A heavy mist hung over the Rose Bowl late Saturday night, adding to the yuck factor of what just transpired for the home team.

A shanked punt at the worst possible time. A sturdy defense fooled by a trick play. An offense that couldn’t gain one yard given a chance to win the game.

It added up to the most crushing loss of the season.

“Sucks,” UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers said after the Bruins’ 19-13 setback against USC in his final cross-town rivalry game. “Really sucks.”

Garbers was involved in two critical sequences that ensured UCLA (4-7 overall, 3-6 Big Ten) will finish the season with a losing record.

The first came on a failed fourth-down sneak. The second came when he suddenly couldn’t find a rhythm after completing every previous pass in the second half.

It left Bruins fans with a similarly sickening feeling from previous close losses to Minnesota and Washington.

Here are five takeaways from a defeat that will heavily frame UCLA coach DeShaun Foster’s first season:

Bad ending

It was the sort of moment that can forge a legacy.

With a chance to go 2-0 as a starter in the rivalry game while keeping the Victory Bell painted blue, Garbers stepped to the line of scrimmage at his own 25-yard line with 2:09 left and his team needing a touchdown to win.

He had already thrown for 156 yards and a touchdown in the second half while completing all 11 of his passes.

The next four plays: incompletion, incompletion, incompletion, incompletion. A few of the throws weren’t even close to connecting with their targets.

“Just hard to find a rhythm,” Garbers said of his struggles on the final drive.

UCLA’s offense gained 376 yards but couldn’t make plays in crucial moments. The Bruins converted only three of 11 third downs and went 0 for 3 on fourth downs.

The game film should be cataloged in the horror section for anyone associated with UCLA.

The longest yard

Having long expressed his belief in his team’s ability to get a yard, Foster went for it on fourth and one at the UCLA 34-yard line with five minutes left and the Bruins trailing by three points.

It wasn’t the most imaginative play call, Foster saying it was his decision — and not offensive coordinator Eric Bieniemy’s — to run a quarterback sneak.

“I thought it was a good call and every call that’s made in certain situations — I am making those,” Foster said.

Garbers was stopped for no gain, but both Foster and his quarterback said the play was blown dead prematurely.

Said Foster: “That was the first time I’ve seen a quarterback sneak get called dead, you know? They usually let that play roll; they stopped it, they blew the whistle, so who knows where we would have ended up.”

Said Garbers: “I was looking at the marker and I thought I was past it. But I guess they blow the forward progress dead early. So, can’t control that.”

Here’s something indisputable: UCLA will need to fortify its offensive line through the transfer portal to ensure it can pick up one yard in similar situations next season.

Same old story

UCLA coach DeShaun Foster argues with a referee during his team’s loss USC at the Rose Bowl Saturday.

(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

Nearly every week, Foster has said he’s going to fix his team’s discipline issues.

Then the next game comes and it’s more of the same slop on the field.

The low point Saturday came going into halftime, when UCLA wide receiver Kwazi Gilmer, safety Bryan Addison and an unspecified assistant coach were called for unsportsmanlike conduct penalties as both teams made their way toward the locker room while jawing at one another.

Foster said he was told the brouhaha was precipitated by a USC player punching Gilmer, leading him to retaliate. As a result of the penalties, UCLA was forced to kick off from its own five-yard line to start the third quarter.

The Bruins also compounded giving up a 41-yard kickoff return with a late hit by Evan Thomas. It was just one of the eight penalties they committed for 70 yards.

“That’s why that’s my first pillar; I didn’t pull it out of nowhere, it was my first pillar for a reason,” Foster said of discipline. “I felt that that was something that we were lacking and missing and we’re still missing it, so we’re going to just continue to strive in the direction of discipline and eventually it’s going to get fixed.”

Lost opportunity

UCLA receiver J.Michael Sturdivant catches a long pass between USC cornerback Jaylin Smith (2) and safety Bryson Shaw (27) during the second half at the Rose Bowl Saturday.

