Biggest Winners and Losers From UCLA's Week 7 Win Against Wisconsin

UCLA has another impressive win that they can add to their perfect resume at 6-0. In the 17-7 win at home over Wisconsin, here are the biggest winners and losers of the contest.

Winners

Ty Dieffenbach

This was not an easy defense on the opposing end to face in your first start at the Power 4 level. There was legitimate concern that this UCLA passing game was in trouble, and Dieffenbach has evaporated that quickly.

Dieffenbach completed 22-for-33, with 264 passing yards, and looked calm, confident, and accurate all night long. He made great decisions, was not reckless with the ball, and delivered the ball accurately down the field. He made legitimately beautiful reads all night long and delivered strikes into tight windows. I feel like it would not be an overreaction to say that this passing game could instead be a strength moving forward for the Bruins.

Jalen Saint Paul

A surprise from the wide receiver room, Saint Paul looked great against Wisconsin. It seems he had an early connection with Dieffenbach and was able to make many plays to extend drives and played a crucial role in setting up Wayne Knight’s first-half touchdown.

This wide receiver room has just continued to get deeper and deeper as more wideouts show their ability to be impactful. Dieffenbach spread the ball around quite a bit against Wisconsin, and Saint Paul was clearly one of his favorite targets. Saint Paul would end the night with 4 catches for 45 yards.

Semaj Morgan

We were correct in the assessment that Semaj Morgan could emerge as the WR1 for this team, and he proved that against Wisconsin. Morgan made life for Dieffenbach easy, as he got open various times throughout the night and made himself reliable out wide. Along with getting open, Morgan did a fantastic job at extending plays and creating yards after the catch. He caught 5 passes for 84 yards in the win against Wisconsin.

Losers

UCLA Run Game

This was by far the worst performance we’ve seen from UCLA’s run game. In a game that was predicted to be dominated on the ground, we saw a surprising number of attempts from UCLA’s offense through the air. Dieffenbach threw 33 passes in the win against Wisconsin, and UCLA’s run game only accounted for 120 yards all night long.

Wayne Knight was held in check all game long, only accounting for 23 yards on 13 carries, averaging 1.8 yards per rush.