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UCLA Football: Play call/outcome analysis from the Arizona game

By Chris Osgood

PASADENA, CA - OCTOBER 20: Head coach Chip Kelly of the UCLA Bruins congratulates his players after his team scored a touchdown during the first half of the NCAA college football game against the Arizona Wildcats at the Rose Bowl on October 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA - OCTOBER 20: Head coach Chip Kelly of the UCLA Bruins congratulates his players after his team scored a touchdown during the first half of the NCAA college football game against the Arizona Wildcats at the Rose Bowl on October 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /
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PASADENA, CA – OCTOBER 20: Tight end Devin Asiasi #86 of the UCLA Bruins catches a touchdown pass during the first half of the NCAA college football game against the Arizona Wildcats at the Rose Bowl on October 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images)
PASADENA, CA – OCTOBER 20: Tight end Devin Asiasi #86 of the UCLA Bruins catches a touchdown pass during the first half of the NCAA college football game against the Arizona Wildcats at the Rose Bowl on October 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /

Spotlight Drive

The 14th and next-to-last drive of the game created the winning endgame situation.  When they were trailing and needed a score late, they went for four straight 1st downs (aided by a face-mask penalty on their lone unsuccessful play) straight to the end zone.  This drive featured minimal substitution, 3 different skill players advancing the ball, and had a perfect 50/50 run-pass balance to achieve 15.0 YPP with a 75% success rate.  A lot of the attention was justifiably on the 15th clock-killer drive, but this quick gem set up that drive.

Personnel

Personnel tracking is starting to become an uninteresting subject; they used 11 personnel 73% of the time vs Arizona.  11’s performance mirrors the overall game look because of its high usage.  13 and 10 showed up for only a single play each.  12 personnel (2 TE) was really bad this week.

RB playing Time and Alignment

Similar to 11 personnel, Kelley’s usage dominance makes the RB rotation a little less interesting.  Irby got all 7 of his snaps on the end of 1st half 2 minute drill drive.  The hurry up approach to this drive kept him from getting any carries.  Kaz Allen at least got a touchdown catch for his 4 plays.

The offense got really burned this week by their run predictability when operating under center (26% success rate, 3.2 YPP).  This has got to be a tendency that Chip plans to break when needed.  I don’t know why you would bother to run a single pistol play.  I doubt they repped that one until they couldn’t get it wrong this week (one run for -3 yards).

When the RBs creep up to be next to the QB in the shotgun (instead of staggered slightly behind in hybrid), they are either pass protecting or excited to run their routes.  This has been and could continue to be a pass-tell.  I don’t know if this is Chip’s design or the RBs just being undisciplined, but all 3 of them (Kelley, Allen, Irby) do it.