Bumped. GO BRUINS. -N

Let's start out with this:

I officially hate Arizona- plain and simple. I don't know if I was spoiled by Tennessee, but on my way to the stadium, 4 different fans made an effort to approach me and inform me that UCLA sucks. I'm not whining, but that was a little off beat for me. Then, inside of the stadium, I wasn't bothered too much, but this is what really bugged me: whenever Kai/Locke kicked the ball over the net in warm ups. The entire section cooperated to throw the football back and over the stadium wall. That's just blatant stupidity. I hope that 1,000 people is enough to prove to you that I hate Arizona and their entire program. Enough of this though.

UCLA Offense vs. Arizona Offense:

This portion is going to be a comparison of two counterparts, so I didn't make a mistake in the heading. To start I don't like to look at the yards total because that can warp opinions... although numbers don't lie, I don't like looking at total yards.  

Any ways, I finally understand what is going on here. Sonny Dykes was handed a pretty good offense when he stepped into this game, but his playbook tonight was of three pages:

1. Pull-Dive

2. End Around-Draw

3. Flood Pass 

That was it. That was all that worked. The end around killed us for a good portion of the first game, but a GREAT adjustment stopped them. Here's an explanation:

The end around play works because the second level blocks itself, but when the Bruins shifted down like they did, the motion-side tackle has to open up a hole, leaving Ayers/Bosworth wide open to make the tackle. GREAT adjustment.

The pulling guard dive was just money without Grigsby, smaller back, quicker cuts, money.

Flood passes drag every receiver to one side, Speed opened up receivers on the deeper routes, and timing routes caused interceptions.

Now, I finally get why UCLA has offensive problems:

UCLA flat out does not have the talent to run with these teams just yet

It was never as apparent as this. All the play-calling was thrown in today, but we just couldn't respond... no matter how much Arizona wanted to lose this game. We don't have as much talent, plain and simple. How do I know this? The problem wasn't just the QB's, it wasn't just the offensive line, it wasn't just the Running backs, it wasn't just the wide-receivers. It was a collective terrible performance. Everyone contributed to the loss. Every unit.

Nick Foles: I guess my opinion for good QB's has been warped because I have been a UCLA fan. Foles wasn't anything special, not saying that he's worse than any of our QB's, but he made some pretty bad reads, and just collapsed completely under pressure (which wasn't often). His throws weren't AMAZING, but none the less, Foles is better than UCLA's mechanical department.

Kevin Prince, Kevin Craft, Richard Brehaut UCLA QB's: Maybe everyone kind of figured out why UCLA hasn't succeeded in crunch time. The lack of a sufficient mechanical QB has hurt us in every single clutch situation. The reason Prince was benched was because he couldn't complete a pass, then Craft did better, but his receivers didn't respond, and his talent fell about 2 inches short of another shot at disappointing us, then Brehaut gets in and gets adrenaline induced tunnel vision with a side of ineptness. I think it was almost as if Neuheisel was just proving it to us at BN that their depth chart makes sense, each QB was worse than the next. (Well, Craft is Craft right?) I'm not going to expect any more from these guys because its not going to happen. It's a fact. I'm already on to next year, because as it stands, I doubt we'll win another game this year. But that might just be the pessimist side of me, I'm not sure yet.

UCLA's WRs: Abysmal. I don't even want to know how many drops we had. I have never seen so many people being lazy and half hazard about their routes, and following through with catches. Rosario has drifted in practice, which I can ignore, but when he jogged and turned late, only to find a decent ball right in front of him IN A GAME, that's when I start considering benching. That's why we have Gavin Ketchum in there. Embree drifted at some points, but kind of made up for it with some clutch grabs. Still, this unit needs an attitude change; again, plain and simple.

UCLA's Defense:

Well Bullough has definitely shown me a new side today. Adjustments, not aggressiveness is the most important quality of a defensive coordinator. I don't care, he made GREAT adjustments. GREAT. We were getting killed, but he made a GREAT adjustment to slow the play down. Then, we forced, we weren't handed them, we forced, 5 turnovers. All of them required some sort of awareness, some sort of talent, and we forced 5 turnovers, but since we have an abysmal offense, we lost. Simple: 5 Turnovers, without a doubt, should result in at least 4 scores. Nope, no offense to back you up. On the other hand... we did get burned time and time again, and key injuries (ATV, Hester) hurt in this game... big time. Viney was stuck in there in Bullough's prototype 2-3-6 defense on 3rd and long (quickly canned after Viney's blunder) and Viney got burned, I mean burned.

All in all:

I am happy where this team is headed under Bullough, not so much under Prince. Chow was handed pieces of parchment that had been severely burned and a bunch of un-dyed, un-cut fresh paper. Give it another year, then get concerned because as of right now, we simply do not have the talent to outscore/play any of the teams remaining on the schedule. The only competetive games that I expect now are @ WSU and vs. ASU. Which is still 5-7, but maybe I'm wrong. I've been wrong this entire year right?