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UCLA Upsets No. 7 Texas 34-12 in Austin
Holy shit. The last time UCLA went into Royal-Texas Memorial Stadium in Austin facing the then-No. 10 Texas Longhorns in 1997, the Bruins routed the favored Longhorns 66-3. It resulted in the ouster of head coach John Mackovic and the start of the Mack Brown era. So after today’s 34-12 upset win by the Bruins, what now?
First of all, the Bruin offense needs help in their passing game. Granted they knew they were outmatched by the Longhorn secondary perhaps the main reason why quarterback Kevin Prince only made eight pass attempts in the game. But the 27 yards in the passing game needs to improve as the season goes along.
But the running game against the top-ranked rush defense showed that while the Longhorns are good stopping the run against spread offenses, they cannot handle a power running team. Johnathan Franklin had another great day with 118 yards while Derrick Coleman had 94 yards with Prince running for 50 yards of his own. The 264 yards on the ground was by far the most given up by the Longhorns who had not given up 100 yards rushing this season.
While Texas outgained UCLA 349 yards to 291 yards in total offense, what lost the game for the Longhorns were the five turnovers.
After UCLA made a field goal with less than four minutes left in the first half to take a 13-3 lead, Texas got the ball on their 32-yard line. Longhorns quarterback Garrett Gilbert had a good drive starting completing his first three passes as they were approaching midfield, but he threw a costly interception to linebacker Akeem Ayers that basically allowed the Bruins to go into the locker room feeling good about themselves.
The Bruins came out with two touchdown drives in the third quarter while the Longhorns could only respond with a field goal extending the Bruins lead to 27-6. What sealed the victory for the Bruins was after the Longhorns turned the ball over on downs at the UCLA 20-yard line with 13:24 left in the fourth quarter. The Bruins promptly went on a 12-play drive that went all of 34 yards, however the important stat in that drive was the 8:19 of clock the Bruins killed in that drive.
UCLA now goes home to prepare for the Washington State Cougars next Saturday, who lost to that other Los Angeles school up in the Palouse 50-16.
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