Rosen leads Bruins to romp in desert
TUCSON, Ariz. — The grumbling started when UCLA struggled to get past Brigham Young. It grew louder after star linebacker Myles Jack went out for the season with a knee injury.
These Bruins sure found a way to shut everyone up.
Crisp on offense and opportunistic on defense, No. 9 UCLA staked its claim as the best team in the Pac-12 South Division by crushing No. 16 Arizona 56-30 on Saturday night.
“I’m impressed with some of the losses we’ve had personnel-wise with injuries and playing in what was supposedly a hostile environment and we immediately responded,” Bruins coach Jim Mora said.
UCLA (4-0, 1-0 Pac-12) turned this showdown into a laugher by halftime, building a 28-point lead behind Josh Rosen’s on-themark passing, Paul Perkins’ crafty running and its turnover-creating defense.
Rosen showed signs of his youth the past two games but was sharp in his first Pac-12 game. The true freshman threw for 284 yards and two touchdowns on 19-of-28 passing and added a put-it-out-of-reach score on the ground.
Perkins did not put up gaudy numbers like he did last week against BYU (219 yards), but he made his 85 yards count, scoring three touchdowns.
The defense had its problems against the run without Jack, who suffered a season-ending injury in practice this past week, allowing the Wildcats to rush for 353 yards. The Bruins made it up for it by creating three turnovers that led directly to touchdowns.
Arizona (3-1, 0-1) rolled through a soft non-conference schedule, only to follow it up with a desert dud.
The Wildcats had trouble stopping Rosen and UCLA even with All-America linebacker Scooby Wright back, plagued by a slew of missed tackles.
Arizona had plenty of success on the ground, with Nick Wilson running for 136 yards and Jerrard Randall adding 128 after replacing Anu Solomon at quarterback in the second quarter. The Wildcats missed on too many opportunities, though, and dug too big of a hole with the first-half turnovers.
“You cannot beat a good team with some of the unforced errors we had today,” Arizona coach Rich Rodriguez said. “They are going to force some errors, which they did, and then we had some unforced errors. You combine those things, you’re not going to win.