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UCLA's defense shines while its offense has work to do

Graham Watson

UCLA’s much-hyped 2014 debut didn’t go the way it hoped, but at least it got out of Virginia with a 28-20 win against the Cavaliers.

The Bruins, a team many thought could challenge for the College Football Playoff, looked out of sorts on offense as Heisman hopeful quarterback Brett Hundley was harassed by the vaunted Virginia defense most of the game.

Hundley completed 20-of-33 passes for 242 yards and had the Bruins’ only offensive touchdown on a 6-yard run.

The day actually belonged to the UCLA defense, which had three first-half touchdowns on turnovers. That kept UCLA in the game early, otherwise Virginia probably should have won the game.

So, the defense answered whether it would be a strength for the Bruins this season, but the offense has a lot of work to do. Virginia’s defense was its strength coming into the season and it showed on Saturday. But what UCLA faced isn’t an anomaly. It’s going to see similar and better defenses in conference play, so it needs to figure what went wrong and correct it in a hurry.

It will get a chance to have an offensive feel-good game against Memphis next week before it has to face Texas. Only then will we know what this offense really learned from its season opener.

For more UCLA news, visit BruinSportsReport.com.

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Graham Watson is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email her at dr.saturday@ymail.com or follow her on Twitter!

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