The numbers on paper didn’t look promising heading into last weekend’s contest against Minnesota.

A UCLA football team that had yet to score more than 17 points through the first five games, with ranks among the nation’s worst in most offensive categories, had to find a way to contend with the nation’s top pass defense. The Bruins’ inability to run the ball made the play of quarterback Ethan Garbers, who missed the previous game with a right foot injury, all the more important behind a shaky offensive line.

To complicate things further, Notre Dame transfer wide receiver Rico Flores Jr. was unavailable.

Yet, there UCLA was just a single, elusive first down away from bleeding out the clock with a lead late in the fourth quarter before losing 21-17 and watching the streak reach five games.

Piece by piece, the Bruins are trying to put together performances in offensive coordinator/associate head coach Eric Bieniemy’s West Coast system that will eventually translate in the win column for the first time since the season opener in late August.

In the Big Ten, that win column remains a goose egg.