Will UCLA Overcome Arizona State Loss to Contend for Pac-12 Title?

Six yards were all the Arizona State Sun Devils needed to get in order to ice their win over the UCLA Bruins on Saturday night.

Sun Devils running back Kalen Ballage didn’t get just six; he got 23. And a touchdown.

As if that wasn’t demoralizing enough to the overworked Bruins defense, he racked up roughly 19 of those yards while essentially backpedalling and being hugged by a pair of defenders.

It was an emphatic slamming of the door in the face of UCLA to close the game out, and one cannot help but wonder if the 38-23 loss won’t reverberate even more for the now-former Pac-12 favorites.

The Sun Devils, after all, were among the most disappointing teams in the country coming into Week 5 and were fresh off a 42-14 shellacking against the USC Trojans in their last game. They wound up leading early—Viliami Latu forced a safety less than three minutes into the game—and never looked back.

Aside from a bout of second-half conservatism and a single turnover, Todd Graham’s squad was in control nearly the entire evening, save for about two tense minutes in the middle of the fourth quarter. The win showed flashes of the team many thought could capture the Pac-12 South and possibly play in the College Football Playoff.

But Saturday’s game at the Rose Bowl was not about Arizona State’s glimpse of success. No, it was certainly more about the home team.

With defensive holes readily apparent and the Bruins’ true freshman quarterback Josh Rosen reverting to form yet again, it is very much in question as to what Jim Mora’s team will do from here with its first loss of the season representing quite the fork in the road.

In past years, such a loss to a conference foe would be part of the same old story in Westwood. This year, it remains to be seen. The signs however, are not exactly encouraging.

Even Mora, afterward in his postgame presser, seemed to deflect attention away from the loss in a way that only he could. After saying mostly the right things for several minutes, the veteran head coach took a left turn and started to spout on about playing games on Thursday night.

Not a great look. Even more so after making a curious decision to give up a safety in the fourth quarter to go down eight in exchange for a few yards of field position that ultimately didn’t matter. It’s hard to keep believing that this UCLA team will be different when it keeps looking, playing and sounding like past versions that kept hitting speed bumps along the way to success.

Normally reliable running back Paul Perkins averaged just 3.5 yards per attempt and was held in check and under 100 yards rushing. Rosen not only attempted 40 passes but threw a costly interception and was called for intentional grounding that led to the early safety. Injured linebacker Myles Jack’s replacement, Jayon Brown, didn’t even play against ASU.

Outside of beastly defensive lineman Kenny Clark and some solid play out of linebacker Isaako Savaiinaea, though, there wasn’t much to write home about. With a trip to presumed conference top dog Stanford and a suddenly 5-0 Cal on the docket the next two weeks, things may get worse for the Bruins before they get better.

Two weeks ago, a few miles down the 110 freeway from the Rose Bowl in Los Angeles, Stanford Cardinal head coach David Shaw said something very prescient after the Cardinal upended USC.

“The difference between football coaches and the rest of the sane world is we understand sometimes you don’t play well. Outside of the coach world, people look for something to blame,” Shaw said to the media. “Sometimes you just don’t play well. We didn't play well the first week, for whatever reason. We didn’t start the game well the next week. Our guys are a good team and we still have to grow together.”

That statement rang true for Stanford, which now looks like the front-runner in the Pac-12 North. Following Saturday night’s loss to Arizona State, the question is: Will the same case be true for UCLA?

The Bruins played badly against the Sun Devils in a game they needed to have and surely should have won considering how this season had played out beforehand. Was it a one-off performance in front of a mostly lifeless home crowd?

Or was the game representative of something more?

If the Bruins don’t alter course on and off the field, Saturday’s loss could turn them from contenders into pretenders a lot quicker than anybody could have thought.

You can follow Bryan Fischer on Twitter at @BryanDFischer.