SEATTLE — UCLA’s bowl hopes are still very much alive, but the margin of error has all but shrunk away.
The Bruins, playing in the coldest conditions they have faced in four years, dug themselves an early hole with early miscues in front of a raucous crowd at Husky Stadium on Friday night, and they couldn’t make it all the way out in a 31-19 loss to Washington, the first matchup in a nine-decade rivalry that was played under the Big Ten banner.
UCLA (4-6 overall, 3-5 Big Ten) has two games remaining – next week’s rivalry matchup against USC and its nonconference finale against Fresno State – and will need to win both to qualify for a bowl game for the third straight season.
The Bruins will need to put two complete games together. Friday, on a 44-degree night in Seattle, that was too tall a task.
Five minutes into the second quarter, following a Mateen Bhaghani field goal to make it 7-3, Oluwafemi Oladejo came up with a stop on fourth-and-1, setting UCLA up in Washington territory. Six plays later, the Bruins were in the red zone with a chance to take the lead, but Ethan Garbers took a sack on third down from the 17-yard line and lost the football, giving it back to the Huskies (6-5, 4-4).
Eight plays and 69 yards later – after a Oladejo late hit on Washington quarterback Will Rogers nullified a Bryan Addison interception in the end zone – the hosts made it a two-possession game. The Bruins never climbed all the way out of the 11-point rut, despite making it a four-point game before halftime and coming down with two interceptions in plus territory in the first six minutes of the third quarter.
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The first of those picks turned into a 40-yard field goal that cut the deficit to 14-13. The second – by Kain Medrano – set the Bruins up at the Huskies’ 39-yard line, but Jack Pederson fumbled the ball away four plays later. From there, Washington ripped off 17 consecutive points behind true freshman quarterback Demond Williams, who led a 74-yard drive to extend the lead back to 11 points off the back of a missed field goal.
Garbers, making his first start against the school he began his college career with, finished 27-of-44 for 267 yards and was taken down for six sacks, five of which came on third down, with the sixth coming on a fourth-and-20 with the Bruins in desperation mode.
Tailback TJ Harden, fresh off of UCLA’s first 100-yard game of the season, was held to 33 rushing yards, with the Bruins totaling just 52 as a team.
After missing last week’s victory over Iowa, tight end Moliki Matavao got back into the thick of things early and racked up seven catches for 68 yards.
More to come on this story.