At the very least, it was a pulse.

After three embarrassing performances put the UCLA football team at 0-3 and cost head coach DeShaun Foster his job, the Bruins kicked off Big Ten play with a viable chance to get into the win column.

Only that opportunity fell flaccidly deep in UCLA territory, the Bruins unable to muster enough offense to potentially tie the game in a 17-14 loss Saturday at Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois.

The Bruins got the ball on their own 7-yard line with 3:23 to play after stopping Northwestern and forcing a punt. On 3rd and 8, a deep pass down the left sideline to Rico Flores Jr. fell incomplete, with the referees missing a tug on Flores’ jersey, which made the Bruins punt the ball away with 1:55 to go.

Northwestern took over on its own 49-yard line but could

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