UCLA vs. Texas final score: Bruins hold off Longhorns, 20-17

UCLA, despite a scare from Texas, were able to hold off the Longhorns at AT&T Stadium in Dallas 20-17 as the Bruins won the fourth quarter tug of war despite being without quarterback Brett Hundley.

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UCLA finished with 443 total yards to Texas’ 322. Backup quarterback Jerry Neuheisel finished 23-for-30 with 178 yards and two touchdowns. UCLA running back Paul Perkins had 24 carries for 126 yards in the winning effort. Texas quarterback Tyrone Swoopes went 24-for-34 with 196 yards and two touchdowns. Malcolm Brown led rushing for the Longhorns with 14 carries with 69 yards.

UCLA quarterback Brett Hundley was taken to the locker room in the second quarter after sustaining an injury to his left elbow on an 11-yard scramble late in the first quarter. After he was hurt, he came toward the sidelines, where UCLA coach Jim Mora appeared to push Hundley down in order to get an injury timeout called.

After injuring his elbow on a scramble, UCLA QB Brett Hundley was pushed down by Jim Mora to cause an injury timeout. pic.twitter.com/CNEFvBDVbG
— Yahoo Sports College Football (@YahooSportsCFB) September 14, 2014

The fourth quarter was so back and forth it felt as if you were watching the Tazmanian Devil swirl around for hours. UCLA was the first to strike with a 25-yard field goal with 9:13 left. Then Texas, led by Johnathan Gray’s 31-yard rush led to Texas’ first score of the half with a Tyrone Swoopes 8-yard pass to John Harris. That made the score 17-13 Texas with 5:13 to go in the contest.

UCLA marched down the field using the run game to their advantage until Jordan James was stripped of the ball on the Texas 31-yard line with 4:17 left in the game. After Texas gained possession, UCLA forced a three and out and got the ball back with 3:06 left after a 45-yard return by Ishmael Adams. It only took UCLA one play to score after that on a beautiful dime coming from Jerry Neuheisel to Jordan Payton for a 33-yard touchdown.

After Texas got the ball back with 3:00 left, Swoopes wasn’t able to hit a receiver on a fourth down and eight to go. UCLA regained possession with 1:50 left and ran down the clock.

The game winded up being a close contest in a game where UCLA was a 9.5-point favorite, Texas beat the spread, but they were shocked when they weren’t able to make a final march down the field.

Texas bounced back from a demoralizing 41-7 defeat against BYU last Saturday, but they weren’t able to get the job all the way done against a Brett Hundley-less UCLA. They go into a bye week next week, but will take on Kansas Sept. 27.

No. 12 UCLA remains undefeated, but has yet to win by more than eight points to unranked opponents. UCLA also heads into a bye week, but will take on No. 16 Arizona State Thursday Sept. 25.