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UCLA football curtails Colorado offense to claim 3rd-straight win this season

Senior linebacker Krys Barnes picked up an interception and 1.5 sacks in UCLA football’s victory over Colorado on Saturday. Barnes recorded 7 tackles in the game as well. (Amy Dixon/Daily Bruin senior staff)

Football


Colorado14
UCLA31

By Sam Connon

Nov. 2, 2019 10:19 p.m.

This post was updated Nov. 4 at 12:39 a.m.

The Bruin defense posted another season-best performance.

UCLA football (4-5, 4-2 Pac-12) bested Colorado (3-6, 1-5) 31-14 on Saturday night, posting its best scoring defensive performance of 2019 in the process. UCLA allowed 16 points on the road against Stanford on Oct. 17, but Saturday marked the first time the defense allowed fewer than 23 points at home this season.

The Bruin secondary – which was on track to allow the most single-season passing yards in school history after UCLA’s Oct. 5 loss to Oregon State – held the Buffaloes to 195 yards through the air.

Senior linebacker Krys Barnes led the Bruins with 1.5 sacks on the night, also picking up an interception in the first quarter that turned into seven UCLA points one play later.

“It was (a) read like we do in practice all the time,” Barnes said. “I read the QB’s eyes, I saw (a receiver) coming across from the backside and just kind of read it.”

Colorado quarterback Steven Montez accounted for 318 total yards against UCLA last season but started Saturday’s game 1-of-8 and finished with his third-worst passer rating of 2019 at 101.8.

Montez’s go-to target, receiver Laviska Shenault Jr., entered Saturday averaging nearly five receptions and 75 yards per game on the season. Shenault was matched up with junior cornerback Darnay Holmes for the majority of the game, and was held to just three catches and 16 yards.

“Schematically, we knew what we had to do, and (Shenault’s) a great player,” Holmes said. “Even though the stats don’t say that, he’s still a great player – I know he’s going to bounce back from that.”

The Bruins forced three three-and-outs on the night, with the first coming on the Buffaloes’ opening drive. UCLA turned that stop into points when sophomore quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson found redshirt junior tight end Devin Asiasi over the middle for a 16-yard touchdown.

The score was Thompson-Robinson’s first of two in the opening quarter, and he finished the night with 264 total yards and a season-high 75% completion percentage. He completed 13 of his first 15 pass attempts, with the other two only falling incomplete after they went through the hands of his receivers.

Thompson-Robinson’s second touchdown was a 45-yard pass that dropped right into the arms of senior receiver Ethan Fernea for the former walk-on’s first career touchdown.

“I don’t think (Fernea) was even expecting me to throw him the ball,” Thompson-Robinson said. “All week we got into a look where I was throwing the deep ball. They changed the look up on us, and I just read it and gave him a chance to get the ball.”

Thompson-Robinson was held off the scoreboard for the remainder of the night, but the Bruins’ 17 first-quarter points were all they would need for the victory. The sophomore signal-caller played a clean first half, but he extended his seven-game turnover streak to eight at the start of the second half.

Thompson-Robinson threw an interception off his back foot on 3rd-and-long to open the second half, setting up the Buffaloes for a 27-yard field goal that would have made it a one-possession game.

Colorado kicker James Stefanou – who missed a 47-yarder with four seconds left in the first half – lined up on the left hash and pushed the kick right, drilling the upright and missing his second attempt of the night.

The Bruins strung together five first downs on the ensuing possession en route to an 80-yard scoring drive that was capped off by a 5-yard rushing touchdown by redshirt senior running back Joshua Kelley to put UCLA up 24-7.

Kelley rushed for just 40 yards in the first half, but was able to score twice and rack up 126 yards in the game.

“(Running backs) coach (DeShaun) Foster told me that sometimes it’s like hitting a wall or something, trying to break through the wall,” Kelley said. “It’s like, all right here – 2, 3, 4, 5 (yards) – and (then) maybe it’s 40 (yards) or something.”

The Bruins put together an eight-play, 43-yard drive on their next possession following Kelley’s first score, but UCLA was unable to extend its lead. Thompson-Robinson had a 4-yard scramble that came up short of a first down, bringing out senior kicker JJ Molson for his second attempt of the night – this one from 50 yards out.

Molson’s kick had the distance, but he pulled it left and missed his fourth kick of the year and first since Sept. 28 versus Arizona.

The only score the Bruin defense allowed in the second half was a 27-yard touchdown pass from Montez to receiver Tony Brown with 5 minutes 57 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. After a failed onside kick attempt and an incompletion on fourth down, the Buffalo offense was unable to get back in the game.

Coach Chip Kelly’s offense broke the 30-point barrier for the fourth game in a row, but he said he credits his defense and the leadership of Barnes as major influences on the win.

“There’s a core group of seniors on this team … that I think set the tone for us,” Kelly said. “I think everybody on our defensive side of the ball – and even on our team – have rallied around (Barnes) as a leader. When you have that young (of) a team, you’re always concerned about who leads this young team, and I think (Barnes) has really fallen into that role.”

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Sam Connon | Alumnus
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
Connon joined the Bruin as a freshman in 2017 and contributed until he graduated in 2021. He was the Sports editor for the 2019-2020 academic year, an assistant Sports editor for the 2018-2019 academic year and spent time on the football, men's basketball, women's basketball, baseball, men's soccer, cross country, men's golf and women's golf beats, while also contributing movie reviews for Arts & Entertainment.
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