No. 18 UCLA stays undefeated in dominant 42-32 win over No. 11 Utah

PASADENA, Calif. — The return trip to the Rose Bowl for No. 11 Utah came with far less importance, but the end result was the same: a loss.

Against an undefeated No. 18 UCLA program on their home field, it was the Bruins that came out as the better team en route to a 42-32 victory on Saturday over the Pac-12 preseason favorite.

UCLA quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson picked apart a Utah defense that was left reeling by the Bruins' diverse playbook that at times gashed the Utes in the run game and then picked them apart in the red zone for scores — among other areas.

Thompson-Robinson finished the afternoon game throwing for 299 yards on 18-of-23 passing and four touchdowns and an interception for the Bruins (6-0, 3-0 Pac-12). His lone interception was a fourth-quarter pick that Utah's Clark Phillips III housed in the final minute for an 80-yard score to set the final margin.

His favorite target, Jake Bobo, finished the day with only three receptions for 22 yards, but two of those were touchdowns. But it was dynamic running back Zach Charbonnet who kept the wheels moving for a UCLA offense that put up 511 total yards against the Utes. Charbonnet had 198 yards and a touchdown on 22 carries, including a 49-yard run and a 44-yard run to move the offense into Utah's territory.

"First of all, it's a really good football team we played today," Utah head coach Kyle Whittingham said after the game. "They deserve a ton of credit, they're athletic, they're fast, they've got a lot of length. And so they were as advertised."

Utah (4-2, 2-1 Pac-12) had its chances for a comeback, but a costly roughing the passer penalty on an incomplete pass by Thompson-Robinson on third down near the end of the third quarter gave the Bruins life. UCLA then marched down field and Thompson-Robinson connected with Bobo for a 10-yard score to give the Bruins a 10-point lead.

It was a moment where the tide seemed to shift for a Utah program playing from behind all game. Whittingham said the stop would have carried the momentum forward for his team after Utah scored on the previous possession, but instead it turned into another UCLA score.

"Who knows how it would have turned out," Whittingham said. "That one play didn't cost us the game; I don't want to paint that picture, but we had momentum. We had complete momentum there and had we got that stop and got the ball back and coming off of a touchdown drive, you never know. But did that one play cost us the game? No, it never comes down to just one play."

The "critical play" penalty just made Utah's hopes of a comeback win all the more difficult.

Utah quarterback Cam Rising wasn't about to concede, though, and led the offense down the field for a 10-play, 75-yard touchdown score that was capped off on a 9-yard rushing touchdown by the quarterback to make it a 3-point game with 11:39 left to play.

But like most of the day, Utah's special teams coverage gave UCLA everything it wanted and the Bruins started their next possession at midfield. After an intentional grounding call on Thompson-Robinson, the senior quarterback answered back with a 70-yard touchdown strike to Logan Loya to give the Bruins another 10-point lead.

The Bruins padded the score when Rising attempted a fourth-down stretch deep inside Utah's territory and fumbled the ball. UCLA's Jaylin Davies scooped up the ball and got down to Utah's 1-yard line before being tackled, and Charbonnet needed just one play to score the ensuing 1-yard touchdown to put the Utes away.

"Man, we just made a lot of mistakes today," Phillips said. "They capitalized and they made more plays than we did, so our score was the score."

"Just bad ball," Rising added. "We just put bad ball on tape and not really something that we're looking to do. There's a lot of stuff that I need to clean up to make sure that we're rolling as an offense to be better."

Utah got close and made it a game at times, but its defense couldn't get the necessary stops to make the comeback complete. And in the end, it was a UCLA program that finally found a way to beat Utah.

Rising finished the day throwing for 287 yards on 23-of-32 passing, and had one interception and a fumble in the loss. He also had 59 yards rushing and two touchdowns on 13 carries.

The Utes opened up the day with their first two drives fizzling out and much left to the imagination as to what the team was trying to do to open up the game. It got worse on the team's third drive, though.

Utah had some momentum on its side as the offense marched down the field deep into UCLA territory. But Rising made an ill-advised pass into triple coverage that was picked off inside the 10-yard line to end another chance at a score.

At that point in the game, Rising was 1-of-5 passing for 14 yards and had the early interception. Two drops by his receivers didn't help the matter, but Utah's offense couldn't put anything together to combat a UCLA offense that effectively moved the ball down field with a diverse playbook that kept Utah's defense on its toes.

Still, Utah found a way to keep the game close despite all the momentum on UCLA's side.

With just over three minutes left in the first half, UCLA had a chance to put some distance on Utah — especially since the Bruins got the ball back after the halftime break. With relative ease, UCLA moved the ball quickly downfield, which included a 49-yard run by Charbonnet, but Utah's defense held strong and kept the home team out of the end zone.

Utah got some added help when UCLA place-kicker Nicolas Barr-Mira hit the uprights with his 21-yard field goal attempt to keep it a 14-10 game in favor of UCLA.

With no timeouts in their back pocket, Utah had 43 seconds to drive the field in an attempt to get some points. Rising, who finished the half throwing 10-of-12 passing for 137 yards after the interception, marched the team down field with a heavy dose of passing. But an incompletion on the sideline in UCLA territory forced Utah to attempt a field goal.

The 48-yard yard attempt, however, was wide left and Utah was left again without any points going into the halftime break.

"The key now is for us to pick ourselves up, go back to work on Monday, and address our deficiencies and become a better football team next week, because it doesn't get any easier next week, I can tell you that for certain," Whittingham said.

Utah returns home to welcome USC to Rice-Eccles Stadium in what was anticipated as one of the showcase games of the conference before the season started.

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