The UCLA Football team has struggled during the first half of the season, but there has been one improving, bright spot… the defense.
Offense wins games, but defense wins championships. Too bad you need to actually win games to get to a championship, which is currently the delimma for the UCLA Football team.
The Bruins are 3-3 mostly because they have an offense that is not producing. The run game is non-existent, receivers cannot catch and the offensive line cannot protect quarterback Josh Rosen.
This has overshadowed the fact that the Bruin defense has been playing very well in the last few games.
Defensive Coordinator Tom Bradley wanted to improve the defense from last season. Things started a bit rocky in 2016, but have vastly improved in the last four games.
UCLA Football 2016 Game-by-Game Defensive Stats
| Yards Allowed | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Vs. | Passing | Rushing | Total Allowed | Scoring Def (pts.) |
| Texas A&M | 239 | 203 | 442 | 31 |
| UNLV | 153 | 175 | 328 | 21 |
| BYU | 250 | 23 | 273 | 14 |
| Stanford | 143 | 207 | 350 | 22 |
| Arizona | 145 | 242 | 387 | 24 |
| Arizona State | 196 | 79 | 275 | 23 |
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After their dreadful defensive effort in the opening game against Texas A&M, the Bruins have not given up as many total yards or points. There has been some give and take with the run and pass defenses, but for the most part, UCLA has made excellent improvements.
The players have been playing tighter in coverage, the pass rush has improved, tackling is as good as it has ever been, they are loading the box and game planning has been terrific.
Bradley attributes part of this success to moving away from the sideline. When talking to the media recently, Bradley confirmed that he moved up to the press box for the BYU game and has been their ever since.
Part of this was to get a better vantage point of the field, as well as to get away from the excitement and drama coaching a defense might bring on the sideline.
So far it is working. This is arguably one of the best defenses the Bruins have fielded in a few years. The numbers do not lie either.
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Defensive Stats (per game)
2015: passing – 203.2, rushing – 198.5, total – 401.7, scoring – 26.0
2016: passing – 187.7, rushing – 154.8, total – 342.5, scoring – 22.5
Through six games, the UCLA defense is doing worlds better in all four categories. The way the players are working as a team is one of the major reasons for these improvements.
The defensive line is tighter. Eddie Vanderdoes and Jacob Tuioti-Mariner are stuffing the line while Takkarist McKinley is commanding the pass rush.
Jayon Brown is having another tremendous year and is leading the team in tackles (53) while Kenny Young is getting in the backfield and leading the team in sacks (4).
In the secondary, Jaleel Wadood, Randall Goforth, Adarius Pickett, Tahaan Goodman and Nate Meadors have all contributed to one of the best pass defenses in the conference.
It has all come together midway through the season, it is just unfortunate that the same can’t be said for the offense.
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As Rosen and Offensive Coordinator Kennedy Polamalu are looking for answers to fix the offense, the defense will continue to perform at a high level. Until the offense improves, winning games will not be done by them, but by the defense. Hopefully.