Pasadena, CA- UCLA was one half away from picking up their first ever win as a member of the Big Ten conference against a good Minnesota team.
Instead they blew a 10 point lead in the second half amid another poor offensive performance in their 21-17 loss on Saturday night at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA’s head coach Deshaun Foster said his team must put together a complete performance if they want to compete.
“It was a tale of two halves. We came out in the first half and played well,” Foster said. “The discipline that we need to play in the second half wasn’t there at all. We are a one-half team right now. I have to find a way to get these guys to come out and approach the second half like we do [with] the first half of games. Until we do that, we aren’t going to be able to get out of our own way, and we are going to continue to take losses like this.”
It was a tough game for Bruins’ quarterback Ethan Garbers as he threw three interceptions in the loss but had 293 passing yards and one touchdown.
Despite throwing for a season-high in passing yards, Garbers mentioned that turnovers kill a team’s offensive chances.
“The stats don’t really matter when you have three turnovers in there. Like I said before, you will never win games with that many turnovers. I have to be better in that area,” Garbers said.
Foster defended his quarterback after the game.
“It’s not just Ethan out there. There are 10 other guys out there who have got to do their job for him to be successful, so we’ve just got to get back and regroup and get ready for this next week,” Foster noted.
The Bruins had their worst rushing game of the season. They only managed to put together 36 total yards on the ground. Jalen Berger finished with a team-high of 20 yards on eight carries. TJ Harden had his worst game as a Bruin as his role continues to diminish each passing week. Harden had seven carries for 15 yards as the UCLA offensive line struggled to get a push all night long.
The Golden Gophers weren’t much better with their rush attempts. UCLA’s defense held them to only 41 yards on the ground, including holding Minnesota’s star running back Darius Taylor to only 30 yards after he had 144 the week before.
However, once again the Gophers relied on the arm of their quarterback Max Brosmer as he threw for 193 yards and two touchdowns, including going 5-7 for 61 yards on Minnesota’s go-ahead scoring drive to lift the Gophers over the Bruins.
Despite another tough loss, sending them to a 1-5 record, Garbers remained optimistic after the loss.
“If anything, this will just motivate us even more because we are still hungry to get a win in the Big Ten. This is just going to motivate us even more to work harder and keep this thing going,” Garbers said.
