Bruins fall to Buffaloes 48-42 in first game of the season
Redshirt senior running back Demetric Felton finished the night with 103 total yards on 17 touches as UCLA football fell in its season opener to Colorado 48-42. (Liz Ketcham/Daily Bruin senior staff)
Football
| UCLA | 42 |
| Colorado | 48 |
By Sam Connon
Nov. 7, 2020 8:18 p.m.
This post was updated Nov. 7, 2020 at 9:21 p.m.
BOULDER—The Bruins cleaned things up in the second half, but a signature defensive performance made a comeback all but impossible.
UCLA football (0-1) trailed by 28 points early in its season opener against Colorado (1-0), and it lost the game 48-42 despite closing the deficit to single digits on four separate occasions. The Bruins had to dig themselves out of a hole after four first-half turnovers led to 21 Buffalo points.
A 9-yard connection from junior quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson to sophomore tight end Mike Martinez put UCLA within six points with 1:45 left on the clock, but a failed onside kick ended the Bruins’ chance at a comeback.
“Mounting the comeback that we did, there were a lot of positive things there,” said coach Chip Kelly. “But it’s a matter of everything. You’ve got to look at the whole game, and how do we clean up what happened to us in the first half and build on what happened to us in the second half.”
The touchdown to Martinez was Thompson-Robinson’s 40th pass attempt of the night, and Kelly said the Bruins threw the ball more than they initially wanted to. Thompson-Robinson also carried the ball nine times, took eight hits in the pocket and was sacked once, but he said the heavy workload isn’t what caught him by surprise.
“You can never put an estimate on your stats or how many times you’re going to get the ball or how many times you’re going to pass the ball, so whatever it took to win was what I was going to do,” Thompson-Robinson said. “In terms of being fatigued, I was not fatigued. They had a good D-line, (which) put a lot of pressure on me, so getting hit around for the first time in a while kind of took some tolls on me.”
Thompson-Robinson threw for four touchdowns and 303 yards – also picking up a career-high 109 yards and a touchdown on the ground – but his lack of ball security was part of the reason UCLA had to attempt a comeback in the first place.
The junior threw an interception that was returned to the UCLA 1-yard line in the first quarter, and Colorado scored on the very next play. Thompson-Robinson also fumbled the ball in the second quarter, and while it didn’t lead to any Buffalo points, it was his 21st giveaway in his last 12 games.
“(Quarterbacks) coach (Dana) Bible brings in a statistic from the NFL – if you have two or more turnovers, you might as well go home,” Thompson-Robinson said. “We dug ourselves into a big hole. We couldn’t really get ourselves out.”
The other two turnovers came from redshirt sophomore Kyle Philips on a punt return in the first quarter and redshirt senior running back Demetric Felton on a 1-yard loss in the second quarter. Felton, who missed the last few drives with an undisclosed injury, recorded 103 yards and two touchdowns from scrimmage.
Still, the Bruins were 2-0 when they scored at least 42 points in 2019. The differences between Saturday’s game and last year’s wins over Arizona State and Washington State were that the defense allowed over 500 yards and did not force a single turnover in Boulder.
Quarterback Sam Noyer was making his first career start for Colorado after spending last season at safety. Noyer had a better passer rating and completion percentage than Thompson-Robinson without turning the ball over.
Running back Jarek Broussard also left his mark on the UCLA defense, racking up 187 yards and three touchdowns in his first career start.
“We made (Broussard) look better than he was,” said junior linebacker Bo Calvert. “Having a hard run game in the beginning, having to stop that is something new just because it’s the first game. But I think we’ll be better coming into Week 2.”
The Buffalo newcomers carried the load for their offense, which was missing its starting quarterback, top running back and No. 1 receiver from 2019. The result was 525 yards for Colorado’s offense, the most UCLA has allowed since the Washington State game last season.
The Bruins’ special teams arguably made more stops than the defense, blocking two field goals in the fourth quarter to keep UCLA within two scores.
It wasn’t enough, however, and the Bruins have lost their season opener for the third time in three years under Kelly.
“We’ve got to do a better job coaching,” Kelly said.
