After forcing three turnovers and four sacks, UCLA trounced Michigan State 28-10<\/a> Saturday afternoon at the Rose Bowl. The Bruins improved to 7-0 for the first time since 2005 after winning just three games last season.<\/p>\n UCLA\u2019s defense carried it after the offense was flat in the first half, dropping two passes, drawing drive-killing penalties and fumbling twice in Michigan State territory. Both fumbles were forced by Spartans safety Devin Vaught<\/a> and returned 50-plus yards to the red zone.<\/p>\n \u201cYou just can\u2019t do it if you want to win really close games,\u201d UCLA coach Bob Chesney said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking three, four touchdowns off the board by doing that. The holds, we\u2019ll go back and look and see. The two drops can\u2019t happen, and then ultimately the two fumbles are just a shame.\u201d<\/p>\n While UCLA conceded a touchdown after the first giveaway, allowing Michigan State (2-6, 0-5) to score in two plays, the Bruins avenged the second fumble with an interception from linebacker Donavyn Pellot<\/a> \u2014 the first pick of the senior\u2019s career.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s just a steady football player,\u201d Chesney said. \u201cYou see him, his size, his explosiveness, his physicality, his toughness, his intelligence. All those things ring true for him. And then he was a quarterback at one point, so to get that ball in his hand and take off, I thought he did a really good job. He\u2019s been waiting his time, and when he has his moments, he\u2019s making the most out of them.\u201d<\/p>\n The interception came after quarterback Ty Dieffenbach<\/a> prevented a potential Michigan State touchdown on the preceding fumble recovery when he managed to contain Spartans linebacker Nikai Martinez on the return.<\/p>\n UCLA quarterback Ty Dieffenbach passes in the first quarter against Michigan State at the Rose Bowl on Saturday.<\/p>\n (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n Chesney said Dieffenbach saved the Bruins 14 points by holding up Martinez.<\/p>\n \u201c[I tried to] just get in front of them and hopefully delay them enough for someone to come hit them,\u201d Dieffenbach said. \u201cPeople don\u2019t really want to see the quarterback do that. But for me, I\u2019m doing whatever for the team, so I get in front of them, I\u2019ll hit them if I have to. I tried to hit him, but it\u2019s been a while since I made a tackle.\u201d<\/p>\n Pellot\u2019s 67-yard interception return set up a one-yard scoring run by Wayne Knight<\/a> five plays later for his 13th touchdown of the season. The score gave UCLA a lead it would never relinquish.<\/p>\n Once the offense found its footing, it did not step off the gas.<\/p>\n The Bruins leaned heavily on their running game as they returned to usual form after being limited to 3.5 yards per carry and failing to surpass 150 yards the past two weeks. All three starting running backs reached the end zone for the third time this season, as UCLA finished with 245 rushing yards at 5.1 yards per carry. <\/p>\n![\"UCLA](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/1792902849_954_.jpeg\")
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It was always going to be the Bruin Bullies\u2019 day. No. 9 UCLA was hosting a Michigan State…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":507202,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[8932,11474,11153,423,66873,48,52,51,47,50,49,32008,18158,772,3238,278,1001,780,1092,195870,1539],"class_list":["post-507201","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bruins","tag-carry","tag-first-half","tag-game","tag-game-last-season","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-michigan-state","tag-no","tag-pass","tag-play","tag-season","tag-spartans","tag-touchdown","tag-ucla","tag-ucla-defense","tag-yard"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507201","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=507201"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/507201\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/507202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=507201"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=507201"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=507201"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}