UCLA Football: The good, the bad and the Bruins vs. Oklahoma (2018)
The UCLA football team lost big to Oklahoma, but there a few good takeaways as well as bad. Here is the good, the bad and the Bruins against the Sooners.
Ok, the UCLA football team lost 49-21 to the Oklahoma Sooners, but was it that bad? OU is the 6th best team in the nation and for a while, the Bruins were hanging with them.
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Heck, the Bruins started the game leading 7-0, so a few things went right. Still, the Bruins lost by four touchdowns and showed they have a way to go. So with that, let us look at…
The Good
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On offense, it was nice that there was no doubt about who was leading the team as QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson got his first start and played a complete game with Wilton Speight out. DTR built off of his 117-yard passing performance with 254 against Oklahoma. He even improved on his passing yards per play. Against Cincinnati, he had under five yards per pass. Against Oklahoma, it moved up to 9.8.
On defense, the Bruins held Oklahoma to 179 yards on the ground. Last week, OU put up over 300 on Florida Atlantic. For a team that had one of the worst rushing defenses in the country last year, that is quite an improvement.
The Bad
The offense once again had a hard time running the ball. UCLA only had 129 yards n the ground as the offensive line was not able to open holes, let alone hold back the pressuring Sooner rush. Though UCLA had two rushing touchdowns (both by Bolu Olorunfunmi), they are going to need to improve on the ground game, especially when they face tough rushing defenses.
On defense, there were improvements, but the pass rush could not penetrate the OU O-line. Kyler Murray threw for 306 yards which are not good considering how lauded the Bruins passing D has been. On top of that, the Bruins had a lot of bad penalties which helped Oklahoma’s efforts. That has to change going forward.
The Bruins
On offense, El Bruin Grande has to be DTR. Despite getting sacked, hit and pressured the entire game, this true freshman stuck it out and put up some big numbers in his first career start.
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On defense, the top Bruin was Adarius Pickett. He seemed to be everywhere on the field as he stopped the run, defended the pass and helped keep the Bruins’ defense in this against one of the best offenses in the nation with seven total tackles.