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

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PASADENA, CA – OCTOBER 26: Joshua Kelley #27 of the UCLA Bruins is congratulated by team mates after scoring a touchdown against Utah Utes in the first half at Rose Bowl on October 26, 2018 in Pasadena, California. (Photo by John McCoy/Getty Images) /

Unique Formations against Arizona and Utah

Last week we highlighted UCLA deploying a Utah mainstay formation that Max Browne called “Doubles Tight” against Arizona. We’ll call it “2×2 Tight” to conform with our terminology. Here’s a reminder of what it looks like. That formation was deployed by UCLA against Arizona and then quickly abandoned like so many other strategies this year.

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UCLA used “2×2 Tight” (again, against Arizona) almost always with 11 personnel, but mixed in under center and shotgun. It was used mostly on 1st and 10 or 2nd and long, and less often on passing downs. It has a passing tendency, with runs being mostly sweeps to Felton. It had Fewer YPP than the overall Arizona game, but better success rate. Note Chip didn’t abandon this formation in the switch from DTR to Speight but did bail out on it as the game tightened up (only used 1 time 2nd half)

While UCLA gave up on it this week, Utah’s offense bludgeoned UCLA’s defense with it. This formation seems to have been popularized by the Rams’ Sean McVay, and is explained in this article provided by Michael Hanna.

This week that “2×2 Tight” morphed into “Trips Bunch Tight” against Utah. This formation brings a bunch (three closely clustered receivers) tight (next) to the offensive line. It was 56% successful which was another really positive outlier for the game. They used it exclusively with 11 personnel in the shotgun, in more diverse down/distance combos, and did not abandon it as the game wore on.

This formation is loaded with WR screen potential but was only used that way once (on the first play of the game). There was one weird play that looked like they were setting up a shovel pass to Felton, but Speight just kept it and ran for two yards. I couldn’t figure out what keyed Speight’s keep/shovel decision after looking at it a few times. Will “Trips Bunch Tight” be back next week, or off to the dumpster? There are the best three write-ups I could find on Bunch and Tight Bunch:

1)https://www.sbnation.com/2013/11/15/5107042/breaking-down-bunch-formation-concepts

2)http://insidethepylon.com/football-101/glossary-football-101/2015/10/31/itp-glossary-bunch-formation/

3)http://www.gridironstrategies.com/articles01.php?id=85

The one thing that rippled through my tight formation research was that they can run man routes on one side and zone routes the other side of the field, and use motion to ID the defense. The QB will then focus on whichever side of the field runs the optimal stuff for what the defense is doing.

My takeaway here is that Chip is grazing from the scheme buffet, mixing and matching parts from others (as every OC does!) in the P12, NFL, and elsewhere. Right now it feels very scattershot and too broad and not deep enough. This approach is more evidence of year 0 experimentation.