BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — On UCLA’s first offensive play, quarterback Nico Iamaleva found himself swarmed by a pack of defenders for a sack.
On the next play, Iamaleava faced pressure again before throwing a pass that was intercepted and returned for a touchdown.
“That’s a rough start, man,” Iamaleava said.
It never got much better for the Bruins on a chilly, cloudy Saturday afternoon that was darker than the foreboding weather.
A team that had become the feel-good story of the college football season suffered a throwback performance in the worst way at Memorial Stadium during a 56-6 loss to No. 2 Indiana.
There was a return to missed tackles. Repeated penalties. An offensive line that got pushed around. A run game that failed to get going.
“It’s just flat-out the trenches,” UCLA interim coach Tim Skipper said in assessing one of the biggest problems. “We lost that battle — and that’s what we talk about all the time, winning in the trenches, and they did that, they stopped our run game and the score gets out of hand and you have to throw it a little bit more than you want to and we just never got back to our style of play, that’s the bottom line.”
The Bruins looked a lot more like the team that had started the season with four consecutive losses than the one that had rebounded with three straight wins. There was little upset drama for the 27.5-point underdogs after Iamaleava’s early interception returned by Aiden Fisher 25 yards for a touchdown gave the Hoosiers the lead 57 seconds into the game.
“We didn’t really bounce back from that moment, you know?” Skipper said. “It kind of shell-shocked us and it kind of took a while to get back going.”
The outcome seemed inevitable after Indiana went ahead 21-0 early in the second quarter.
Highlights for the Bruins (3-5 overall, 3-2 Big Ten) included Will Karoll’s 63-yard punt and interceptions by Scooter Jackson and Key Lawrence. That was pretty much it.
Jackson’s interception, which came after he corralled a pass that teammate Keanu Williams had tipped, gave UCLA its only meaningful momentum of the game, the Bruins taking over at their own 44-yard line while down by a touchdown in the first quarter.
After gaining one first down, they lined up for a punt on fourth down and tried some of the trickery that had worked so well in recent weeks. But the Hoosiers (8-0, 5-0) were more than ready for the reverse on the fake punt, pressuring Mikey Matthews into an incompletion and a turnover on downs.
“They did a good job,” Skipper said of the Hoosiers, “and they reacted to it and they made the play.”
It was an afternoon of one disappointment after another for UCLA.
An unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on Matthews late in the second quarter pushed back the Bruins on another promising drive that ended in a Mateen Bhaghani field goal.
A UCLA offense that had averaged 33.3 points and 422 yards in the first three games after Jerry Neuheisel took over as the playcaller was far less productive against the Hoosiers, sputtering its way to 201 yards and 3.8 yards per play Saturday.
An offensive line that allowed three sacks didn’t help, struggling to protect Iamaleava from the game’s first offensive play. Salvaging things the best he could, Iamaleava completed 13 of 27 passes for 113 yards with two interceptions.
“They were showing a lot of different looks, and then, you know, getting out to different coverages,” Iamaleava said. “So, you know, just us playing with better eyes as a whole, you know, we got to be better with that.”
In some major regression to their early-season form, UCLA running backs Jalen Berger, Jaivian Thomas and Anthony Frias II combined for 60 yards while averaging 3.3 yards per carry.
Indiana defensive lineman Hosea Wheeler celebrates after recovering a UCLA fumble in the first half.
(Darron Cummings / Associated Press)
UCLA’s defense was riddled with plenty of its own holes. There were missed tackles galore, four pass interference penalties and a blown coverage late in the third quarter leading to Fernando Mendoza’s 62-yard touchdown pass to a wide-open E.J. Williams Jr.
“Tackling,” Skipper said, “it just looked like when we got the contact, we stopped our feet. You have to keep your feet moving as you wrap up and knock people backward, so it’s stuff we’re going to have to work on, it’s fundamental stuff.”
Mendoza was more efficient than prolific, completing 15 of 22 passes for 168 yards and three touchdowns with one interception before giving way to his younger brother near the end of the third quarter. Wanting a piece of the fun for himself, Alberto Mendoza ran for a four-yard touchdown to put Indiana ahead 56-6 early in the fourth quarter.
The only remaining intrigue was whether UCLA would be held without a touchdown for the first time this season. Yep.
On fourth down at Indiana’s 40-yard line, Iamaleava found himself under pressure once more, rolled and overthrew tight end Noah Fox-Flores.
One play later, after the Hoosiers took a knee, the game was mercifully over.
A team that had become one of the top stories in college football receded into the shadows, eager for another chance to prove itself starting with a Sunday film session.
“We’re not going to just throw this away,” Skipper said. “Tomorrow, we’re going to learn from this.”
