Memphis beats UCLA in one of the year’s most thrilling upsets

The Tigers won a long game with lots of fireworks.

The Memphis Tigers upset No. 25 UCLA on Saturday, holding on in a 48-45 upset thriller. The teams went back and forth for along afternoon, but the Tigers’ defense made a fourth-down stop in the final minute to seal the Bruins’ fate.

It was an offensive thriller, with the teams trading scores all afternoon. It was also long as hell, with a game duration of three hours, 55 minutes. But the game was so much fun that its extraordinarily long timespan wasn’t such a big deal.

There were lots of fireworks, and Memphis put on a great show against a Power 5 team with loads more talent on its roster. The Tigers had this interception TD return against UCLA’s Josh Rosen, which gave them a 10-point lead in the third quarter:

That was an ugly throw by UCLA’s Josh Rosen, who rolled out to his right and then threw across his body, directly into Hart’s waiting, Memphis arms. The linebacker rumbled 60 yards to score. Rosen had an up-and-down day, with some brilliant throws but two confounding interceptions. (He’d throw another in the fourth.)

Memphis’ decisive stop came after a failed fake field goal gave the ball to Rosen, down three, with 56 seconds left and 80 yards to go. The Tigers, though, held.

The Tigers are a top-tier contender in the AAC, the country’s best non-power conference. They scored the game’s first touchdown on their first drive, going 91 yards in two plays. The big moment: an 80-yard run by Darrell Henderson on the Tigers’ first play from scrimmage set up a touchdown that made the score 7-0, Tigers.

That set up a Joey Magnifico touchdown catch. But then UCLA answered, making it 7-7. The teams traded scores for much of the first 30 minutes, and the last was a 33-yard strike from Riley Ferguson to Anthony Miller that gave the Tigers the lead at halftime.

UCLA came back from a 34-point deficit to beat Texas A&M in Week 1, then beat Hawaii at home in Week 2. They’ve gotten a couple of great performances in a row from junior quarterback Josh Rosen, and the vibe around the program has gone from ugly to fairly promising in just a few weeks. This became quite a day, though.