UCLA vs. USC takeaways: Bruins aim for resilience after fumbling away a signature win

A heavy mist hung over the Rose Bowl late Saturday night, adding to the yuck factor of what just transpired for the home team.

A shanked punt at the worst possible time. A sturdy defense fooled by a trick play. An offense that couldn’t gain one yard given a chance to win the game.

It added up to the most crushing loss of the season.

“Sucks,” UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers said after the Bruins’ 19-13 setback against USC in his final cross-town rivalry game. “Really sucks.”

Read more: USC overcomes early miscues to defeat rival UCLA and become bowl eligible

Garbers was involved in two critical sequences that ensured UCLA (4-7 overall, 3-6 Big Ten) will finish the season with a losing record.

The first came on a failed fourth-down sneak. The second came when he suddenly couldn’t find a rhythm after completing every previous pass in the second half.

It left Bruins fans with a similarly sickening feeling from previous close losses to Minnesota and Washington.

Here are five takeaways from a defeat that will heavily frame UCLA coach DeShaun Foster’s first season:

Bad ending

It was the sort of moment that can forge a legacy.

With a chance to go 2-0 as a starter in the rivalry game while keeping the Victory Bell painted blue, Garbers stepped to the line of scrimmage at his own 25-yard line with 2:09 left and his team needing a touchdown to win.

He had already thrown for 156 yards and a touchdown in the second half while completing all 11 of his passes.

The next four plays: incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion. A few of the throws weren’t even close to connecting with their targets.

“Just hard to find a rhythm,” Garbers said of his struggles on the final drive.

UCLA’s offense gained 376 yards but couldn’t make plays in crucial moments. The Bruins converted only three of 11 third downs and went 0 for 3 on fourth downs.

The game film should be cataloged in the horror section for anyone associated with UCLA.

The longest yard

Having long expressed his belief in his team’s ability to get a yard, Foster went for it on fourth and one at the UCLA 34-yard line with five minutes left and the Bruins trailing by three points.

It wasn’t the most imaginative play call, Foster saying it was his decision — and not offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s — to run a quarterback sneak.

“I thought it was a good call and every call that’s made in certain situations — I am making those,” Foster said.

Garbers was stopped for no gain, but both Foster and his quarterback said the play was blown dead prematurely.

Said Foster: “That was the first time I’ve seen a quarterback sneak get called dead, you know? They usually let that play roll; they stopped it, they blew the whistle, so who knows where we would have ended up.”

Said Garbers: “I was looking at the marker and I thought I was past it. But I guess they blow the forward progress dead early. So, can’t control that.”

Here’s something indisputable: UCLA will need to fortify its offensive line through the transfer portal to ensure it can pick up one yard in similar situations next season.

Same old story

Nearly every week, Foster has said he’s going to fix his team’s discipline issues.

Then the next game comes and it’s more of the same slop on the field.

The low point Saturday came going into halftime, when UCLA wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, safety Bryan Addison and an unspecified assistant coach were called for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties as both teams made their way toward the locker room while jawing at one another.

Foster said he was told the brouhaha was precipitated by a USC player punching Gilmer, leading him to retaliate. As a result of the penalties, UCLA was forced to kick off from its own five-yard line to start the third quarter.

The Bruins also compounded giving up a 41-yard kickoff return with a late hit by Evan Thomas. It was just one of the eight penalties they committed for 70 yards.

“That’s why that’s my first pillar; I didn’t pull it out of nowhere, it was my first pillar for a reason,” Foster said of discipline. “I felt that that was something that we were lacking and missing and we’re still missing it, so we’re going to just continue to strive in the direction of discipline and eventually it’s going to get fixed.”

Lost opportunity

With a win over the Trojans, Foster wouldn’t have had to do any convincing when it comes to the narrative of his first season.

He would have beaten USC counterpart Lincoln Riley, who has taken multiple teams to the College Football Playoff and makes more than three times his salary.

He would have significantly enhanced his team’s name, image and likeness fundraising efforts that will be critical to upgrading the talent on his roster.

Read more: Plaschke: USC rediscovers its best self while dazzling in final minutes against UCLA

He would have given the hundreds of high school recruits at the game another reason to give a commitment. (Kenneth Moore III, a wide receiver from St. Mary’s High in Stockton, actually did commit to the Bruins before the game.)

Now there’s going to be more spin needed to sell recruits. One possible pitch: Come help us finish these games.

“All of these losses have come to pretty much us letting it slip through our hands,” Foster said. “You know, we gotta find a way to finish games and, you know, just keep coming after half and play better, finish the games. Just really put our stamp on the end of it.”

What now?

Given what happened Saturday, there won’t be much at stake in UCLA’s final game of the season against Fresno State next weekend at the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins will try to send their seniors out as winners while continuing to show resolve. A win over the Bulldogs (6-5) would help UCLA finish the season with four victories in its final six games.

“They kept rebounding this whole season,” Foster said of his players, “so they’re gonna continue to be resilient and continue to be the type of football players that I know that they are.”

A warning for the Bruins: The Bulldogs have won the last four games in the series.

A warning for Foster: Fresno State has been especially hard on new UCLA coaches, beating Chip Kelly, Rick Neuheisel and Karl Dorrell in each of their first years on the job in Westwood.

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.