UCLA Fotoball: Despite the loss, Josh Rosen was better than Sam Darnold

The UCLA Football team had several chances to beat USC last night and one of the biggest reasons was because of the talented Mr. Josh Rosen who out-shined his counterpart from across town.

The UCLA football team had a chance to beat USC last night. The Bruins were 15-point underdogs in this contest and they only lost by five. The Trojans won 28-23 in what was one of the most entertaining games of the series in recent years.

Though UCLA lost, what brought hope to the Bruin faithful was the play and leadership by junior quarterback Josh Rosen who had an amazing game. Better than USC’s Sam Darnold.

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Now I know you must think that I am riding a heavily-biased Rosen hype train, so before I continue, let me first say that Darnold is an amazing athlete. He has the uncanny ability to will his team to victory. He has incredible chemistry with his teammates and has a knack for making plays happen after an initial breakdown.

With that being said, Rosen was the better quarterback in this game on many levels.

The Bruins essentially limped into this game with a ton of injuries. It also does not help that there are a lot of Bruin fans unhappy with the coaches and want immediate change, though you cannot blame them. UCLA has only won nine games in their last 23.

Still, with all of that on his back, Rosen kept the Bruins in this game to the very end. Rosen finished with 421 passing yards, making 32 of 52 attempts (61.5%). Rosen also threw 3 touchdowns, but also had an interception.

Darnold, on the other hand, threw for 264 yards on 17 of 28 passing attempts (60.7%). He had no passing touchdowns with one interception, though he was able to get a himself a 2-yard score on the ground.

Additionally, USC’s defense is a better product than UCLA’s. The Trojans only gave up 235.5 passing yards and 401.6 total yards before this game. UCLA put up 501 total yards on USC, 421 through the air. UCLA’s defense usually gives up 499.0 total and 196.7 passing yards. USC only had 417 total yards, though Darnold did puncture the pass defense for 264 yards.

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With everything said and done, USC should have blown UCLA out of the water. They did not. This game went down to UCLA’s final drive, which they were not able to convert on. Still, the biggest reason the Bruins were in this game was Rosen. You could not have asked for a better performance from a guy that has not had the best time in Westwood. And yet he still toughed it out and almost came away with the win. That is the power of Rosen.