The Bruins ripped off 38 unanswered points from the second quarter on and rolled to a season-opening 45-17 victory over Bowling Green on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson totaled four touchdowns, two each through the air and on the ground while throwing for 298 yards. Tailback Zach Charbonnet added 111 yards rushing on 21 carries with a touchdown. As a team, UCLA (1-0) outgained the Falcons 626-162, holding BGSU under 50 rushing yards for the game.

UCLA didn’t play a perfect game, and it struggled to find its rhythm particularly early, but once the team got its footing in the game, the rout was on.

Head coach Chip Kelly touched on that after the game. Here’s everything he had to say on the win:

Opening statement

“We wanted a W, and we don’t ask for anything and we don’t ask for anything and don’t prescribe anything about how the game is going to unfold. We just talked to our players about responding. And I thought that they did respond. We dug ourselves a hole. But we did not continue to keep digging. We fought our way out of a hole. We were down 17-7 and we won 45-17, so it’s a credit to those guys. We made some mistakes. We don’t have preseason games. When you’re in a practice situation and someone will make a mistake, you’ll do it over. But you don’t get do-overs here. We did dig ourselves a little bit of a hole to start, but I was really proud of how our guys responded.”

On main takeaways from the game

“Just their mindset, more than anything, and how they responded to things. I mean, we’ll wait until we get to the tape specifically to see what we did. I know that defensively, we had talked about being able to generate a rush with the front four when you are playing against a team that really likes to throw the football. That was a challenge for us. I thought that our back end did a really good job from a coverage standpoint. I thought our rush got home, so that was my first takeaway, just watching how our defense performed today.”

On the Bruins’ offensive line

“I’d have to look at the tape to get to that point in time, but I think that we had 600 and some-odd yards of offense. I don’t think that they played poorly. There are things they could fix or get better at.”

On the defense

“I liked their effort and how hard they played. When we get into the technical aspect, we’ll figure that out when we watch the film. We had talked about being able to be in coverage and rush four, and against a team that did a really nice job last year of throwing the football. That quarterback [Matt McDonald], and I talked to him after the game, he’s a tough sucker. We got after him today. And he just kept bouncing back, making plays. They have a really sound scheme. For us to do what we did, hold them to under 200 yards and really seven points, that was really impressive to start the season. And hopefully we can build upon that.”

On the importance of explosives

“If you can win those battles, if you can win the turnover battle and the X-play battle, you’re probably going to win the football game. Our guys know that. That’s part of our plan to win. We want to have more X-plays than they have. When we needed a play and we were down, it was Dorian’s long touchdown and then Zach really kind of sparked us. Those two veteran leaders on the offensive side of the ball, helped us get out of that hole, and it was good to see. You’ve got to rely on your playmakers with those deals and then they can make some big plays.”

On early special teams mistakes

“We will have to look at the film. I mean, I think with Jake [Bobo], he had just taken his eyes off it. It was a fair catch situation. We have to field the ball. But we’ll have to look at the film to see what went on with the punt block.”

On the impact of the heat

“I don’t think it was a factor because it affected both teams. They had a lot of guys go down with cramps. We had a few guys that cramped, a little bit. Our medical team and our football performance team did a really good job of getting our guys prepared for this game from a hydration standpoint. It was hot. But there was no getting around that. I don’t know if it was a factor in the game, but you could feel it down there. It was as hot as I’ve been at a game. Some of the games that I have played at Arizona State were kind of like that. But playing in games when it is in triple digits, you’ve got to be able to fight through it a little bit. Our guys did a good job with that.”

On prep for the heat

“Yeah, we have a hydration program that our guys go through, in terms of what they put into their bodies and electrolyte-wise, what type of fluids they put in their bodies. We check for hydration on a daily basis. And then obviously, we’ll hydrate test them before we are here. If they are slightly dehydrated, we can prescribe how many milliliters of water and electrolytes they’ll need. We have the cool zone fans on the field and some towels and some ice towels that can kind of get to your vagal nerve and that can help to bring your body temperature down a little quicker. We had a hydration plan going into this game and I thought that our guys executed it.

On if it felt like Bowling Green wore down

“You could see that. And they probably had more cramping than we did. We had one or two, but there were a few times where they had four or five guys down. They were legit cramping. That makes it difficult. So your depth in a game like this will get tested. I think that our depth kind of shone through as the game went along.”

On running back Keegan Jones

“I’ve been impressed with Keegan. And I know that the question came up a lot about how we had Zach and Brittain [Brown, last season] – and Brittain is playing for the Raiders now. Keegan had a great offseason for us and worked extremely hard. I thought that he did some really good things when he was out there. And then TJ [Harden] had an opportunity late. He flashed a little bit. We will continue to grow at the running back spot behind Zach. But I thought that both Keegan and TJ did a really nice job today.”

On running back Zach Charbonnet

“That’s just Zach. He’s just a warrior. You know, a lot of guys carry 21 times, and they’re kind of tired but he will want to know why he couldn’t get more. He’s that type of a kid with a tremendous work ethic. We kind of hang our hat on being able to run the football and it starts with him. We need him and Dorian when we get down a little bit. You can kind of see that those are the guys who we relied on a little bit.”

On working through early mistakes

“You’ll never play a perfect game. There are always things that you’ve got to work on after every game you play. Winston Churchill said that the problems in victory are a lot more agreeable than the problems in defeat, but they are no less difficult. So, we have some things that we have got to get better at. I told our guys that I hope that our goal will be that this will be the worst game that we play. That’s how learning happens. You’ve got to correct those mistakes. That is what the process is for us. And I think that our guys understand that. Do we play with great effort? And then how do we respond when things don’t go our way? There are 12 games, and we’ve got 11 left and you get one per week. We’ll come back in on Monday and we’ll make the necessary corrections, then we will move on to our next opponent.”