Ten months after he walked out of a cold, dark Autzen Stadium with a season-ending loss, Bob Chesney paused, gazing into the stands to relish the opposite emotions.
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“We were here last year,” Chesney said. “They ended our season. Sent us home. I just wanted to take a second. See it and feel it one more time before I leave.”
On Saturday, No. 21 UCLA defeated No. 13 Oregon 17-15. The greatest win of the Bob Chesney era. Brief, budding and beautiful. Chesney became the first UCLA coach to start 5-0.
The Bruins (5-0, 3-0 Big Ten) took down the same Ducks team (3-2, 1-1) that had beaten No. 19 USC in the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum two weeks ago. It was a by-any-means victory that, by all means, solidified UCLA’s place in the College Footfall Playoff conversation.
Read that phrase, Bruins fans, relish in it, then reset — as Chesney did on his way out of a beautiful fall day in Eugene.
On Saturday, UCLA made fewer mistakes. The Bruins turned it over three times, to the Ducks’ seven. The Bruins kicked field goals and extra points. The Ducks did not. The Bruins had middling quarterback play. The Ducks’ starting gunslinger was broken.
The Bruins were never going to match their season-average 281.5 rushing yards per game — although Wayne Knight did surpass the century-mark for the third straight game — against Oregon’s defensive line. Therefore, the game would fall on the signal-callers’ decision-making ability.
For one half, Nico Iamaleava didn’t pass the test. He threw for 162 yards, two interceptions and a fumble on his own 1-yard line that turned into Oregon’s only score in the first 55 minutes. After Iamaleava’s leg injury, Cal Poly transfer Ty Dieffenbach threw for 43 yards and found Knight for a 9-yard touchdown.
“When someone goes down and someone has to step up, I say it all the time, ‘you’re either exposed or you’re revealed,’” Chesney said in the postgame press conference. “Ty stepped up in that moment when Nico couldn’t go, and put himself in a spot where he was revealed for knowing the run game, knowing what to get us into.”
Dieffenbach, an Agoura High alum, explained he did not enter Saturday knowing he was next in line if Iamaleava went down. That news was relayed at halftime. He stepped up, operating the offense well enough to earn a few first downs and put punter Curtis Gerrand in a spot where he could pin Oregon’s offense time and again.
“I’ve just been waiting for this moment,” Dieffenbach said. “I’m ready.”
For UCLA, that was enough. Dylan Raiola started at quarterback for Oregon with Dante Moore recovering from the concussion he sustained at USC. Raiola completed six of 19 passing attempts for 43 yards, two interceptions and a fumble of his own. Raiola eventually got benched, and third-stringer Brock Thomas, a former walk-on, went an efficient 11 of 15 for 156 yards and one touchdown.
After an impressive showing in relief to lead Oregon over USC, Raiola seemingly had a case of the yips. He sailed pass after pass and failed on read after read.
UCLA’s defense disrupted him by generating pressure, often bringing an extra rusher as they trusted defensive backs Scooter Jackson, Derrick Barksdale and Rodrick Pleasant, who exited after a non-contact injury to his left leg before halftime, to play lockdown man coverage on the back end.
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“We did a really good job of frustrating their quarterback,” Chesney said. “We just played physical, we played tough. I thought our front did a good job. I thought our coverage did a good job.”
Last Monday, while reflecting on James Madison’s loss to Oregon last December, Chesney proclaimed he’ll always devise an aggressive game plan with the intention to win, no matter the opponent. He and defensive coordinator Colin Hitschler did just that, as they have all season, creating two more turnovers than the five they got at Maryland two weeks ago.
They were also opportunistic. Oregon’s two most backbreaking turnovers did not come from Raiola. As the Ducks tried to help him out by putting the ball in their playmakers’ hands, mental mistakes killed momentum. After two wildcat, read-option runs put the Ducks at UCLA’s 13-yard line, they went for a third. This time, Jordon Davison and Dierre Hill Jr. botched the exchange. UCLA defensive lineman Tyson Ford was there to recover the loose ball.
In the third quarter, as Oregon gradually moved out of the shadow of its end zone, Raiola connected with Evan Stewart III on a drag route. Stewart fought a little too hard for the first down and lost the ball right into linebacker Jalen Woods’ lap.
While they turned the ball over on downs at Oregon’s 3-yard line after that turnover, the Bruins got it right back when Tao Johnson intercepted Raiola, leading to a UCLA touchdown.
Serendipitously, Johnson, in his first game back from an injury he sustained against Cal, filled in after safety Ta’Shawn James exited in the third quarter.
UCLA’s most clutch stop came after Thomas and Stewart connected for a touchdown with 2:16 remaining. Needing a 2-point conversion — because Dan Lanning opted to go for a 2-point conversion, which failed, after Oregon’s first score — Sahir West stuffed Davison.
That capped an ugly game, in which the Bruins were the less sloppy team. And after dancing on the sideline during Oregon’s traditional “Shout,” UCLA used the visitors’ locker room for an after party.
“I don’t have a message, not tonight at least,” Chesney said. “But tomorrow, it doesn’t matter. Now we got to get better… There’s a lot of football left to be played.”
The Bruins have one (currently) ranked team remaining on their schedule in the Trojans. A Big Ten Championship appearance is realistic. They can drop at least one game and still remain alive for the CFP.
Lanning didn’t get a lot right Saturday, but his comparison of UCLA to 2025 Indiana might have been spot on, as the Bruins became the latest team since the Hoosiers to dismantle Oregon in Autzen.
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