Notes and quotes: Brett Hundley’s brilliance leads UCLA past ASU

In the second quarter of what would become UCLA’s 62-27 blowout of Arizona State, Brett Hundley showed everyone just how healthy he was.

On second-and-7 near midfield, the Bruins’ star quarterback capped a six-yard scramble with a hurdle, leaping over one linebacker before another came and hit him on his left arm. Hundley knew that this could happen — that by favoring thrill over caution, he could open himself up to defenders who were surely eyeing that heavy brace covering his left elbow.

He also knew he didn’t care.

“I’m playing football,” Hundley said. “I can’t not do what I like doing and how I like playing. … That’s what I wanted to do this game, is not come in and think that I’m limiting myself by not running. I wanted to show that I could still run the ball and still do all the things God has blessed me to do.”

Arizona State bore the brunt of all that Thursday night. This was as masterful a performance that Hundley has ever delivered in UCLA colors — one only highlighted by the fact that it came less than two weeks after an elbow injury that had fans holding their breath.

His final line was absurd: 355 yards and four touchdowns on just 23 pass attempts. He only had five incompletions, and two were dropped by receiver Kenneth Walker. He tacked on 72 rushing yards, punching in a one-yard touchdown for the final score, after the game was well in hand. In the end zone, he looked up at the stands and slapped his left arm.

His two 80-yard passes were a career-high, and marked UCLA’s longest pass completion since Drew Olson’s 91-yarder to Joe Cowan in 2005. He now has seven 300-yard games in his career four behind Cade McNown’s school record of 11.

In another blowout, UCLA might have already trotted out backup quarterback Jerry Neuheisel, the team’s savior in a 20-17 win against Texas almost two weeks ago. But Hundley wasn’t sitting this one out. Not in front of his hometown crowd, not when he had missed nearly the entire game against the Longhorns, and certainly not against the team that had beaten him a year ago for the Pac-12 South title.

“Brett, I’ve never seen him this hyped (as he was) this whole week,” said receiver Thomas Duarte.

» Someone scratched “UCLA” into Arizona State’s midfield pitchfork logo before kickoff, and the Bruins all but said that one of them was responsible.

Take it away, Brett Hundley and Thomas Duarte:

Mildly reminiscent of another midfield controversy, perhaps?

» UCLA’s offensive line played one of its better games of the season, allowing Hundley to get sacked just once despite losing starting left guard Alex Redmond in the first half. The former Freshman All-American had ice wrapped around his left foot/ankle while he was sitting on the trainer’s table, then left for the locker room on crutches before halftime.

Redshirt freshman Kenny Lacy filled in for him and held his own. Lacy traveled with UCLA last season and was likely the next one in if another player got injured. He got to play at Sun Devil Stadium, which is just over 10 miles away from his alma mater, Mountain Pointe High.

» Jordan Payton had himself quite a day in Tempe, turning five catches into a career-high 151 yards and two touchdowns. He’s never going to beat an entire defense down the field for a long bomb, but he makes up for that by being very, very difficult for college defenders to bring down.

That was abundantly clear on his 80-yard touchdown, one in which he shook off a defensive holding penalty and continued down the field.

“For a slow, average guy, he’s pretty good, isn’t he?” said offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone.

Payton is now fourth in the Pac-12 with 104.3 yards per game, and doing it on an average of just six catches per game. Shaq Evans, UCLA’s No. 1 receiver in 2013, averaged 55.25 yards through four games and eventually ended the season less than a yard below that mark.

» UCLA’s defense still isn’t bringing much extra pressure, and ended up with just one sack (by linebacker Deon Hollins, who is now the only Bruin with multiple sacks on the season). Its secondary still looks suspect, particularly cornerback Fabian Moreau, who everyone mistakenly believed before the season to be a potential star.

But the Bruins also made big plays at the right times, including two interceptions and a pair of forced fumbles.

“I’d like to think we can come up with the big play when we need to,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. “But at the same time, the yards that we’re giving up at times and the plays that we’re giving up at times — it’s a little frustrating because I feel like we have so much more in the tank.

“There’s gonna come games where we’re going to have to win the game for our team. It’d be nice offense scores 60 every time we go out, but it’s not always going to be that way. We just have to be more disciplined.”

No one player has been exempt from those kinds of mistakes either, as Ulbrich acknowledged. One particularly bad play came with 3:43 left in the first quarter, when senior linebacker Eric Kendricks bit hard on a misdirection — leaving tight end Kody Kohl wide open for ASU’s first touchdown.

However, the 626 offensive yards that UCLA gave up — the most in a game under Mora — didn’t look quite as bad when you consider that the Sun Devils ran 105 plays. The Bruins need to be able to force offenses off the field faster, but giving up 5.96 yards per play is a middle-of-the-pack performance.

“What it comes down to is guys doing what you’re supposed to do, and doing it consistently,” said head coach Jim Mora. “Sometimes, when you get a against a team like this, you try to make a play. You guess. Sometimes when you guess, you make a great play. It looks great, and everyone’s fired up.

“And you do it the next time, and they gash you. You can’t do that. Defense is all about discipline and effort, and we’ve got to improve in the discipline category.”

A personnel shift with safety Randall Goforth now done for the season: Jefferson started the game at corner, while Adams moved back to safety next to true freshman Jaleel Wadood. UCLA could keep moving guys around until it finds a combination it’s really happy with.

» Running back Paul Perkins set a new career-high rushing total for the third straight game, finishing with 137 yards on 14 carries. He was having a fairly quiet day before busting out an 81-yard run with 7:10 left in the fourth quarter.

» Ishmael Adams’ 95-yard pick-six just before halftime was arguably the biggest play of the game, but his 100-yard kick return wasn’t too shabby either. It was UCLA’s first kick return score since 2007 — when Matthew Slater took one back against the Sun Devils at the Rose Bowl — and marked Adams’ first career special teams touchdown after several close calls. (He had an 85-yard punt return touchdown at Virginia called back due to a penalty, which would have broken a drought that extends back to 2005 and Maurice Jones-Drew.)

Adams emerged as a stud returner late last season, and had been itching to find the end zone since. “All the players are excited to see one,” he said in December. “I’m definitely looking for it, obviously. I want to return one for a touchdown more than anybody else.”

» I asked Adams after the game Thursday if he was surprised that teams keep kicking to him, especially after Virginia started shying away during the season opener. He thought a bit about the right answer before settling on: “If they want to keep kicking it to me, we can make something happen.”

He also said he slightly preferred his 95-yard interception return — his second pick-six of the season — to his 100-yard kick return. He does, after all, a defensive back first and foremost.