PISCATAWAY, N.J. (AP) — Quarterback Ethan Garbers finally got UCLA’s offense in gear and it gave the Bruins their first win in the Big Ten.
Garbers set carreer highs with four touchdowns passes, 383 yards throwing and a 49-yard TD run on Saturday and UCLA snapped a five-game losing streak with a 35-32 win over slumping Rutgers.
Garbers completed 32 of 38 passes and connected on scoring passes of 5-yards to Logan Loya, 22 to T.J. Harden, 67 to Keegan Jones and 9 to New Jersey product Jalen Berger as UCLA (2-5, 1-4) handed the Scarlet Knights (4-3, 1-3) its third straight loss.
“Nothing is better than ultimately getting that first (Big 10) win,” said Garbers. “That’s the best feeling in the world. All the stats, doesn’t really matter. Seeing my guys smile and knowing we’re going to have a good five hour flight, that’s all that matters.”
UCLA can into the game as the only team in FBS to not have scored 20 points in a game this season. That streak was over by halftime as UCLA took a 21-10 lead. Garbers threw two TDs and had his long scramble as Eric Bieniemy’s offense finally figured things out for coach DeShaun Foster.
The Bruins, who gained a season-high 478 yards, had not had a six-game losing streak since the end of the 2017 season and the start of 2018.
Defending conference rushing champion Kyle Monangai’s third touchdown got Rutgers within 35-32, but Grant Gray recovered the onside kick and UCLA ran out the clock. Gray actually returned the kick roughly 50 yards for an apparent touchdown but it was nullified because a teammate signaled for a fair catch.
“That fourth quarter might not have gone the way we wanted but the first half really did,” Foster said. “Really happy for Ethan. He made some really good reads and was able to control the tempo.”
The Scarlet Knights get within 21-19 in the third quarter with the first touchdown and a Jai Patel field goal.
Two plays later, Garbers threw a short swing pass to Jones on a play Rutgers blew the coverage. The running back scampered down the Rutgers sideline untouched for a score. It was the Bruins longest pass play this seasson and it was never close until the end.
“With a guys like Keegan Jones back there he turns it from the line of scrimmage to a 20 or 40 yard gain,” said Garbers, who noted Jones had 100 yards after his catches. “Today he turned it into a house call.”
Rutgers quarterback Athan Kaliakmanis has his best game in weeks, scoring on an early 1-yard sneak while hitting 18 of 30 for 287 yards. Patel finished with two field goals. Monagai had 106 yards rushing on 19 carries and tallied on tuns 6 , 5 and 1 yard.
“I will not come up here and start to feel like the sky is falling down, I promise you,” Rutgers coach Greg Schiano said. “We did a lot of good things out there today. Just weren’t good enough to win. Didn’t play well enough to win.”
Big picture
UCLA: It’s best game of the year, especially offensively. Garbers hit 84% of his passes and became the second quarterback in UCLA history to complete 30+ passes for an 80.0+ completion percentage. The other was Dorian Thompson-Robinson against Southern Cal in 2021.
Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights are in trouble. Their strength is their defense and it has given up 77 points in the past two games. The tackling has been horrible and too many players have been hurt in recent weeks, particularly defensive end Aaron Lewis.
“How do you have 223 yards of yardage after the catch?” Schiano said . “That means we didn’t do a very good job, and it isn’t just the DBs and it isn’t just the linebackers. It’s everybody. We didn’t do a very good job in the pass rush where the quarterback had the opportunity to extend plays. We just didn’t play well defensively.”
Up next:
UCLA: Has a bye next week and returns to action at Nebraska on Nov. 2.
Rutgers: At Southern Cal on Friday night.
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