UCLA Football has a tough obstacle ahead as they take on Washington. Here are three questions Go Joe Bruin asks as they enter the toughest game of the season.
This Saturday the UCLA Football (4-3) team travels up to Seattle to take on the Washington Huskies (6-1). Once again the Bruins find themselves on the road where they have yet to win a game this year.
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Will UCLA be able to finally get a victory away from The Rose Bowl? I’ll answer that question and more in this week’s edition of “3 Questions”.
1. The Bruins’ defense finally showed up against Oregon. Can we expect to see the same against the Huskies?
The easy answer is no. Last week UCLA went against an Oregon team that was down to their third string quarterback. The Bruins knew the Ducks were going to keep it on the ground and Tom Bradley’s defense responded emphatically.
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This week the Bruins will be facing a top-tier quarterback in Jake Browning and pretty good running back in Myles Gaskin. UCLA won’t be able to crowd the box on every play to stop the run. They will need to go back to their usual defense which hasn’t been too good for most of the year.
But with all that being said, the Sun Devils were able to almost completely shut down the Huskies offense last week so we know it can be done.
ASU was able to get to Browning five times two weeks ago. They also took away the big play limiting Browning to just 4.7 yards per pass attempt. So that means UCLA needs to rush an extra guy or two each play while still being able to cover the Washington receivers one on one.
Wow, that sounds even more difficult after typing it out!
2. Who will prevail in the battle between a great defense and a great offense?
The usual answer to this question is a great defense beats a great offense but this week I’m not totally convinced. Washington is ranked third in the nation in scoring defense allowing just over 11 points a game. On the other hand, the Bruins are in the top 20 for points scored a game.
The Bruins have been able to score all year despite have a limited rushing attack. That means every game the opposing defense has locked in on Josh Rosen and sat back waiting for the pass. Despite this, Rosen has thrown for more than 2,600 yards and 19 touchdowns.
So yes, the Huskies have a suffocating defense that will lock in on the Bruins’ passing attack.
But hasn’t Rosen seen (and mostly dominated) that the entire year?
3. Bolu or Soso?
Each week we seem to see either Bolu Olorunfunmi or Soso Jamabo taking the lead as running back. Neither of them has been extraordinary with Olorunfunmi racking up 316 rushing yards with four touchdowns while Jamabo has 315 yards and five touchdowns. Stat wise, both have been pretty much interchangeable so who should Mora go with?
Soso is the only runner of the two to have more than 20 carries in a game (21) this year. I would love to see either running back get 25 carries in two consecutive games to see what they can do.
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Maybe Mora would discover that he has a decent back that could complement Rosen’s passing game. If nothing else, it would open up things for Rosen as defenses would have to play the run at least a little bit.