Pac-12: UCLA Bruins vs Arizona State Sun Devils, Three Things I Noticed
On Thursday night under the lights on Fox Sports 1 UCLA went into Sun Devil Stadium in picked up a solid win. There were several things that stood out to me in watching the game. It was the first �Pac-12 Conference game for both teams and Arizona State was not able to rely on Starting Quarterback Taylor Kelly was sidelined by an injury his backup showed he was a capable signal caller, but the Arizona State Defense did not live up to the hype against the returning Brett Hundley and the Bruins.
More from Oregon Ducks Football
- Oregon football: Ducks and Coach Prime playing it cordial leading up to Saturday
- Oregon football: Ducks find complete game effort in win vs Hawaii
- Oregon Ducks must get run game going against Hawaii
- Oregon football storms back in 4th quarter to win vs. Texas Tech
- Oregon Football: Ducks dismantle Portland State, look ahead to Texas Tech
Arizona State was off to a good start at home with the fans behind them taking a three point lead off the leg of Zane Gonzales for fourty-nine yards. The Bruins would come back to tie it at three before another Sun Devils touchdown. It did not take long for UCLA Quarterback Brett Hundley to figure out the defense with great passes and some very long plays to pick up a big victory 62-27 over Arizona State.
Here is what I noticed:
Quarterback Brett Hundley Showed He Can Be a Big Player in the Big Game
While Arizona State was working with a backup QB who did a very admirable job, Hundley came back from an injury and�showed off his talent and his passing finesse. For the second half of the game the Bruins looked Oregon Duck-like in their offensive approach with big plays and big yards including an eighty yard pass to Eldridge Massington. Hundley was poised with the short passing game too finding Jordan Payton and Nick Iese for scores.
UCLA Special Teams Play was On Point
Whenever your offense and defense don’t have to take the field and you find he endzone for a score it helps the team. This was the case with the UCLA Bruins Special Teams on Thursday night as they found the endzone on a one-hundred yard punt return by Ishmael Adams in the third quarter.
Arizona State Had Bigger Stats, But UCLA Played the Better Game
On the night Arizona State won the stat sheet with thirty-eight first downs and a solid eleven for twenty on third down. The Sun Devils had six-hundred twenty six yards and over four hundred through the air. The difference was in the passing. ASU average 7.1 yards where UCLA more than doubled their average with 15.4. It did not help that Arizona State also had four turnovers on the night.
The Oregon Ducks will not face Arizona State this season, but a game at UCLA against Hundley and the Bruins beckons in a few weeks for Mark Helfrich’s team and one thing is clear to me. This season it appears that Hundley and the passing game will be ready. This week Oregon has a bye week and will return to action next Thursday night against Arizona at Autzen Stadium(7:30pm PT, ESPN)
For more on the Oregon Ducks , the rest of the Pac-12 and any cool tidbits we find along the way follow us on Facebook and Twitter.