UCLA grinds out a victory at the Rose Bowl against BYU 24-23. Paul Perkins rushes for 219 yards and a touchdown; Josh Rosen struggles but throws a late touchdown.
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It had to come down to the end against these guys. There’s only one constant when it comes to the 2015 BYU Cougars: Serious Drama. The UCLA Bruins survived their first real test of the season in a 24 – 23 victory at the Rose Bowl late Saturday night.
The Bruins were able to overcome a nightmare first half that included threw three 1st half interceptions by freshman quarterback Josh Rosen , a questionable ejection of linebacker Kenny Young, and a successful onside kick by BYU.
The Bruins looked shell-shocked after the Young ejection and BYU jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead on its first offensive drive with a 7 yard touchdown run by Adam Hine. Rosen looked flustered and confused with BYU’s amoeba defense most of the first half. Of the Bruins seven drives in the first half, three were 3 and outs, three ended in interceptions and they only scored a lone field goal.
. . . You couldn’t have written a script any better for college football fans. . .
The only part of the offense that was operating at full capacity was the running game, and thankfully the Bruins relied on it after halftime. After stopping BYU emphatically coming out of the half, the Bruins rode Perkins on a nice scoring drive capped by his 5 yard touchdown run. The Cougars immediately pushed the lead back to 10 points with touchdown and field goal drives to end the 3rd quarter. UCLA rallied in the 4th when Rosen connected on a touchdown to
Jordan Payton
and then Perkins and
Nate Starks
powered the Bruins down the field to take the lead on a 3 yard touchdown run by Starks.
Saturday Blitz
The only thing else needed by the Bruins was to stop a BYU team in the waning seconds that won its previous two games on long last second touchdown drives. The Cougars ran out of magic Saturday night when quarterback
Tanner Mangum
threw an interception to
Myles Jack
. You couldn’t have written a script any better for college football fans.
Perkins ended the night with 219 yards on 26 carries and the Bruins rushed for 296 yards as a team.
UCLA next travels to Tucson for a game against the Arizona in another battle of undefeated teams and the Pac-12 opener for both.
Go Bruins
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