PASADENA, Calif. — UCLA defense dominates to defeat Colorado, 28-16, in front of 71,343 at the Rose Bowl Stadium.
In one of the biggest games of the weekend with Deion Sanders and his Colorado team visiting Pasadena to face the Bruins.
In their throwback light blue uniforms, UCLA defense stole the show.
UCLA’s defense was able to sack Colorado QB Shedeur Sanders seven times on their way to the victory. Bruin linebacker Laiatu Latu led the team with two sacks.
“Our whole goal was to get after [Shadeur Sanders] and get after their O-line. It was just a good unit effort to getas many hits as we possibly can on [Sanders]. That’s what we did,” said UCLA defensive lineman Carl Jones Jr.
The defense only allowed 242 yards against the potent Colorado offense.
“Usually you don’t win games when you have four turnovers in the first half. I thought our defense was outstanding,” said coach Chip Kelly.
“I think what you said earlier, the pressure. The ability to disrupt the timing of the plays. I thought our secondary was really close in coverage for most of the day. And then combine that with the type of rush that we had on them, that was the formula that our defensive coaches drew up.”
The Bruins led 7-6 at the half. In the second half, UCLA was able to add three scores and that was enough for the Bruins to pick up their third Pac-12 victory of the season.
Quarterback Ethan Garbers who started his second consecutive game, threw two touchdown passes to go a long with his 269 yards passing.
“We came in at halftime and we said, ‘Hey, we our letting our defense down a little bit and got to pick it up,” said Garbers. We came out [on] a two-play drive in the second half and scored. This offense has a bunch of resiliency. We know how to bounce back [and] when to bounce back. I’m just so proud of the guys.”
The Bruins ran for over 200 yards with most of them coming in the second half. TJ Harden and Collin Schlee added touchdown runs to help close out the game.
The Bruins travel next week to face-off against the feisty Arizona Wildcats in Tucson.
