YOUR MYLES MAY VARY

UCLA’s Myles Jack scores 4 times, while Washington’s QB Cyler Miles comes in for the injured Keith Price, and can only score twice, in Bruins’ 41-31 win

You never want to win this way… but it beats the hell out of losing.

UCLA outscored Washington 41-31 on Friday night to go to 8-2 on the season, and stay on track to control their own destiny in terms of reaching their first Rose Bowl this Century.  And, they looked pretty good doing it.  HOWEVER, I do NOT see it as a satisfying win, because the Huskies’ star QB Keith Price got knocked out with a shoulder injury at the end of the first half, and his back-up — Redshirt Freshman Cyler Miles — was just no match for the Bruin Defense.

If the Senior Price were available in the second half, the game would have gone down to the wire.  Miles wasn’t bad, but he didn’t have the moxie that Price has shown for the last four years.  Despite Miles’ unorthodox throwing motion, he was pretty efficient.  He threw two TD passes, the first one closing the gap to 27-24.  But in the 4th quarter, he misfired on a 4th down pass, and he later threw two Interceptions that eliminated all hope of a Husky comeback.

I know what many of you are going to say:  The Bruins were winning when Price went out.  Yes they were.  The Bruins built a 27-7 lead early in the game, and it was 27-17 before the Huskies had to turn to Miles.  But the Huskies, with Price, had scored the last 10 points, and UCLA got their first 14 points as a direct result of two Washington fumbles.  I’m not saying Price would have beat the Bruins, just that it would have been a whole different ballgame.  With Price out, the UCLA Defense could key on Superstar Running Back Bishop Sankey, who they ended up holding to 91 yards Rushing.

Actually, the way the Bruins are playing right now, you’ve gotta think they would have found a way to win anyway.  After Linebacker Myles Jack’s coming out party last week as a ballcarrier, this week saw quite an encore.  Jack came in at the end of drives to culminate them 4 times with short, powerful TD runs.  He also added 5 tackles on the Defensive side of the ball.

On the negative side, Jack fumbled twice, but once it was just after he crossed the goal line, and the second time, the Bruins recovered the loose ball.  Malcolm Jones returned from his unexplained absence this week with some great, very tough runs, but he too coughed it up, and the Bruins didn’t recover that one.  Paul Perkins also ran the ball a lot — but without fumbling.  He was pretty mediocre for most of the game, but late in the game he finally broke off some big gainers, including one on a Draw Play, and one on a reception of a short pass.

The biggest negative of the game was the Bruins’ sudden vulnerability to the deep pass.  Fabian Moreau got beat a couple of times,  Ishmael Adams got beat in the end zone for a TD that was ultimately nullified by a penalty, and other D-Backs were victimized as well.  A Husky Freshman Receiver who had caught 3 passes all year caught 8 passes on Friday night for 144 yards and a Touchdown — and some of that was with a rarely-used Freshman back-up QB at the helm.

But when it mattered most, the Bruin Defense came through.  Randall Goforth and Jordan Zumwalt picked off passes to stop the late comeback attempt.  Zumwalt also caused one of those early fumbles.  The other one was caused by a big hit by Tahaan Goodwin, who was replacing Goforth, who got injured the play before.  Also, Eric Kendricks blocked a Field Goal in the 3rd quarter that could have trimmed the margin to 7.  Another hero was Cassius Marsh, who notched a Sack and a TFL, and also caught a short Touchdown pass in the 1st quarter.

QB Brett Hundley had a good game too.  With the low-snap problem being a thing of the past, Hundley looks more in control, scrambling when needed, and firing bullets to move the chains.  The Bruins are in a good place, as ASU gets ready to come to town next week, with the Division on the line.

Here are FIFTY-FIVE game and CHEERLEADER photos from the rare Friday night affair, with MANY more to come during the week.