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UCLA nearly blows 20-point lead before beating Nebraska
As the ball sailed through the air, his team’s fate hanging in the balance, Kaylin Moore seemed bound to be an observer to destiny.
The UCLA cornerback appeared to be standing behind the play as teammate Bryan Addison and Nebraska slot receiver Jacory Barney Jr. jostled for the pass that could put the Cornhuskers on the verge of a stunning comeback.
Once down by 20 points, Nebraska was driving on UCLA’s side of the field in the final minute Saturday evening at Memorial Stadium. A touchdown could tie the score or give the Cornhuskers an unlikely victory with a two-point conversion.
Moore made sure neither was a possibility.
After Addison and Barney collided going for the pass, the ball bounced off Barney’s knee and hung in the air. Moore lunged for the leather at the Bruins’ 13-yard line, cradling the ball and victory in his hands.
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Collapse averted. Game over.
Moore sprinted down the field in celebration of his game-saving play with 29 seconds left that gave UCLA an unexpectedly breathless 27-20 victory.
“A huge play for Kaylin,” UCLA coach DeShaun Foster said. “That was actually his first interception; it was just good that it came in this type of situation for us. We’re fired up for him.”
UCLA’s second consecutive triumph sustained its flickering bowl hopes and continued its seasonlong trend of playing better on the road, where the Bruins (3-5 overall, 2-4 Big Ten) have notched all their victories.
This one came with a giant sigh of relief.
“This team is continually showing how resilient they are,” Foster said. “They’re gonna continue to fight.”
No one symbolized that perseverance more than Ethan Garbers, who practically mimicked his career-best performance from the Bruins’ victory over Rutgers two weeks ago.
Continuing his bid to end his college career on a roll, the fifth-year senior completed 17 of 25 passes for 219 yards and two touchdowns with no interceptions to go with a career-long 57-yard run.
Telling his coach earlier in the week that he wanted to take the ball first if UCLA won the coin toss, Garbers won the toss and completed his first five passes, converting a pair of third downs along the way, to help the Bruins get a first and goal at the Nebraska eight. But a short run, an incompletion and a Garbers scramble for one yard on third down forced UCLA to settle for Mateen Bhaghani’s 25-yard field goal.
There would be no compromise the next time the Bruins got the ball, Garbers throwing a 10-yard screen pass to running back Jalen Berger for a touchdown that gave their team a 10-0 advantage.
“Ethan’s a top-tier quarterback if we can just keep him up,” Foster said after his team yielded just two sacks, “and that’s one thing our O-line has been doing, they’ve been protecting him well.”
After linebacker Kain Medrano returned an interception for a 38-yard touchdown and wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer snagged a 48-yard touchdown pass, the Bruins held a 27-7 lead midway through the third quarter. It would have been easy to start pondering how to spend the flight home.
The Bruins soon found themselves with far more pressing worries.
Nebraska freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola, who made poor decisions under pressure for most of the afternoon, fired an eight-yard touchdown pass.
The Cornhuskers (5-4, 2-4) shrugged off a fourth-down sack from UCLA linebacker Carson Schwesinger in the red zone and an injury to Raiola to score another touchdown on running back Dante Dowdell’s leaping one-yard touchdown that shaved their deficit to seven points.
It was the third consecutive time Nebraska had scored on a drive in which a Bruins defender was called for unsportsmanlike conduct. The offender this time was defensive tackle Sitiveni Havili Kaufusi, following identical penalties by linebackers Ale Kaho and Oluwafemi Oladejo.
“It’s straight discipline,” Foster said. “Guys have to be disciplined.”
Nebraska got the ball back at its own 19-yard line with 2:22 left, eventually reaching UCLA’s 39-yard line.
That’s when backup quarterback Heinrich Haarberg lofted the pass that could have swung things completely in the Cornhuskers’ favor.
The ball went one way, then another. Tracking it the entire time, Moore was there to save the day, and maybe a season.
“We didn’t start the way we wanted to,” Garbers said, alluding to his team’s 1-5 record at midseason, “but we’re going to finish the way we want to, for sure.”
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
