Washington players stood with hands on hips, their chests heaving as they looked to the sideline for the next call. UCLA was just getting started.
The Bruins, in piecing together an extended, six-minute drive that spanned 90 yards in 17 plays that tired Washington’s vaunted defense, showed improvement in perhaps their most difficult conference matchup this year. The drive, which ended with tight end Caleb Wilson spinning off a would-be tackler and dragging two more into the end zone for a 9-yard touchdown reception, pulled UCLA to within seven in the fourth quarter before falling 31-24 on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.
UCLA (0-5, 0-2 Pac-12) set season-highs for completions, passing yards and total yards against one of the best defenses in the country. The Huskies, whose 11.6 points allowed per game entering the game led the country, allowed the Bruins to score a season-high 24, a full touchdown better than the struggling team’s average.
“They’re 0-5 now, but I think that might have been the best offense we’ve seen this year,” UW linebacker Ben Burr-Kirven told reporters. “Maybe Auburn was up there, too. But that offense, they’re going to do a lot of damage and they’re going to win a lot of games in the next couple years.”
The Bruins entered as the worst third-down offense in the conference, converting just 30.4 percent of their tries. The trend continued early. UCLA converted just one of its four third downs in the first half. The offense held the ball for just 7:43 and ran 25 plays to Washington’s 49.
Then as quickly as one of UCLA’s three-and-outs, the Bruins hit their stride.
They converted seven of their first eight third downs of the second half. They chopped a 17-point deficit into just seven early in the fourth quarter by holding the ball for more than 11 minutes in the third quarter. The rested UCLA defense held UW scoreless in the frame, the first time since the third quarter against Cincinnati that the Bruins had held an opponent scoreless in a quarter.
UCLA converted 70 percent of its third downs in the second half.
“Our guys made plays when their number was called,” said Wilson, who led the team with 102 receiving yards and a touchdown on eight catches.
Freshman quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw two touchdowns against a defense that hadn’t allowed a passing touchdown since the first drive of its season opener. He completed 27 of 38 passes for 272 yards with three critical third-down completions during UCLA’s long drive, including the touchdown pass that came on third-and-8.
“End of the day, the quarterback is really the one making throws and Dorian made throws today,” Wilson said. “We saw a lot of improvement. I was proud of the way he competed and the way he played.”
In a role-reversal, Thompson-Robinson, considered a dual-threat quarterback, set a career-high in passing yards and UW quarterback Jake Browning, his school’s all-time leading passer, punished the Bruins on the ground.
Browning, along with 265 passing yards, a touchdown and an interception, rushed for 49 yards on 13 carries with two sacks. Each time he ran on third down, he converted, five times in all. UW also pushed the pile forward for 7 yards on a fourth-and-1 quarterback sneak.
“He’s real smart with it,” linebacker Krys Barnes said of Browning’s running ability. “He’s really deceiving, like he’ll look downfield and then all of a sudden he’ll just take off.”