UCLA Football vs. Utah 2017: Post game wrap up and thoughts

In what might have been one of their easier chances to score one of the two victories they’d need for bowl eligibility, the UCLA Football team faced off with the Utah Utes in Salt Lake City Friday night. The results weren’t pretty.

This wasn’t even a tale of two halves for the UCLA Football team. They were already down to end the half but it was only 10-17 in favor of Utah. That score quickly spiraled out of control when the Bruins allowed Utah to score on a 75 yards throw and catch from Tyler Huntley to Troy McCormick.

Things didn’t get any better from there.

The UCLA Football offense that found mild success in the first half essentially came to a standstill in the second half with punt after punt after punt. That put a ton of stress on a defense that frankly was overmatched against Utah offense that frankly isn’t much of a threat to the rest of the conference.

It was a vicious cycle of the Bruin defense not getting stops which then took the offense out of their game plan and made them one dimensional. Utah capitalized on the offensive futility with pressures and a stout front and forced the Bruins to punt. Then when the Utah offense was on the field they moved the ball at will against a tired and ineffective Bruin defense.

Related Story: UCLA Football vs. Utah 2017: Halftime Report

Utah wasn’t done with their scoring. Not by a long shot. The Utes were able to score twice more in the third quarter to bring it to 38-10 and it wasn’t even just the points on the field being scored that hit the Bruins hard.

At one point in the game the Bruins had lost QB Devon Modster, WR Darren Andrews (whose injury looked severe), and DT Aniuu Taua to injury. They also will be without the services of CB Darnay Holmes who was ejected for targeting in the fourth quarter.

With Modster out the Bruins were forced to turn to third string QB Matt Lynch who was able to to drive the UCLA Football offense down for a score to make the final 48-17 but as lopsided as that score is I can tell you that it wasn’t even that close.

The offense was a complete mess with the Bruins going with a very predictable run-run-pass rhythm even when the game scenario called for a more open offense. Modster wasn’t a poor passer when given opportunities (8-12 103 yards and one score) but he didn’t get enough opportunities. The offensive staff seemed hell-bent on keeping this game on the ground and it really hurt the flow of the offense.

That scenario was only compounded when the Utah offense loaded the box essentially daring the UCLA Football staff to throw the ball and they continued to run. The defense on the other hand was out muscled and out flanked on numerous occasions but the major head scratcher were the number of blown coverage assignments.

In what seems to be the only consistent thing about the Bruin defense is ground given up in the run game. The Bruins surrendered 272 yards to the Utes. 153 of those yards went to Zack Moss who has run for over 100 yards only two other times this season.

We knew the UCLA run defense was going to be stressed heavily with the run heavy Utah offense but I wasn’t expecting them to be shredded by Huntley through the air the way they were. I guess we should come to expect that though given that being the narrative from this UCLA defense all season long. Play us with an okay passer and we will make him look like Andrew Luck.

Next: UCLA Football: Josh Rosen will not play against Utah

There are a lot of hard questions to answer moving forward. Will Jim Mora return next year as the head coach of the UCLA Football team? How will the staff change following the offseason? Can the Bruins find a way to get into a bowl with the last three games on their schedule? Will this team lie down? Or will they fight through to the end? Will we ever see Josh Rosen in a UCLA uniform again? All I can tell you is that it’s going to be a long week and a long look in the mirror for these Bruins.