Now that the emotion of Saturday’s loss has faded let Go Joe Bruin return you to the Washington game to provide you with three UCLA Football plays that sum up that loss to the Huskies.
It was an ugly loss for the UCLA Football team there’s no denying that. The run defense has been consistently far below par and that continued. The Offense, usually the saving grace of this team fell flat against a strong Washington defense and QB Josh Rosen was knocked out of the game.
The entire game from start to finish featured a handful of good plays by the Bruins and buckets of underwhelming play by them too.
There’s a number of plays that helped shape that game but we are going to show you three plays that essentially epitomized this game for the Bruins. If all you see are these three plays you’d have a good idea what the rest of the game looked like for the UCLA Football team.
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1. No Sharp Edges
It only makes sense that we start with the very first play of the game. The Bruins won the toss and deferred to the second half so we got to the see the Bruin defense right away. Coming into this game we knew that the UCLA Football defense had struggled mightily with run defense all season long. We also knew the Washington Huskies would not shy away from the ground attack despite losing their starting left tackle in their previous game.
The Bruins came out in a 3-4 front with Kenny Young and Krys Barnes as the inside linebackers. Keisean Lucier-South and Marcus Moore made up the edges with Jacob Tuioti-Mariner, Boss Tagaloa and Chigozie Nnoruka as your down linemen. The Bruins used this defensive formation against Memphis to slow the read-option running attack and it actually worked well.
The part of the play I want you to focus on is the left side of the line of scrimmage. Right before snapping the ball the Huskies sent a man in motion on a sweep action. That caused Young to take a false step towards the sideline as he followed the motion. At the snap the right side of the Washington line blocked down to their left and pulled the right guard as a lead blocker.
The entire left side of the Bruin line collapsed down including KLS who was lifted off his feet by a tight end. Young was engulfed by the pulling guard and Myles Gaskin ran for a 13 yard gain.
If you can’t set a hard edge you can expect to be gouged in the run game. A defensive end, even a college defensive end, should give you more of an edge and not be so easily moved off his spot. He wasn’t the lone issue on that play though. JTM also was moved off his spot but in his defense it looks like he ended up having to take on a double team between the tackle and the tight end lined up next to him.
This wasn’t a one time thing either. This same scenario played out in the trenches at least three more times in the first half and more than a few times in the second half.
The Bruins don’t have the beef they need to be stout inside or outside and this play is a perfect snapshot of the UCLA Football run defense this season. They’re struggling at the point of attack and not getting off blocks which allows offensive linemen to get to the second level for big gains. Gaining size, strength are paramount as this team moves forward.
2. One step forward and two steps back
The UCLA Football running game was absolutely abysmal last year. In 2017 the production has been better and more consistent but clearly the run is where the Bruins struggle on both sides of the ball.
In 2016 it was plain to see that the Bruin coaching staff was trying to fit round pegs into square holes with this offensive line. A large portion of the offense early on in the year was centered around power football concepts such as a man blocking scheme power run plays designed to bully defensive lines. Troubles was and still is that the Bruins simply don’t have the type of offensive linemen to pull that off.
New OL coach Hank Fraley and new OC Jedd Fisch came in and at this point in the year have proven they know how to work with what they’ve been given. The offensive line hasn’t been nearly as bad as projected and Fisch has used his creative touch to find offensive success. However it’s still a work in progress.
The next play we are going to highlight is a run play and in fact it’s set up extremely well. The Bruins come out in 11 personnel or one tight end and one running back with three receivers to the top of the screen. Soso Jamabo is the running back and he’s offset with Rosen who’s in the shotgun. At the snap both left guard Najee Toran and center Scott Quessenberry pull and get out to lead block for Jamabo. The numbers are favorable to that side and it looks like the Bruins could gain some big yards.
However there’s a problem. Left tackle Kolton Miller has Vita Vea one on one on the edge. In this play Miller isn’t being asked to blow that defender out of the water. All he really needs to do is not give ground, just don’t get pushed backwards. He does. Vea is being talked about as a potential first round pick so while it’s a negative play there’s only so much Miller can do.
Vea is able to bullrush Miller back into the alley that was created by him and Toran for Jamabo with Quess out front resulting in Jamabo being tripped up. Like I said, this run game is still a work in progress.
3. The Beginning of the End
Unless you’ve been living under a rock then you know Rosen was unable to finish this game due to injury. The hard part is knowing what kind of injury it was since the UCLA Football program doesn’t typically release that information before they absolutely have to.
We all saw the bloody finger and there was some concerns about the forearm on his not throwing arm. A bloody finger on your throwing hand is basically a death sentence for a QB. The ball will be slick, you won’t be able to throw with any semblance of accuracy and any ball handling in terms of fakes will be precarious to say the least.
However there were also some concerns that Rosen may have suffered a head injury at some point in the game. If he did, we believe we have found the play that may have caused it.
At the 9:10 mark in the first quarter the Bruins are driving and are just outside of the redzone. They come out in 21 personnel or two backs and one tight end. Washington is showing six men in the box and the Bruins potentially have seven blockers if you include the tight end and one of the backs. Clearly favorable run conditions but that’s beyond the point.
Before the snap the Huskies show blitz but back out of it at the snap. They only rush four but all four attack the left side of the line and the pressure gets home with Vea splitting a double team between Toran and Miller. He sacks Rosen and although it isn’t the biggest hit anyone has ever seen Vea does weigh over 340 pounds. This is where things get interesting. Rosen then sits up and shakes his head like he’s trying to clear cobwebs.
Is that the head injury that many have speculated Rosen suffered? Him trying to shake his head clear there indicates at least to me, and I’m no doctor obviously, that he was dazed. Any potential head injury should be taken seriously and while guys will lie to trainers about them, someone should have spotted him on the ground during the game. The fact that he got up and continued to fight despite the beating he took speaks volumes about his toughness and competitive nature.
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Those three plays, not matter how minuscule they may be are perfect examples of how this game went for the UCLA Football team. What do you think? Do you agree with our choices or are there other plays you’d swap these out for? Let us know on social media or in the comments below.