A football game doesn’t come down to tucked shirts and timely attendance.

But these mundane facets take small steps in surmounting the Bruins’ larger hurdle: a lack of discipline.

“It’s not just a word,” said coach DeShaun Foster. “It’s more of actions.”

UCLA football, caught in a five-game skid, is now 45 days removed from its first – and only – win of the season. Amid these defeats, only once have the Bruins scored more points in the second half than the first.

“Tale of two halves,” Foster said. “Came out in the first half, played well. … The discipline that we need to play in the second half wasn’t there.”

Deficits in total yardage comprise one prong of the Bruins’ inability to finish on top.

Despite racking up a career-high 293 yards through the air against Minnesota, redshirt senior quarterback Ethan Garbers’ net rushing yards sit below zero on the season – hallmarking UCLA’s consistent stalling on the field.

In conference matchups, the Bruins have outrun their opponents just once – against the Nittany Lions, where redshirt sophomore quarterback Justyn Martin started under center for just the first time in his collegiate career.

And though UCLA can span the field in its air game, Garbers’ interceptions have, at times, cemented the team’s fate.

Combine this with the team average of less than 60 rushing yards per game, and the inefficiencies speak for themselves.

In terms of the Bruins’ fall from grace throughout each quarter of the Golden Gophers matchup, Garbers said his turnovers on top of the rushing troubles contributed to the squad’s 21-17 loss.

“First and second down, we were not really getting positive (yards), so we were put in third and longer situations than we would like to,” Garbers said. “I have to be better. I can’t turn the ball over in those critical situations.”

Beyond the dissonance, UCLA’s lack of discipline manifests most significantly in penalties.

Barring its Indiana and LSU matchups, UCLA has succumbed to a loss of more than 40 yards due to penalties in each game this season.

In the case of their defeat to the Golden Gophers, the Bruins surrendered five times as many yards as their opponent – for 105 across 10 penalties.

“That’s somebody that’s making a choice to do something that’s already been told not to do it, so that’s a discipline thing,” Foster said. “People jumping off sides or false starts like we were doing before, which were discipline things.”

But this quest for order is not for the players to shoulder alone. Foster, alongside his coaching staff, have developed it as a priority in their instruction as the season progresses.

“All of it’s on the coaches – all of it’s on me,” Foster said. “It wouldn’t be one of my pillars if I didn’t think it was really important.”

Defensive coordinator Ikaika Malloe’s passion has been evident on the field, which redshirt junior linebacker Carson Schwesinger said makes players’ discipline all the more important.

“Coach Malloe gives everything for us, so we want to give everything for him,” Schwesinger said. “Losing in that fashion makes it hurt a little bit more, especially when you are that tight-knit of a group.”

With six games left in the season, the Bruins may not be able to significantly boost the third-worst rushing offense in the nation or make themselves bowl-eligible.

But if Foster can iron out UCLA’s creases in time, its 120th-most penalty yards and second-half losses will be statistics of the past.