Minnesota’s second-half comeback sends UCLA to its fifth consecutive loss

If there was ever a time for UCLA to turn around its season, it was against Minnesota in the Rose Bowl.

Unfortunately for the Bruins, the return of Ethan Garbers, who missed last week’s game against Penn State because of injury, wasn’t enough to halt their downward spiral.

The heartbreaking loss left Bruins coach DeShaun Foster visibly dejected. He didn’t mince words when discussing how he felt.

“This one’s going to sting. I’m going to be pissed off for a little bit,” Foster said. “It’s hard to sit up here and try to be positive.”

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A lack of discipline and an inability to finish were at the heart of UCLA’s failure to secure its first Big Ten win in a 21-17 loss to Minnesota at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

With 6:54 remaining, Garbers connected on a 42-yard touchdown pass with receiver J.Michael Sturdivant to give UCLA a 17-14 lead.

However, the Bruins couldn’t stop a seven-play, 61-yard drive by the Golden Gophers that ended with Darius Taylor scoring the winning touchdown on a four-yard pass from quarterback Max Brosmer with 27 seconds left.

The UCLA defense got one stop, but the Bruins’ offense was forced to quickly punt and the Golden Gophers scored a touchdown with 27 seconds remaining. Garbers’ final pass was intercepted as time expired to seal UCLA’s fifth straight loss.

“We didn’t do the stuff we wanted to do and didn’t do the stuff we’ve been coached to do,” Foster said. “We got to find ways to stop shooting ourselves in the foot… It’s hard to beat good teams when you’re getting in your own way.”

The result was especially frustrating for UCLA after a successful first half.

Garbers, who said after the game his ankle felt fine, delivered a stellar performance on the opening drive, connecting on four passes for 59 yards before Keegan Jones scored on a one-yard run.

Displaying mobility out of the pocket and throwing effectively on the run, Garbers completed 10 of his first 12 passes for 110 yards. He finished completing 25 of 36 passes for 293 yards and a touchdown, but he also threw three interceptions.

Sturdivant, a redshirt junior, was Garbers’ primary target, catching six passes for 94 yards and a touchdown.

“We were working on it all week in practice,” Garbers said about his chemistry with Sturdivant. “Mike was just getting open, as simple as that. You get open, you get the ball. He was doing a great job tonight.”

Despite its early success, the offense also faced early hiccups. After the first quarter, the team was ineffective on third down, gave up sacks and Garbers tossed interceptions that limited the Bruins’ halftime advantage to 10-0.

“Offensively, we still got guys not doing their job, including me,” Garbers said. “I can’t turn the ball over like that. We’ll never win games like that, but I just got to be better.”

The UCLA defense thrived in the first half. Linebacker Carson Schwesinger led the way with 12 tackles, including 4½ tackles for loss, and two sacks.

In the second half, Minnesota pounced with back-to-back scoring drives. A costly pass interference call put the Gophers in the UCLA red zone and on third down, the Bruins yielded a 12-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open Elijah Spencer, narrowing the gap.

Already deep in Bruins territory after picking off Garbers in the third quarter, a UCLA unsportsmanlike conduct penalty pushed the Gophers into the red zone before a pass interference penalty helped set up a two-yard touchdown run by Darius Taylor to give the Golden Gophers a 14-10 lead.

Schwesinger’s assessment of what went wrong for the defense in the second half was simple: penalties.

“We gave up too many yards on penalties,” Schwesinger said. “Penalties are a discipline thing we need to clean up.”

The Bruins ultimately couldn’t match Minnesota’s ball movement and efficient clock management, with Golden Gophers coach P.J. Fleck calling three timeouts during UCLA’s penultimate drive to secure enough time for his team to score the winning touchdown.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.