PASADENA, Calif. — Tucked in the San Gabriel Mountains in Los Angeles County, the Rose Bowl is known for its beauty.
The famed stadium that’s hosted Super Bowls, a World Cup final and 100 Rose Bowls has seen its fair share of excellence in a setting that can’t be matched by many — if any — other sports venues.
But for the second straight trip, there was nothing pretty about the Arizona Wildcats’ performance at the stadium.
A bruised and battered UA team sputtered for four quarters Saturday night in a 17-7 loss to UCLA.
Arizona (6-2, 3-2 Pac-12) posted just 255 yards of total offense on 79 plays and rushed for just 80 yards on the ground. Redshirt freshman quarterback Anu Solomon, who faced constant pressure from UCLA’s defensive front and battled some drops from his receivers, was just 18 of 48 for 175 yards, a touchdown and one interception.
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Solomon, who normally dons No. 12, finished the game in a No. 18 jersey. The reason: his original jersey was too torn to be worn down the stretch.
Ugliness in a scene set for excellence.
“The offense was poor; poorly called, poorly executed, poorly played,” coach Rich Rodriguez said. “It started with the coaching staff.”
In the end, the Wildcats slowly made their way to the visiting locker room one by one with their heads down. Some walked slowly like Mickey Baucus, Tra’Mayne Bondurant and Casey Skowron and others, like Rodriguez, couldn’t get there fast enough.
They all made the walk of shame with happy UCLA fans hounding them as they walked.
What this means in the big picture is still to be determined.
The Wildcats had a chance to seize control of the Pac-12 South with a win over the Bruins. Instead, the Wildcats are now muddled in with UCLA, USC and Utah with two conference losses. Arizona State, overtime winners over the Utes on Saturday, is suddenly the team to beat.
Then there’s the collateral damage.
Last year, after losing to UCLA at home, the Wildcats let the Bruins beat them again: Washington State came into Arizona Stadium and knocked them off the following week.
With a division still to win, the Wildcats’ goal is to not let that happen again.
“After 24 hours, we move on and we’re going to have to come in with the same focus we’ve had all year and each week, and be ready for Colorado,” senior safety Jared Tevis said.
Added Rodriguez: “I’m not worried. We’re not going to have any Dr. Phil moments. I’m not going to worry about their feelings. We just have to play better.”
That shouldn’t be hard following Saturday’s performance.
The UA scored its only touchdown of the game on its first drive, and the Wildcats were seriously aided by UCLA miscues. Twice the UA was stopped on third down, but the Bruins had a pair of 15-yard penalties that kept the drive alive.
Eventually, Solomon found Cayleb Jones for a 14-yard touchdown to give the UA a 7-0 lead.
But the Wildcats would never hit paydirt again.
Solomon was sacked three times, and his longest pass of the night went for just 17 yards. For an offense that came into the game averaging 541.9 yards per game and 40.6 points per game, the explosiveness from Solomon and the UA offense was never found.
“It wasn’t his best game,” Rodriguez said of Solomon. “I have to watch film to see where we’re at. The plane ride home, I’ll watch film and get a better assessment. My view from the sidelines was it wasn’t our sharpest performance, but sometimes as a coach I can put him in a better situation.
“So it starts with us.”
Defensively, the UA held the Bruins in check for most of the game. The Bruins only had 21 first downs to the UA’s 19, but the defensive unit — down two starters for most of the game — wore down a bit in the second half as the UA offense had a string of three-and-outs.
“We don’t have a lot of depth and we were down a few guys with injuries and penalties, so yeah, we got a little tired,” Rodriguez said. “But our guys are used to playing a lot of plays.”
Scooby Wright led the UA defense with 19 tackles, 4ƒ tackles-for-loss and three sacks. Terris Jones-Grigsby had 50 yards rushing on 11 carries.
UCLA’s Brett Hundley was 19 for 26 for 189 yards and a touchdown. He rushed for 131 yards on 24 carries and gave the UA defense fits in the open field at times.
“He’s a good player,” Tevis said. “He’s shifty. If we do our assignments and we play a little more disciplined, we could have contained him a lot better than we did.”
In the end, Rodriguez will dissect the UA’s performance and see where the Wildcats need to regroup before hosting Colorado on Saturday at Arizona Stadium.
Bet on things being a little more intense this week.
“I thought we were too giggly coming into this one,” Rodriguez said. “That made me uneasy at times. We won’t be giggly this week in practice.”
