UCLA vs Kansas St; Alamo Bowl, 3:45 Pacific, ESPN
Want to see the Bruins finish the 2014 season with 10 wins and allow Brett Hundley (and maybe Jim Mora?) to ride off into the sunset with a victory? Here’s what the Bruins will need to do:
UCLA Bruins
1. Stop the Run
– Its boiler plate, its basic, its TRUE! Stop the run 1st, even when it comes to a team with an average run game like Kansas St, and everything the Wildcat offense tries to accomplish gets a little harder.
2. Contain Tyler Lockett (and Curry Sexton) – The Wildcats have a pair of extremely productive receivers that will make life miserable for the Bruins if they have big games. Mora and DC Jeff Ulbrich have done a pretty good job this year at taking away the oppositions biggest threats (as long as that threat doesn’t play QB for Stanford or Oregon). Keeping Lockett and Sexton under wraps will put pressure on QB Jake Waters to make plays and gamble with his legs more than he should.
3. Keep Waters in the pocket, and knock him on his butt when he leaves – UCLA does not need to blitz every down against Kansas St. They need to play disciplined and not open up running lanes for Waters (the most dangerous Wildcat runner) to get loose. When he does try to run, the Bruins LB’s need to take advantage of the opportunities to lay him out and make him think twice about doing it again.
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(coincidentally, the preceding keys also work well for Kansas St, given that the best way to slow down the Bruin’s offense is to stop the run, take away the short passing game and bait Hundley into trying to do too much … which leads to:
4. The Bruins Need to Run the Ball and Get Everyone Involved on Offense – The strength of the UCLA offense is its diversity. Hundley needs to get Perkins going and get multiple skill guys involved in order to create opportunities for him to deliver his patented daggers for one last time as a Bruin.