PASADENA, Calif. — BYU lost its first game of the season, 24-23 on a late touchdown run by Nate Starks with just over three minutes to play at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

The Cougars jumped out to an early lead on Adam Hine's 7-yard touchdown run on BYU's first offensive series, and the 7-0 lead held up through the first quarter.

UCLA pulled within four on Fairbarn's 35-yard field goal at the start of the second quarter, and BYU's Trevor Samson booted one between the uprights from 40-yards out to give BYU a 10-3 lead that it would take into halftime.

Tanner Mangum found Mitch Mathews on a 17-yard route in the corner of the end zone midway through the third quarter to go up 17-10, and Samson scored on his second field goal of the night from 45 yards to open the fourth quarter up, 20-10.

Samson added a 32-yard field goal to give the Cougars a 23-17 lead after Josh Rosen found Jordan Payton on a 19-yard scoring strike in the fourth quarter. But Stark's run — the fourth-straight run play for UCLA on the game-winning drive — was enough to get the win.

Here's how the Cougars graded in their first loss to a top 10 team on the road.

Offense: A-

With Algie Brown out with a knee injury, Adam Hine picked up the slack and put BYU on the board first with a 7-yard touchdown run on the first offensive series for the Cougars. Tanner Mangum completed his first four passes, going 5-of-7 for 33 yards in his first-ever start in the Rose Bowl.

But after a gutsy onside-kick call that BYU recovered, the offensive line gave up back-to-back sacks on Mangum, and a potential 14-0 start was wasted. UCLA finished with three hits on Mangum in the backfield — after just one quarter of play, and the line struggled for much of the night.

Still, BYU kept its composure well in front of the crowd of 67,612 on Saturday night. After UCLA tied the game on five-straight runs from Paul Perkins in the third quarter, BYU drove 75 yards in seven plays and 3:01, capped off by Mitch Mathews 14-yard TD grab in the corner of the end zone with 6:26 on the clock to go up 17-10.

Despite line play, BYU's only flaw offensively was finishing drives. Twice they stalled in the fourth quarter, settling for a pair of field goals from Trevor Samson, when they could have put the game away with a touchdown.

"We did some good things, but we also have some things we need to improve on," wide receiver Mitchell Juergens said. "If we can turn those field goals into touchdowns, this game isn't close. That's one thing that I think we need to work on, just finishing and driving in the red zone."

Defense: B+

Sione Takitaki got a tackle for loss on the first play of the game, and BYU forced star freshman Josh Rosen to three-and-out on his first drive. It looked like things were going well for BYU's defense.

Harvey Langi picked off his first of two first-half interceptions at the 5-yard line to save a touchdown, a series after picking up his first carry as a Cougar for five yards to spring Hine's touchdown run. The sophomore "running backer" was getting it done on both sides of the ball.

But then UCLA running back Paul Perkins ran his way over, under, around and through the defense. BYU held off for most of the first half, holding the Bruins to three points on a 35-yard field goal until midway through the second quarter, and went into the break up 10-3 after Kai Nacua stalled Rosen with his fourth interception of the year in just two games.

Rosen, UCLA's freshman quarterback, finished with 106 yards, a touchdown and three interceptions on 11-of-23 passing, easily his worst performance of his young career following wins over Virginia and UNLV.

Still, in stopping the pass, BYU forgot to stop the run. Perkins and backup running back Nate Starks combined for 300 yards and two touchdowns on 33 carries — including career highs in rushing yards and attempts for both players.

Perkins became the first UCLA player to rush for more than 200 yards since Johnathan Franklin in 2012. Starks, who finished with 81 yards on seven rushes, doubled his previous career-best, a 41-yard appearance against Arizona last season.

"He's good. We've just got to wrap up and tackle," BYU safety Michael Wadsworth said of Perkins. "But he's a really impressive player, and good competition. We just weren't wrapping up and making tackles we usually do. I feel like that was the biggest difference this game."

Special teams: A-

Jonny Linehan (yes, that Jonny Linehan) squib-kicked the first kickoff-after-touchdown for the Cougars, and he got just enough on it to set up Michael Davis' recovery. A bold call, but a better execution.

Among one of the few special teams gaffes was Rhett Almond's first punt of the game, which was returned 56 yards and set up UCLA's game-tying touchdown with 9:27 left in the third quarter. The young punter did, however, make the a touchdown-saving tackle after giving up the big return.

Trevor Samson was perfect from the spot, nailing field goals of 40, 45 and 32 yards, including two spot kicks in the fourth quarter to keep UCLA at bay — and helping the special teams to a nearly flawless performance.

Coaching: A-

Mendenhall (didn't waste any time with some trickeration, trotting out punter Linehan for the kickoff after the Cougars' first touchdown. BYU's Michael Davis recovered the kick, giving BYU two of the first three offensive drives of the game — but the Cougars squandered a chance to go up 14-0 early.

"I wanted to manage the game aggressively," Mendenhall said of the onside kick attempt. "UCLA was playing at home and ranking 10th in the country. We think we had a really good football team and we wanted to steal a possession.

"If we could steal a possession, we thought we'd have a great chance. And we did — it worked just right."

Not much can be said about the final play, a scramble-throw on fourth-and-seven that BYU has completed on several occasions. Sometimes the defender just makes a better play — as UCLA linebacker Myles Jack did Saturday night.

"Our outside receivers had been winning on those, and it was designed to go to a first-read outside receiver, and if that wasn't there, we'd break free on scramble drill," offensive coordinator Robert Anae said. "We've had a lot of mileage working the scramble drill part, and we were close on it. The guys were breaking down hill, and we just didn't get it this time."

Overall: A-

There will be things to clean up after the game (as every college coach in America will say about virtually every win before the national championship). But BYU's one-point loss on the road against a top-10 opponent was its most complete performance to date, and — though the loss will sting for a week — gives them plenty to build on going into another highly touted matchup at Michigan next week.

BYU found a workhorse running back (Adam Hine), a two-way standout (Harvey Langi) and its freshman quarterback outplayed went toe-to-toe with another standout young signal caller on the road.

The game plan nearly worked — save for one final play by Jack.

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