UCLA football upsets No. 15 Washington in first ranked victory of season

This post was updated Oct. 2 at 11:44 p.m.

Two Husky defenders had converged on Dorian Thompson-Robinson. 

Instead of stopping the redshirt senior quarterback short of the goal line, the pair of Huskies found themselves in a heap on the ground. A sidestep had freed up Thompson-Robinson, who high-stepped his way to his third touchdown of the night.

Thompson-Robinson left the defenders – and ultimately the Huskies – in the rearview mirror.

A series of highlight-worthy plays from its quarterback propelled UCLA football (5-0, 2-0 Pac-12) to a 40-32 victory over No. 15 Washington (4-1, 1-1) at the Rose Bowl on Friday. The win over a ranked opponent keeps UCLA undefeated through the first month of the season and puts the blue and gold squarely in the mix to make a return to the national rankings.

“People are saying we’re the worst 4-0 team out there; they’re writing us off,” Thompson-Robinson said. “My boys came in here with a chip on their shoulder.”

Entering the week, Washington boasted the top passer in the country, a top-five total offense in the nation and the most prolific offense in the conference.

But Thompson-Robinson and the Bruins stole the Huskies’ bark on Friday night.

“I told you all on Monday, ‘See if Washington can run with us, not the other way around,’” Thompson-Robinson said.

UCLA fell one yard short of 500 yards of total offense, out-shining Washington’s 416 yards as coach Chip Kelly earned the best win of his Bruin career.

Washington and its high-octane offense got on the board first, putting up an opening-drive score courtesy of a methodical 10-play drive that culminated in a 33-yard touchdown pass on 4th-and-6. UCLA’s defense had multiple opportunities to get off the field, but a double move down the sideline left sophomore defensive back Devin Kirkwood in the dust to put the Huskies up seven.

Redshirt junior wide receiver Kazmeir Allen set UCLA up for an opening-drive score of its own with a long kick return, but the Bruins failed to punch it in from three yards out and turned the ball over on downs. The Huskies and their offense had a chance to go up two scores early. 

“You’re going to get tested, but competitors respond in those situations,” Kelly said. “It’s about playing the next snap and not being down and having a little bit of resolve, and I think our kids continue to build on that.”

Instead, UCLA capitalized on a Washington miscue, forcing a safety and igniting a 40-9 scoring run for the Bruins.

Redshirt senior wide receiver Jake Bobo – who finished the game with six catches for 142 yards and two touchdowns  – caught the first touchdown pass of the night from Thompson-Robinson on a 12-yard strike. Redshirt junior wide receiver Kam Brown followed suit less than two minutes later to put the Bruins up 23-10.

“For us, it started with the defense, and when the defense gets going like they did in the first half, the offense feeds off it,” Bobo said. “When you can put a team like that in a hole early, we’ve got a good shot to come out with it.”

Though UCLA’s defense gave the home team back the ball before the end of the half, it was Thompson-Robinson who drew the attention of the crowd on an ultimately meaningless 10-yard scramble on the ensuing drive – a possession that ended on downs two plays later. Drawing memories of his performance against USC a season ago, the quarterback escaped the pocket and hurdled his way over a Husky defender. 

Early in the second half, the fifth-year signal-caller called his own number again. With his eyes locked in on the goal line and a 23-point lead, Thompson-Robinson planted inside before shifting outside in the blink of an eye, prancing untouched into the end zone for his third score of the night.

On his way back to the sideline, Thompson-Robinson crashed his hands together, mimicking the collision of the Husky defenders caused by his juke.

“The flash plays are cool and all, but I want them to run off the field – I want them Washington Huskies over there to run off that field at the end of the game,” Thompson-Robinson said.

While Thompson-Robinson was already approaching 300 passing yards with three total touchdowns to his name, Washington quarterback Michael Penix Jr. was quiet on the other side. The nation’s leading passer entering the week had thrown more interceptions in the first half than he had totaled all season.

“You hear all week it’s going to be a shootout,” Thompson-Robinson said. “It’s going to be this, their offense is this and that, and their quarterback is this and that. So when our defense is out there rolling and shutting them down, it juices us up. We smell blood in the water.”

Penix and the Huskies clawed back in the fourth quarter with 16 unanswered points, drawing within eight as the Bruins’ lead sat at 40-32. 

But as he had done all game, Thompson-Robinson shut the door. Facing a 3rd-and-1 in UCLA territory with under four minutes to go, the quarterback once again put the ball in his own hands, running for six yards and all but extinguishing the Huskies’ hopes.

“I just thought he was clutch,” Kelly said. “We really have total confidence in everything that Dorian does.”