(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)

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With a win over the Trojans, Foster wouldn’t have had to do any convincing when it comes to the narrative of his first season.

He would have beaten USC counterpart Lincoln Riley, who has taken multiple teams to the College Football Playoff and makes more than three times his salary.

He would have significantly enhanced his team’s name, image and likeness fundraising efforts that will be critical to upgrading the talent on his roster.

He would have given the hundreds of high school recruits at the game another reason to give a commitment. (Kenneth Moore III, a wide receiver from St. Mary’s High in Stockton, actually did commit to the Bruins before the game.)

Now there’s going to be more spin needed to sell recruits. One possible pitch: Come help us finish these games.

“All of these losses have come to pretty much us letting it slip through our hands,” Foster said. “You know, we gotta find a way to finish games and, you know, just keep coming after half and play better, finish the games. Just really put our stamp on the end of it.”

What now?

UCLA tight end Moliki Matavao beats USC safety Bryson Shaw to reach the end zone in the third quarter at the Rose Bowl Saturday.

(Wally Skalij/Los Angeles Times)

Given what happened Saturday, there won’t be much at stake in UCLA’s final game of the season against Fresno State next weekend at the Rose Bowl.

The Bruins will try to send their seniors out as winners while continuing to show resolve. A win over the Bulldogs (6-5) would help UCLA finish the season with four victories in its final six games.

“They kept rebounding this whole season,” Foster said of his players, “so they’re gonna continue to be resilient and continue to be the type of football players that I know that they are.”

A warning for the Bruins: The Bulldogs have won the last four games in the series.

A warning for Foster: Fresno State has been especially hard on new UCLA coaches, beating Chip Kelly, Rick Neuheisel and Karl Dorrell in each of their first years on the job in Westwood.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Last week, Marta was mad.

Usually, when she’s on the field with her nose toward goal, the three-time Olympic silver medalist visualizes repeating what she’s done many times over her lengthy career. She allows the joy to flow through her, down to her left foot and into the ball.

But she got a little heated with the opposition during last weekend’s NWSL semifinal between her Orlando Pride and the Kansas City Current.

“I tried to be nice most of the time during the game,” Marta said Thursday, to a rapt audience of reporters around her table at the NWSL championship media day.

There was a player on the Current who she exchanged words nicely with, according to the Brazilian. But the player, Marta declined to name names, was being “a little bit diva”.

“And I said, ‘Wow, all right. You made me mad. I’m going to go one-on-one against you’,” Marta said.

Marta picked up the ball in the center circle after forward Barbra Banda poked it away from Current defender Kayla Sharples. Marta faked out both Sharples and center back Alana Cook as they tried to challenge her, juked past goalkeeper Almuth Schult and got the shot off before outside back Hailie Mace could do anything, scoring the Pride’s crucial third goal in the 82nd minute of an eventual 3-2 win.

It was another reminder, as if it was needed, that Marta is truly one of the greatest to ever play.

She celebrated with mixed emotion, anger and joy battling for dominance. But for Marta, it felt the same as so many other goal celebrations before. At media day, she nearly reached for her phone to pull up a photo of her celebrating a goal with Brazil to compare with what proved to be the game-winning goal that sent her to her first NWSL final.

“Honestly, what I see is maybe we should try and make her mad. She turns on a whole other level,” Pride teammate Morgan Gautrat said with a laugh.

Other Pride players talked about watching the goal on repeat, from different angles, but no one expressed surprise. They see it regularly.

“Nothing’s changed,” Marta said. “I have passion for this game, and that’s why I still play.”

Much like the potential of finally earning an Olympic gold medal back in the summer with Brazil at age 38, Marta doesn’t need an NWSL championship trophy to cement her legacy as a force in American women’s professional soccer. She has already won a title and a shield here in 2010 with FC Gold Pride during the previous professional league era of the WPS. And the Pride already captured a trophy this year, winning the NWSL Shield for most regular season points.

