The UCLA Bruins and the Illinois Fighting Illini faced off at AT&T Park in San Francisco on Saturday, as the two teams competed in the 2011 Kraft Fight Hunger Bowl. The Bruins took an early lead but a timely pick-six and a stingy Illinois defense ultimately resulted in a 20-14 win by the Fighting Illini.
Illinois put up 178 rushing yards in the game, including 110 yards by quarterback Nathan Scheelhaase, which is the name of at least three characters in the "Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series. By comparison, the Bruins had 18 rushing yards. Yep. 18 yards. One-eight. In a game that was widely anticipated to be awful at best, that's a woefully pitiful offensive stat.
Bruins quarterback Kevin Prince was sacked five times and ended up being charged with -31 yards, which is also not a particularly "good" stat to have. UCLA also managed -11 total yards on two punt returns, which a long of one yard. The Bruins fared better on the other side of the foot, with Jeff Locke punting eight times for 366 yards. To put it another way, Locke punted for 147 more yards than the total offensive yardage put out by UCLA on Saturday.
It was one for the ages, if by "one" you mean "dumb," and by "for the ages" you mean "to watch."
To discuss the matchup with UCLA football fans, go to Bruins Nation. To talk about the matchup with Illinois football fans, head to Hail to the Orange.