Cal Sports Report

Pac-12 Slips to 3-2 in Bowls After UCLA's Crazy Last-Second Loss

Bruins score with 34 seconds left to take lead, but Pittsburgh wins Sun Bowl on field goal with four seconds to go

Jake Curtis

UCLA seemed to have a Sun Bowl victory in hand, then somehow apparently let the win slip away, then appeared to have won it in remarkable fashion behind a backup quarterback, but then ultimately the Bruins somehow lost it.

Thirty seconds after UCLA had taken a one-point lead, Pittsburgh's Ben Sauls booted a 47-yard field goal with four seconds remaining to give Pitt a 37-35 victory in the Sun Bowl on Friday afternoon in El Paso, Texas.

That wild final minute capped a result that left the Pac-12's bowl record at 3-2 with two more postseason games involving Pac-12 teams left to play.

The bowl records by conference are listed at the end of the story with three of Friday's five bowl games yet to be completed.

Before getting into the crazy occurrences in this game, it should be noted that UCLA should have won this game even though Bruins quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinsin missed virtually the entire fourth quarter with an injury.

The Bruins (9-4) were 8.5-point favorites, and although UCLA was without all-Pac-12 rtunning back Zach Charbonnet, the Panthers were without a ton of frontline players for one reason or another.  The three most significant Pittsburgh absentees were quarterback Kenon Slovis (entered the transfer portal after the regular season and committed to BYU), third-team All-American running back Israel Abanikanda (1,431 rushing yards this season, opted out) and ACC defensive player of the year Calijah Kancey (shoulder injury).

And for most of the game UCLA looked like it would walk away with a win. When Jaylin Davies intercepted a Nick Patti pass and returned it for a touchdown to give UCLA a 28-14 lead midway through the third quarter a Bruins victory seemed assured.

But Thompson-Robinson threw three interceptions in the game, the first two being tipped balls in the red zone that prevented UCLA from scoring points and third being a bad throw that led directly to Pittsburgh's game-tying touchdown.

That third interception, by Bangally Kamara, with 14:48 left in the fourth quarter, led directly to Pitt's 18-yard drive for the tying touchdown and was Thompson-Robinson's final play.  He did not return with an undisclosed injury that appeared to be a lower-back issue.

Then, UCLA's Jadyn Marshall fumbled the ensuing kickoff, leading to a 31-yard Sauls field goal that put Pitt ahead 31-28 early in the fourth quarter.

UCLA misplayed the ensuing kickoff too, giving UCLA the ball at its own 5-yard line.  That's when Ethan Garbers, the younger brother of former Cal quarterbak Chase Garbers, took the field.

He did nothing on his first series, and Pitt added a field goal to take a six-point lead at the 4:24 mark.

Pitt regained possession but failed on a fourth-and-1 play from the UCLA 28-yard line with 1:53 to go.  

Despite having no timeouts, Garbers drove the Bruins 70 yards for the go-head touchdown, with TJ Harden running the final 8 yards for the score, which, with the extra point, gave UCLA a 35-34 lead with 34 seconds remaining.

Pitt had no timeouts left, but Patti, making his third career start, completed passes of 18 and 17 yards. Then, on second-and-10 from the UCLA 40-yard line, he scrambled 11 yards for a first down at the UCLA 29-yard line with 12 seconds left.  If he had not evaded a tackler to get the first down, the clock might have run out before Pitt could get off another play.  But the first down stopped the clock just long enough for Patti to spike the ball with 10 seconds left and get Sauls on the field for his curving, 47-yard kick, against the wind, to win it.

In his final college game, Thompson-Robinson went 15-for-23 for 262 yards, two touchdowns and three interceptions. Garbers was 6-for-9 for 39 and one interception, which came on a desperation heave on the game's final play.

Harden finished with 111 yards and was nearly the hero with his touchdown run.

Patti was 20-for-41 for 224 yards, one touchdown and one interception, but he also ran for 73 yards.

Here are the bowl records by conference (with the number of bowl teams in parentheses). Conferences are listed in the order of their winning percentage. All Friday bowl games have been completed:

Big Ten: 3-0 (9) -- 1.000

MAC: 4-2 (6) -- .667

Pac-12: 3-2 (7) -- .600

Independents: 3-2 (5) -- .600

ACC: 5-4 (9) -- .556

American: 3-3 (7) -- .500

Conference-USA: 3-3 (6) -- .500

Mountain West: 3-4 (7) -- .429

Sun Belt: 3-4 (7) -- .429

SEC: 2-4 (11) -- .333

Big 12: 1-5 (8) -- .167

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Cover photo by Ivan Pierre Aguirre, USA TODAY Sports

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Jake Curtis
JAKE CURTIS

Jake Curtis worked in the San Francisco Chronicle sports department for 27 years, covering virtually every sport, including numerous Final Fours, several college football national championship games, an NBA Finals, world championship boxing matches and a World Cup. He was a Cal beat writer for many of those years, and won awards for his feature stories.

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