PASADENA, CA — The UCLA Bruins had a tall task of defeated a tremendous ranked opponent at the Rose Bowl for the nation to witness, as the Bruins controlled the ball on both ends in the second half en route to a 38-27 victory over the LSU Tigers on a warm Saturday night.
After key second quarter adjustment by head coach Chip Kelly, the defense led the way as they continued to shut down the Tigers rushing attack and forcing quarterback Max Johnson to either run or throw passes into coverage.
“I think it’s something we can build upon,” Kelly said about his defense’s effort. “We can also go back and watch the tape and see what we did right to stop that for them. Understand what they fit in the schemes, I thought our guys did a really good job in run fields and our coaches jobs is to put players in positions to make plays. The cool part is about this group is that they go out and execute it.”
The Bruins held the Tigers to 48 yards rushing and limited Johnson to 330 yards passing for three touchdowns and one interception.
UCLA’s offense woke up under the guidance of quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson in the second half, as the team continued to put drives together and executed for huge returns on the field. Robinson found tight end Greg Dulcich for an amazing 19-yard catch to the one yard line. Running back Brittain Brown scored from the one yard line to increase the lead 31-20 early in the fourth quarter.
Wide receiver Kyle Philips made sure the Bruins had plenty of insurance as he caught a 45-yard touchdown pass after he juked two LSU defenders.
Dulcich finished with three catches for 117 yards and running back Zach Charbonnet finished with 117 yards on 11 carries and touchdown. The second consecutive week Charbonnet finished with over 100 yards rushing. Brown added 96 yards on 17 carries and a touchdown.
Thompson-Robinson had a shaky start but finished strong in the remaining three quarters, and threw for 260 yards, three touchdowns on nine of 16 passes.
This was a signature win Kelly and the Bruins needed and now appear to be a strong contender in the Pac-12 South. When asked if he thought his team did enough to be ranked Kelly said smiling, “I don’t care, that’s for you guys (in the media) to decide.“
Thompson-Robinson had a different approach on how his team handled the victory on Saturday night.
“This isn’t our goal to beat LSU, our goal is to win the whole thing, so this is a stepping stone in that direction,” he said. “We want to win the Pac-12 championship.”
The Bruins will have a week off before they face their next opponent at the Rose Bowl in the Fresno State Bulldogs.
