UCLA Football’s offense, or lack thereof, in the first game of the season, left a lot to be desired.
UCLA Football‘s game against Texas A&M is in the books, and it wasn’t pretty. The UCLA offense looked strong for all of several seconds.
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Very quickly into the game, it was obvious the offensive line was struggling—Quarterback Josh Rosen never really had much time to find open receivers. Instead, he felt the pressure over and over again. To add, Connor McDermott was never a real match for TAMU’s defensive end Myles Garrett.
Rosen showed some of the same mistakes he had in his freshman year. In particular, he reminded us that he’d do anything to not get a sack—including throwing the ball away . . . to the hands of the Texas A&M defense.
The offensive problems weren’t all about Rosen though. Backs Soso Jamabo and Bolu Olorunfunmi traded for runs, with Jamabo getting most of the handoffs. Both backs showed clearly distinguishable styles: Jamabo was more shifty and sophisticated, while Olorunfunmi was a more powerful, tough-to-break force.
UCLA didn’t quite seem to exploit these differences early enough. But once the Bruins sorted this out, late in the fourth quarter, Olorunfunmi ran in for the first UCLA touchdown. That’s right, the Bruins couldn’t score a TD until the game felt basically over.
Bolu’s 1st career TD makes it a one-score game. 24-16 with 4:19 left. #UCLAvsTAMU pic.twitter.com/5gTgpJUUDC
— UCLA Football (@UCLAFootball) September 3, 2016
Josh Rosen had plenty of targets to choose from in this game, but they weren’t getting sufficient separation from the defense; at least not within the short amount of time that the O-line was allowing for. Most of the throws went to Eldridge Massington and Kenneth Walker III, but several other wideouts saw plenty of action as well.
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Walker, by the way, would be the one to give the Bruins hope when he caught a 62-yard pass with less than three minutes to go in the game. Walker’s TD put the Bruins within 2 points of tying the Aggies.
After completing a two-point conversion and letting the defense do its thing, the UCLA offense came back on the field with one simple job: move the ball downfield then let place kicker J.J. Molson do what he’s best at. But Rosen would get picked, again, wasting yet another opportunity for the Bruins.
The offense had the last chance in overtime to keep the game going, but Austin Roberts dropped what should have been an easy touchdown. The offense just couldn’t handle this game.
The Bruins would finish the game with some pretty scary statistics. UCLA was 5-18 in third down completions.
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Rosen completed 26 passes of 46 attempts, 343 yards, 1 TD, and 3 interceptions. But, on the bright side, no turnovers occurred as a result of fumbles lost. Actually, there is no bright side.
Final Grade: C-