Pasadena, CA – UCLA returned to the Rose Bowl on the last day of October to round up a three-game homestead with a 27-point shutout victory over Nevada to remain unbeaten in the regular season and conference after becoming bowl eligible.
Bob Chesney became UCLA’s first Head Coach in program history to start with an 8-0 record, while continuing his regular season win streak from last season at James Madison. However, Chesney is not satisfied and neither is his team despite team’s record-setting season.
“I think that for me, you know, after every win you feel like there is so much work to be done,” Chesney said to fi360news during postgame presser. “I don’t think you ever walk out of a game regardless of what it is and feel like, ‘Man, we have arrived, we’ve made it.’ Not one guy on this team probably feels that way – not one coach feels that way, so with every win, it’s nice. You have to enjoy them, because it is not easy to do. But at the same point in time, there is a lot of work that still needs to go into this thing. We have got to get better.“
UCLA jumped out to a 10-0 lead after their defense picked off Nevada three times in the first half. Scooter Jackson got the first pick off former teammate Luke Duncan that led to a 26-yard field goal by Mateen Bhaghani. Quickly, Pasadena became pick city for the Wolfpack as two more picks followed by Bruins’ Jalen Woods and Derrick Barksdale, whom returned an interception for a 26-yard touchdown.
When UCLA secondary wasn’t picking Nevada pockets, their D-line, led by Sahir West and Aiden Gobaira, whom recorded 1.5 sacks apiece, applied more pressure on Nevada’s O-line and quarterback, limiting them to 94 yards in first half. West led Bruins with nine tackles while Gobaira led with three tackles for loss.
By the end of the second quarter, Dieffenbach got the offense grooving with a 10 play, 71 yard drive capped by his own 4-yard touchdown.
“Yeah, I mean, the defensive ends were respecting our run game and they were crashing pretty hard, so the pull was there today a lot,” Dieffenbach said to fi360news during presser.
Dieffenbach passed for 176 yards on 16-of-30 while adding a 4-yard rush touchdown. Bruins balanced their first half scoring with an offensive and defensive touchdown for a 17-0 lead to enter third quarter. Still balancing their offensive challenges with defensive dominance, UCLA countered every questionable play call on offense with a daring read on defense resulting into a total of four interceptions by the end of the game.
“It was just trusting the guys behind me, playing as one, and playing as 11,” Barksdale said. “Being able to trust the guys and just trusting the guys to make that play and then celebrating with me, that was the biggest part.”
UCLA got their third first-half shutout of the year, and fifth game that UCLA held an opponent under 100 yards in the first half.
Building off the momentum in the second quarter, Wayne Knight opened the second half with a touchdown to continue his streak of averaging a touchdown per game to help redeem a missed field goal in the last few seconds of the first half.
Nevada missed a chance to put points on the board after missing a 48-yard field goal following Knight’s touchdown, keeping it 24-0.
UCLA got one more opportunity to add onto their blowout lead with a 38-yard field goal by Maghani and sent Nevada back home empty handed with a scoreless loss.
Next up, UCLA travels to play Minnesota on Saturday.
