By james art 
L. KENT WOLGAMOTT Lincoln Journal Star
UCLA coach DeShaun Foster wasn’t about to talk about bowl games after his Bruins won their second straight game and moved to 3-5 on the season.
But his players knew a 27-20 win over Nebraska kept them on track to reach six wins and a bowl game.
“Everything on us will depend on how we finish,” defenseman Cain Medrano said. “Coach Foster does an amazing job of just motivating us day in and day out to keep our heads down and get better every day. Then, in December, we’ll look up and be right where we want to be for a bowl game.”
The Bruins took down the Huskers with time-consuming punts, a pick six and by forcing Nebraska’s Dylan Raiola into one of his worst performances of his freshman year.
“We wanted to make sure we could break his rhythm a little bit,” Foster said. “He’s a really good quarterback. He can play with his hands, you know, he extends the play with his feet. And they had a really good game The old line comes back to work hard but, you know, we just wanted to keep going out there and not let him stay in rhythm instead of getting comfortable.
The Bruins made Raiola uncomfortable before the snap with constantly shifting defenses, Medrano said.
“He had some issues with the five-down, six-down stuff,” Medrano said. “We were able to mess it up, not knowing where to slide the defense, not knowing who was coming, who wasn’t coming. We were able to influence him that way.”
Medrano took advantage of Raiola’s confusion on the first play of the third quarter. Raiola didn’t seem to see Medrano when he dropped back to pass, allowing the linebacker to reach over, pick off his pass and return it 38 yards for a touchdown that put the Bruins up 20-7.
“It was a fake run, a panicked run back to where I was supposed to be,” Medrano said. “I’ve worked on it I don’t know how many times over the last two years. I looked back at the quarterback, the ball came to me … I made a little run block. I’ve got some moves there, I’m not just a defender.”
On the other side of the ball, UCLA quarterback Ethan Garbers finished the game 15 of 25 passing for 219 yards and two touchdowns, the second a 48-yarder to Quasi Gilmer that made it 27-7.
“Ethan is a top-tier quarterback,” Foster said. “As long as we can keep him upright, Ethan can take on any quarterback out there.”
The Bruins largely kept Garbers in check, yielding just two sacks to the Blackshirts as the quarterback found a rhythm early, distributed the ball to nine receivers over the course of the game and led three long scoring drives in the first half.
“I feel great,” Garbers said of his performance. “The boys are in the right places. The defense is great. I can see the defense very well. I think it just goes back to training during the week.”
Garbers also carried the Bruins with his legs, leading the team in rushing with 68 yards, 57 of which came on a scoring drive in the second quarter.
“They were in coverage there,” Garbers said of the run.. “I went up in the pocket and there was nobody. So I just went down the field, had to get a guy to miss and go to the races. I’m kind of disappointed with myself, I think I ran out of fuel a little bit. But it is what it is.”
UCLA will host Iowa on Friday as it enters the final three games of its season. If they win them all, they will be cup-tied.
But Foster said he would not bring that up.
“I just let them know it’s the one-week season,” he said. “We will not focus on this result. This season, the first year (in the Big Ten). We originally had that gauntlet, now we’re in the middle, which is like the blue-collar teams we play against. They are healthy. They have a certain style that they play with. Then at the end of the season we have a West Coast run. We’re just trying to get through that blue collar part.