Indiana is too much for UCLA

LOS ANGELES, CA – DeShaun Foster and his UCLA Bruins fell into an early 14-0 hole against Indiana in the first quarter of their Big Ten Conference matchup and could not catch the Hoosiers in a 42-13 defeat at the Rose Bowl Stadium in Pasadena.  

“Indiana came out and played a great game,” Foster said after the game. “They came out and executed, played good. Offensively, we were not able to stay ahead of the chains like we would like to. Defensively, they played a pretty good first half, with the offense putting the defense in kind of bad situations. But it is a learning experience for both sides of the ball, and we have to continue to improve.”

Foster and the Bruins faced their first big test of the college football season. Well, let’s make it their second test. Foster and the Bruins came up victorious against Hawai’i in their season opener on the road back on Aug. 31. 

That was a non-conference foe. Playing at the Rose Bowl Stadium in their first Big Ten Conference game against Indiana, the Bruins found themselves going up against two opponents: themselves and the Hoosiers.

After Indiana took a 7-0 lead on the game’s opening drive, UCLA’s offensive unit came out on the field and coughed up the football on its first play from scrimmage. The Hoosiers took full advantage of the miscue, cashing in the turnover with a 14-yard scoring pass from Kurtis Rourke to Ke’Shawn Williams. 

Just like that, Foster’s ballclub was down two touchdowns. From there, it was downhill for the Bruins. Indiana scored in every quarter and scored 14 points in the bookend periods to make the game a blowout. To absorb a defeat the way UCLA lost in Foster’s home debut was rough for the first-year head coach. 

“This hurts,” Foster remarked. “I’m a Bruin through and through, so I don’t want to get emotional up here, but it hurts. It’s unacceptable and we are going to fix it.”   

If there was a positive that Foster could take away from his team’s defeat to Indiana it would be seeing his players rally around each other.  

“Just the way that they continued to fight. Guys weren’t out there quitting or bickering at each other,” said Foster. “There wasn’t nobody fighting. You have to learn from losses. You can’t act like things are just going to go away. Just like I told them in there, we have to learn from this loss and we have another opportunity to keep playing.”