UCLA Football: Bruins Lose to Themselves, ASU Involved

The UCLA Football team lost a game that was winnable on many different plays, but as UCLA does, they beat themselves.

There are many adjectives that can be used to describe this UCLA football game. If you would like to check out a few choice ones, head to Twitter right now and see what the UCLA faithful are saying.

This game was an abomination. It amplified the problems that the UCLA coaching staff is having trying to manage their team. It’s not so much that things were bad from the beginning, but when things fell apart during the game, the Bruins had no contingency plan to try and save themselves.

Despite the miraculous effort by quarterback Josh Rosen to throw for 400 yards, he only played 40 minutes due to an injury on a late hit in the first quarter.

Back up QB Mike Fafaul did not present any relief at that point. After covering for Rosen at the end of the first half and the beginning of the second, all he had to show for it was two interceptions and 44 yards on 3-of-11 passing.

That was all the Bruins needed to reinsert Rosen into the game. Though it sparked some energy in the third quarter, there was nothing the Bruins could do after Rosen was permanently knocked out of the game in the fourth quarter with a shoulder injury.

Either way, it does not make up for the fact that the Bruins had bad clock management, bad play calling, bad offensive line movement, bad coaching and [insert your criticism here].

To only score 3 points in the first half was bad. To have Rosen come back and will this team to 17 second half points is good. To finish the way they did is very bad and to allow Arizona State any chance to get back in this game is bad.

Forget the fact that Arizona State was involved in this game in any capacity. The Sun Devils could not do anything until the UCLA defense was tired and gassed. The Bruins knocked backup QB Brady White out of the game and yet they still found a way to get around UCLA.

There was also the -1 total rushing yards, the drop passes in the end zone, the inability to score in the red zone and lack of fire that kept the Bruins out of this game. ASU had nothing to do with this loss. UCLA beat themselves.

Next: UCLA vs ASU at the Half

More from Go Joe Bruin

• UCLA Football: It’s time for the nation to meet Dante Moore
• UCLA Football: Where are they ranked heading into week 4
• UCLA Football: Position battle breakdown for Utah showdown
• UCLA vs. Utah: Location, time, prediction, and more
• UCLA Football: Highlights from Chip Kelly’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show

But worst of all, it is the fact that UCLA had many, many, many opportunities to win this game and they did not capitalize on any of them. That is the part that makes UCLA’s now 3-3 record so painful. Not that their QB is injured, but because there was no reaction. There was no fire. There was no emotion.

There was no fight, fight, fight.