The UCLA Football Bruins get another shot at PAC-12 North opponent this week when they travel to Seattle to take on the Huskies who are sitting in second place in the PAC-12 North. Get to know this Bruin opponent below.
Under Jim Mora the UCLA Football team hasn’t had much trouble with the Washington Huskies but that also is because the Bruins haven’t faced them since 2014 when they were able to beat the Huskies and Petersen 44-30 in Seattle.
Since then both coaches have been on very different trajectories. Petersen since that loss to the Bruins has won 26 games including six this season and has a winning percentage of 70% since that loss. Mora on the other hand has guided the UCLA Football team to 18 wins and a winning percentage of %51. In the past two years Washington has a winning percentage of 85% while the Bruins limp in with a %42.
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The Bruins have been up and down all year but were able to notch a solid win against Oregon last week. They have lost to Memphis in a shootout, were pummeled by the Stanford Cardinal and lost in embarrassing fashion to a team they had two weeks to prepare for in Arizona.
This year the Huskies had started slow but had reeled off six straight wins until they were shut down by the aggressive ASU defense. They’re coming off a bye week to prepare for the Bruins and as you can tell by Petersen’s record, he knows how to get a team ready. His Washington teams have not lost a game following a bye week since he took over at the helm. The lone exception? A pummeling in the 2016 College Football Playoff semi-final to Alabama.
Can the Bruins return to the Pacific Northwest and steal a victory from the Huskies who are going to have to address some injuries at key positions? Let’s dive deeper into this Washington team.
Petersen has a type. Going back to his Boise State days when you think of Petersen QBs you typically think of guys that don’t have prototypical arms or huge size but are incredibly intelligent and they protect the football. That’s exactly what he has in QB Jake Browning. His 73 career touchdown passes and 22 interceptions are absolutely ridiculous. This year alone he’s tossed 14 scores to only three picks.
Many assumed that with the loss of speedster John Ross, who was selected in the first round of the 2017 NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals, that Browning would have a difficult time moving the ball through the air and might take a step back. Well when you have a guy like Dante Pettis out wide you can pretty much throw the ball when you want to. Oh and Pettis won’t just make cornerbacks look silly, he’ll make whole coverage units look bad. Watching him battle with UCLA Football punter Stefan Flintoft will be a fun one.
There’s a steep drop off from Pettis’ number of catches and the next leading receiver. There’s also a position change. Hunter Bryant, a freshman tight end has 21 catches on the season at 15 yards a clip and one score. Will Dissly rounds out the top three receiving options but with him also being a tight end it’s clear this team will look to Pettis for catches outside.
Usually only having one major threat at receiver would kill an offense with opposing defenses able to load the box and double him forcing someone else to win. Luckily for Washington they have a ground game that tends to occupy defenders. Myles Gaskin and Lavon Coleman are lightning and thunder in the Pacific Northwest. Gaskin has the wiggle to get outside and the speed to go the distance while Coleman will come in and pound defenders into submission.
Of course none of this gets done without a very good offensive line and two weeks ago that’s exactly what it was. However against ASU the Huskies didn’t just lose a game they lost a couple of big names including their big left tackle. Trey Adams is a mountain of a man and a veteran protector on Browning’s blindside. It will be interesting to see if the Bruins try to bring more pressure on the backside to try and overwhelm Adams’ replacement whether it be senior Andrew Kirkland or Rs. Fr. Luke Wattenberg. You can bet you’ll see a tight end over on the left on passing downs to help out in pass protection.
Another mini game to keep an eye on is right guard Nick Harris. A smaller guard at six-foot-one and under 295 pounds, Harris wins with tenacity, leverage and technique. He can however struggle with power and against ASU he lost snaps to Tashon Smallwood and Jojo Wicker. The Huskies will pull Harris often as a lead blocker and he does it well. Think “supersized fullback”.
This offense incorporates a number of RPO concepts despite Browning being no threat to run. In that sense it’s very familiar to the UCLA Football offense. Rosen doesn’t keep the ball often but uses the bubble screen as an extension of him tucking the ball when the DE crashes down. They can however attack defenses with traditional power runs and intermediate strikes through the air that don’t overtax Browning’s arm. Play-action are a staple of this offense so eye discipline will be key to avoid giving up huge plays.
It all starts up front for this defense and for good reason. Defensive linemen Vita Vea and Greg Gaines combine to tip the scales at almost 700 pounds. That’s a ton of beef to move inside in the running game but these two aren’t just pluggers. They’re active in the pass rush department and can collapse the pocket with sheer power forcing QBs into trying to escape outside where they can be swallowed up by edge rushers. You ask a lot of an offense line when you almost have to double those two when they’re on the field and still get a push in the run game. Really does help you maintain a 2.2 yards per carry average.
You know what else helps you maintain the best rush defense in the country in terms of ypc? Active LBs that can fly to the football because offensive lines are occupied with that DL. Azeem Victor has returned from a broken leg in 2016 to basically pickup where he left off. A sideline to sideline tackler he can get into the double digit tackles in the blink of an eye. He’s also getting some great play from his running mate Keishawn Bierria who is one fumble recovery from tying the school record with eight. This front seven can show you 3-4, 4-3, and even some 2-4-5 looks.
This backend is where things get a little tricky. It was decimated by the NFL draft and injury but there have been some pleasant surprises. Myles Bryant has played well in place of the injured Byron Murphy who has a broken foot but now the Huskies will need to find another starting CB with Jordan Miller breaking his ankle against ASU.
At the safety position Washington has a heady veteran in JoJo McIntosh but the name that comes with a ton of buzz is sophomore Taylor Rapp. He was PAC-12 Defensive Freshman of the year in 2016 and he’s carrying on the recent trend of very good Washington DBs.
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Wrap up and Predicition
If the UCLA Football team is going to head up to Seattle and come home with a win they should borrow some notes from the ASU game.On offense the Sun Devils used motion in the form of sweeps to speedster Kyle Williams in the same way the Bruins have on a few occasions to Demetric Felton.
This does two things, if you give it to the sweep man you avoid running into the teeth of the Washington defense and you force those big DL to chase and tire. When they’re out of the game for a breather you run the same play again except this time you feed your RB to run between the tackles. The motion takes a defender out of the box and the defensive line as a whole is lighter making running the football a little easier.
The Bruins also would be wise to test the injury plagued secondary. Rosen is arguably the best QB in the PAC-12 so why not use your best offensive weapon against a depleted unit?
Defensively this UCLA Football team is in for a major fight. This running game is strong and if they attack downhill too aggressively they’ll be shredded by Browning. The Sun Devils were aggressive and brought plenty of pressure. While the Bruins could do something like this, the coaching tendency has been to play a “bend but don’t break” defense. However the offensive injuries for Washington and inconsistent UCLA defense dictate the Bruins should roll the dice in form of pressure.
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Despite what could be a huge win for the program and for this team it is hard to imagine the Bruins could steal this one with how complete the Huskies are. 35-24 Washington.