PASADENA, Calif. - With only 15 snaps coming into Saturday night's game, sophomore Matt Moore needed a boost during his first start since the beginning of the season, and he got one on the first play for the UCLA offense.
What started as a quick throw to junior Craig Bragg turned into a 52-yard gain after Bragg made a move on ASU cornerback R.J. Oliver and streaked down the sideline.
The play, which was designed to be a confidence builder for Moore, proved to be UCLA's longest pass play of the game.
"I threw the ball negative 1 yard and he took it the rest [of the way]," Moore said. "It's nice to have that guy on our team."
Moore had been out with a deep bruise to his tibia that he suffered in the season opener against Colorado. Saturday was his first game back after the injury.
"I thought he was a little rusty, which I anticipated," head coach Karl Dorrell said. "But we ended up finding a way to win the game without Matt playing one of his best games."
Moore started off the game hot, connecting on seven of 11 passes for 137 yards and a touchdown, which came on a 23-yard jump ball that Bragg snatched out of the air. In the first half, Bragg came up with three receptions for 114 yards, with the 23-yard touchdown the shortest of the three.
Moore would complete only seven more passes the rest of the way, but finished the game 14-for-28 for 190 yards.
"He made some nice throws in the early part of the game," Dorrell said. "He got a little bit frustrated in the middle part, and he made a couple of mistakes with the football."
The two interceptions resulted from Moore getting hit on two separate occasions while throwing the ball. The ASU defense pressured Moore several times.
"We put in a couple of new protections this week [against the pass rush]," Moore said. "We were trying them out and it just didn't work out for us."
The UCLA running game picked up the slack for Moore's lack of production in the second half as true freshman Maurice Drew ran the ball 18 times for 180 yards, all in the second half.
"We were trying to kill the clock [in the fourth quarter], and Drew just bounced and spun off of people," Moore said. "He did an awesome job."
Reach the reporter at matthew.schubert@asu.edu.
