UCLA Football: Good and bad moments define Chip Kelly’s Bruin debut

The UCLA football team started the Chip Kelly era with a loss as many fans expected to see something other than what was presented at the Rose Bowl on Saturday night.

The Chip Kelly era did not start off with a bang, but a whimper. But don’t worry, it’s only the first game of his tenure with the UCLA football team. Let us not be hasty in our judgment.

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The Bruins were two-touchdown favorites, but they ended up losing by a touchdown and some change to the Cincinnati Bearcats in the 2018 season opener. There are a few things that went right, but it seemed that there was more that went wrong.

Let us start with the defense. They might have given up 194 yards on the ground (304 total), but you can tell that they were a lot more active and more determined to get into the backfield and disrupt Cincinnati’s offense than what we saw from last season. In 2017, the Bruins let opponents run all over them for 287.4 yards per game, so this is an improvement. Unfortunately, it is still Cincinnati who was without their top runner Gerrid Doaks.

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But there was promise. The Bruins defense might have given up several yards in the final three quarters after only allowing 30 total yards in the first, but they were also able to add four sacks, 5 pass breakups and 7 tackles for a loss.

DE/OLB Jaelan Phillips was especially active as he had nine tackles (one sack, one TFL) on the game. After returning from injury in the spring, he looked comfortable in the pass rusher position. CB Darnay Holmes was daring Cincinnati to throw it in his direction as he was able to swipe down two passes in the game. Adarius Pickett was the most active as he had 15 tackles with a team-high nine solo. Overall, the defense was not bad, they just had a few things not go their way.

This team is still getting used to the demands of the new coaching staff. Tackling seemed to be an issue a few times during the evening as well as run recognition. There are a few too many times when the Bearcats were able to bust up the middle and turn out a ton of yards on the ground.

The offense is an enigma my right now. Speight might have been the starter, but he didn’t exactly look as if he was in control of the offense despite having the most experience among all five UCLA quarterbacks. Unfortunately, he did not get a chance to redeem himself as he was injured and had to leave the game in the second quarter. He finished with 45 yards on 8/12 passing and one touchdown. He also had a crucial interception which directly led to a Cincinnati score.

With Speight out, it rang in the Dorian Thompson-Robinson era earlier than expected. DTR had more yards than Speight (117 for the freshman), though that can be attributed to the fact that he played in the game longer. The freshman QB also looked as if he had trouble directing the offense, just like Speight. It was just not coming together for anyone.

As for playcalling, there wasn’t a lot of surprises with the offense. Though many fans hoped Chip Kelly would bust out a lot of interesting formations and play calls, it seemed rather simple, possibly to suit the youth that was meant to execute.

The Bruins tried to run the ball as much as they could but did not get any consistency through the majority of the game. True freshman Kazmeir Allen had given Bruin fans hope with the run game when he broke off a 74-yard touchdown run, unfortunately, that lone run accounted for nearly half of UCLA’s total rushing offense of 144 yards. The youngster finished the game with 103 yards on five carries.

Surprisingly, UCLA passed the ball more than they ran it (37-31). But even the passing game left something to be desired. Speight (3.8) and Thompson-Robinson (4.7) had less than five yards per completion. UCLA utilized 10 different receivers for this game, with six getting over 10 yards, unfortunately, no catch went longer than 16 yards and there were no receiving touchdowns.

As for playcalling, there wasn’t a lot of surprises with the offense. Though many fans hoped Chip Kelly would bust out a lot of interesting formations and play calls, it seemed rather simple, possibly to suit the youth that was meant to execute.

But there seems like there was a little bit more that could have been done. Something was missing, and I’m not just talking about connections in the passing game. It seems as if Kelly’s system is ready for takeoff, but a few small things kept it grounded.

With a week until Oklahoma, Kelly has time to look at game film and see what went wrong with this plan. Though it will take a miracle to beat the Sooners, Kelly can make it interesting by dialing up the game plan.