Josh Rosen leads UCLA past No. 19 California 40-24
PASADENA, Calif. — Breaking down UCLA's victory against No. 19 California:
THE BIG PICTURE: UCLA continues to be a difficult program to predict week-to-week. Hampered by multiple key injuries — including several more Thursday night, including running back Paul Perkins leaving with a knee in jury in the second quarter — the Bruins basically saved their season with a dominant performance against California one week after getting blown out at Stanford.
UCLA's defense, which has struggled badly in recent weeks with the loss of three starters for the season, held the Bears (who were averaging 40.2 points and 517.7 yards) to 426 yards even without a fourth injured starter in linebacker Deon Hollins (knee).
Who knows if the momentum will carry over, but UCLA is still in the Pac 12 South race at 5-2 overall and hits an easier three-game stretch in its schedule before finishing with games at Utah and Southern Cal that could decide the division.
The Bears, meanwhile, are likely to fall out of the top 25 and are now officially in danger of another late-season slide. Last year they lost six of their last seven after starting 4-1. This year, their 5-0 start is now 5-2 with games against Southern California, Oregon, Stanford and Arizona State remaining.
WHAT WE'LL BE TALKING ABOUT: Both Cal's Jared Goff and UCLA's Josh Rosen are going to be NFL quarterbacks in the next few years, so scouts showed up en masse Thursday night at the Rose Bowl.
Though Rosen won't be eligible for the draft until 2018, he looked decidedly like the better prospect.
Rosen still makes some freshman mistakes, but he had a very strong game overall and made a handful of "Wow" plays, including a 21-yard touchdown to Devin Fuller in the third quarter that was thrown on an absolute rope.
Rosen broke a single-game UCLA record with 34 completions on 47 attempts for 399 yards and three touchdowns, and Goff seemed out of rhythm for much of the first half. The junior, who could very well enter the draft this year, picked up some yardage late after Cal fell way behind, ending up with 295 yards passing.
BREAKOUT PLAYER: How about UCLA kicker Ka'imi Fairbairn? As the first half was set to expire, Fairbairn lined up for a 55-yard field goal, which looked like a a career high as it drove through the uprights. But UCLA was called for a false start, backing him up to a 60-yarder. Fairbairn made it anyway for a school record, drilling it from the right hash with plenty of room to spare.
According to luckyshow.org, a Web site that tracks field goals of 60 yards or more, Fairbairn's kick was only the 10th in an FBS game since 1995 of that distance.
KEY STAT: UCLA scored a field goal or a touchdown on every single drive until it punted with 8:41 remaining in the third quarter. The Bruins scored on eight of their nine drives overall.
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