rush, respectively. Both offenses did, however, hover around 400 yards of total offense.

13

The number of penalties UCLA committed, a massive number compared to Utah’s six penalties for 60 yards. While the excuse is that UCLA is an aggressive team, 100 extra yards is a massive deal and, throughout the game, the Bruins kept the Utes’ drives alive with these penalties. UCLA coach Jim Mora’s teams have now become notorious for penalties and the Bruins will need to stamp these out against the Oregons and Stanfords of the world.

6

The number of turnovers the UCLA defense forced, all of which were interceptions. While the Bruins’ offense struggled, particularly the UCLA secondary, forcing turnovers was something Mora stressed this team had to do entering the season. Travis Wilson only threw three picks in the four games leading up to Thursday night’s tilt, and has largely been seen as an asset for the Utes thus far.

112

The number of rushing yards Brett Hundley earned against the Utes. If you’re keeping track, that’s 112 rushing yards, 211 passing yards, a rushing touchdown, a passing touchdown, a receiving touchdown and, oh yeah, a pooch punt which trapped the Utes inside their own 10. We’re not sure there’s a thing the sophomore QB can’t do.