She reiterated Thursday that she’s planning to play for another two years, though she’s a free agent heading into the NWSL offseason. But when she does finally hang up her boots, Marta has one of the best chances of an international player making it into the National Soccer Hall of Fame based on a club career.

This season is special, though. Marta said it’s the best she’s ever had at the club level, even compared to her days in Sweden with one of the strongest sides in Europe at that time, Umeå IK.

“If I achieve this big goal with this amazing team, good,” Marta said. “If not, this season was so special from the beginning to now, like not even close to the best dream I can imagine.”

When asked during the last press conference before the final where this NWSL championship ranks amid her illustrious career, Marta emphatically held up a finger: number one.

“I think because of the way we did during the season from the beginning to now, it is something very special that I have never had before in any other club that I’ve played for,” she said. “It’s hard to win the games in the first place (in NWSL), like almost all the games.”

Marta joined the Pride in 2017, a year after their inaugural season as an expansion team. The team had some big-name talent, from Alex Morgan to Ali Krieger. They had good results in Marta’s debut year and made the playoffs. However, the Pride never finished higher than seventh for the following five seasons (not including 2020, when no regular season was played due to the pandemic). In 2023, they achieved seventh place again, missing the playoffs by a two-goal difference in the standings on the last day.

“(Marta) remembers the hard times. She remembers when we were the laughingstock of the league,” head coach Seb Hines said Friday. “Now, she’s enjoying it. Now, everything’s coming together. We’ve got a great culture. We’ve got great players here. We’ve got structure within the top to the bottom now, and so she probably just reminds herself of, like, what it was like before, and just enjoying every single moment of what it’s like now.”

As much as the external focus is on Marta this week, especially after that semifinal goal, she’s not feeling that external pressure at all. She’s not thrown off by the high demand for her from the media, or sitting down for a couple of video features during a championship week. She’s never experienced the madness of an NWSL championship as a finalist, but she’s been to plenty of World Cups and Olympics. She’s also not focused on herself as an individual.

“It’s not this player, (or) this player, it’s the team,” she said. “We do it together. This is exactly how it’s supposed to be. It’s not about the one or two players, it’s about the project. It’s about the work that everybody put in. If the trophy comes to us, amazing. If not, we’re going to keep working hard.”

Marta celebrates with teammates after scoring a goal against the Current. (Mike Watters / Imagn Images)

From the outside, it is easy to assume that the team would love to win a championship title for Marta. And while that’s not inaccurate, said Pride general manager Haley Carter, it’s also not the only internal narrative driving them. From her front-row seat, Carter said Marta embodies the team culture every day and that this is a group of players that truly loves each other.

“This is actually what makes her great,” Carter said on media day. “This is what gives her legendary status: everything is about the team. It’s not about, ‘I’ve never won a NWSL title. I’ve never won the league’. It’s not about that. It’s about getting the team in the space to be successful. That’s her priority.”

Marta has been crucial on the field for the Pride as well. So much of her success this year, including her nine goals and an assist during the regular season, as well as her two playoff goals so far, comes not just from her return to form, but a slightly more advanced position on the field. She’s been closer to goal, and adding Banda to the mix only helped.

When you look at her touches over the past three seasons, this year the Pride are essentially getting 12 percent more of Marta in the final third.

It has worked, to say the least.

There are still the intangibles, too. And for a player with Marta’s stature and legacy, those are impossible to overlook.

“She’s given so much to this club. She’s given absolutely everything. She hasn’t been at another team in this league, and so it’s part of her. She knows what it means to play for this team. She knows what it means to play for this badge,” Hines said Friday at his pregame press conference. “Take away all the individuality of the dribbling and shooting and stuff, her fundamentals of football when you see someone with stature doing it, there’s no questions for anyone else to do it, young, old, whatever.”

