The UCLA Football team is 2-1 after they completed the non-conference portion of their 2017 schedule and here are 5 things we learned from it.
The non-conference portion of UCLA Football’s 2017 schedule is over and there are several things we have learned about the Bruins in their first three games.
RELATED: Stanford opens up as favorites against UCLA
As the Bruins prepare for their conference opener at Stanford next week, we look at some of the things that have and have not been working early in the season. Here are 5 things we learned from the non-conference schedule:
1. The defense has taken a step back
When a team has all of their best players healthy and raring to go, they will make that team’s style that much better.
More from Go Joe Bruin
- UCLA Football: It’s time for the nation to meet Dante Moore
- UCLA Football: Where are they ranked heading into week 4
- UCLA Football: Position battle breakdown for Utah showdown
- UCLA vs. Utah: Location, time, prediction, and more
- UCLA Football: Highlights from Chip Kelly’s appearance on the Jim Rome Show
But when that style is based on “bend but don’t break”, essentially allowing lesser yards to avoid giving up huge chunks of yards, and that team has many of their best players injured, that team could essentially break.
Tom Bradley’s defense probably suffered one of their worst performances this weekend after they gave up 559 yards to Memphis. The surprising things is that it wasn’t the run defense (which hasn’t been tops under Bradley) that underperformed, it was the pass defense.
UCLA has had some of the best secondaries since Mora took over. They did well against Texas A&M and Hawaii, but got completely cut up by Memphis who threw for 398 yards.
Injuries had a huge impact on the defense. Jaleel Wadood and Kenny Young did not play against Memphis while Boss Tagaloa and Adarius Pickett eventually ‘returned from injury’. But it got even worse as standout freshman Jaelan Phillips got his ankle rolled and was in a walking boot after the game.
That means a lot of young inexperienced players are going to get a chance to play and possibly get a lot of experience all at once. Though they have talent, they need direction. Unfortunately, that direction is down unless the coaching staff can turn things around.