Tonight against the Washington Spirit at CPKC Stadium in Kansas City, Orlando’s captain will lead her team one final time in 2024. She’ll almost certainly be facing a hostile crowd, including locals who haven’t forgotten last week’s goal or Marta shushing them in the Pride’s 2-1 win over the Current there before the Olympic break.

But there will be at least one person in the stands who has never seen her play before in America: her mother.

Marta told The Athletic Thursday that she had finally managed to help arrange a visa for her mom to attend a match in the United States and that a family member had managed to take two weeks off to travel with her and help her get around. For Marta, it was the perfect time for her mother to finally see her play a professional game in the States. Sure, they had to run around Thursday morning buying her mom more cold-weather gear so she was prepared for the chill of Kansas City in November, but it was all worth it.

“She told me this year, ‘If I don’t come to America, and then I pass away, I’m gonna pass away so sad’.” Marta couldn’t help mimicking her own incredulous face at the heightened levels of maternal guilt. “And I said, ‘Mom! Why do you have to be like that?’.”

All this week, Marta’s been nothing but smiles and jokes, soaking in a game that is the culmination of her eight years in Orlando. But despite the clear joy emanating from the Brazilian, maybe tonight she’ll get a little mad too, and provide one more moment of magic this season.

Jeff Rueter contributed to this story.

(Top photo: Nathan Ray Seebeck / Imagn Images)

Former NFL star Jason Kelce got a first-hand look at the Appalachian State Mountaineers football team on Saturday.

Kelce made the trip to Boone, North Carolina for the Mountaineers’ matchup with James Madison. App State was ultimately able to pull off the 34-20 victory. Now, if the Mountaineers are able to pick up their sixth win of the season next week, App State would become bowl eligible.

But before Saturday’s Appalachian State-James Madison game, Kelce made his way to the tailgate area. At one point during his stop, Kelce was seen chugging beers. The retired Philadelphia Eagles center and seven-time Pro Bowler even took a few minutes to participate in karaoke. 

Kelce also posed for pictures with some fans before he entered Kidd Brewer Stadium.

JASON KELCE TO HOST NEW LATE-NIGHT SHOW ON ESPN

Kelce, who signed with ESPN in May and makes routine appearances on “Monday Night Countdown,” also addressed the crowd and made a brief appearance on the ESPN+ broadcast.

In April, Jason and his brother Travis received their college diplomas from the University of Cinncinati. Travis celebrated the moment in true Kelce style.

After shaking hands with the university’s president, Dr. Neville Pinto, onstage, Travis chugged a can of beer as the Beastie Boys’ hit song “Fight for Your Right” played in the arena. Travis would often recite the lyrics to the song following the Kansas City Chiefs’ games and during the team’s Super Bowl celebrations.

While Travis and Jason previously graduated from Cincinnati, they both missed out on their actual commencement ceremonies, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported.

Travis and the Chiefs play the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte on Sunday. Bank of America Stadium, the Panthers’ home stadium, is located roughly 100 miles from Appalachian State’s Kidd Brewer Stadium.

Nov 18, 2024; Arlington, Texas, USA; ESPN personality and former Philadelphia Eagles center Jason Kelce on set before the game between the Dallas Cowboys and Houston Texans at AT&T Stadium. (Kevin Jairaj-Imagn Image)

Earlier this week, a dispute over an autograph resulted in Kelce having a less than pleasant exchange with a fan.

After filming an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Thursday night, a man directed a profanity-laced tirade at Kelce over the former Eagles lineman’s decision not to sign autographs for a group of people behind a fence. The incident, first reported by TMZ Sports, was captured on video.

Jason Kelce says being a father is one of the highlights of his life. (Photo by Andy Lewis/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Through the shouting, a calm Kelce attempted to explain his reasoning as he was about to get into a vehicle. “I have a habit of not signing for people that follow where I’m going,” Kelce said. 

The incident with the fan on Thursday comes just weeks after Kelce smashed someone’s phone after the unidentified person shouted a homophobic slur about Travis Kelce while Jason was walking near the Nittany Lions’ home stadium.

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