It's All Bruins As They Respond With Dominating Win Over Houston

he rebounded from a fumble plagued freshman season in a great way

on both sides of the ball. We won the line of scrimmage all night which gave our skill guys a chance to do what they do. huge win. sleep well fellow bruins

and not wishing to cast aspersions or be mean, but watching this last game out in the desert, I think someone needs to do some steroid testing down in Tuscon.

Franklin looked like MJD out there. Ayers took his rightful place as the leader of the defense. Larimore was a stud.

What a difference a week makes. I know one win does not a season make, but I feel so much better, as I’m sure we all do.

Go Bruins!!!!

great thing about OOC games is that they break down the myths. tall order next week on the ready, but the Bruins have beaten the horns before

the season just got more interesting

You know why? Because he played within himself. He made good decisions and didn’t try to do too much. The pistol doesn’t need a prolific passer, just good decision-making.

Our OL looked great, as did Franklin. Our D was stout, but still makes some silly mistakes. I feel much better after this game, but I wish this was our first game of the year…because it’s an uphill battle from here. With that being said, I definitely enjoyed this win. Let’s hook those horns!

I don’t worry about wins at Texas yet. I am content to compete with them for 60 minutes and whatever happens happens.

Defense did their part mostly. Seemed like much better field balance. They got after the ball and we even saw some gang tackling! Mobile qbs however give us fits.

Franklin has me eating my words. His best game in my opinion ever. He really battled for extra yards after getting through the line of scrimmage and he is even starting making people miss in the secondary.

I still would like to see a much more effective passing game. Prince is tough and it’s nice to fall in love with a big qb that can move like him, but I would like to see more completions and yards through the air. Of course it takes 2 to tango and once again the receivers are not doing him any favors. It seems like Houston had 3 receivers who know how to go and get the football and we have Rosario who does it once every 4 games. Harkey had a miserable drop and Everett if he wanted the football should have had a touchdown. I want some grit and tenacity from that position and the wrs need to get after that football.

Also Prince’s pocket presence needs improvement. Football experts out there is pocket presence something you can learn or improve at the college level? Is it a lack of peripheral vision or too much focus down field?

I miss a game and the guys come out of their shell in huge fashion. I feel like I just came up for air after being held down by wave after wave. There is another big wave on the horizon (Texas) but for now, I can breathe again.

Just came back from the Rose Bowl, what an awesome awesome game. Going to the game, we were expecting a very quiet dejected alumni section, but the alumni section was really rocking. We were loud and proud, and I loved watching the Houston QB’s have to continuously march back up to the line to shout audibles into the ears of their linemen and wide receivers over the sound of the crowd.

This was Jet Ski’s coming out party, an awesome game from him. The OL was great, and they deserve their praise, but Franklin was also running with passion and continuously breaking the first tackle. Oh and Prince’s rushing TD sent the crowd into a frenzy, seeing him punch the Houston defender in the mouth and basically run him over from 2 yards out for a TD was awesome.

Still a couple problems, such as Malcolm Jones’ fumbling, a few dropped passes, and unexcusable personal fouls. But all in all, great game. GO Bruins!

our defense seemed to consistently give up the 1st down. I don’t know if it’s the play calling or the lack of effort, but we gave up a lot of 1st downs on those 3rd downs. All in all, though, a vast improvement and a great game.

I was very, very, very pleased with the defensive performance as a whole; Bullough rushed 4+, and the rest sorted itself out. Whenever he rushed three, Keenum threw for 30 yard gains, and when the defense lost discipline (ie reverses/double pass), Houston made them pay, but, as far as I can remember, it was only 3 or 4 times that these blunders even surfaced.

But as for the offense, there is a part of me that is happy to see things clicking, but another than says our Swagger is kind of… undeserved? We just dominated, again for the most part, a mid-major front 7, that had major problems in the past. Texas, for one, as well as the rest of the PAC 10, including WSU will not be nearly as futile up front. I also wasn’t entirely impressed with KP and his receivers tonight, yet again… some very inaccurate throws, a couple of bad reads and checks, but that was technically Week 1 for him, so I was happy to see him moving the ball a little bit. Franklin… good job tonight kid. Seems you passed your virus down to Malcolm Jones this year…

All in all, I am happy, but I am not letting my guard down to a win like that. The defense (especially my boy Pat Larimore) told me a lot tonight… but there are many things that need to improve if we want to win next Saturday.

Note: I don’t ever believe in hoping that UCLA will be competitive; I believe in hoping that UCLA will win, which isn’t too far out of the question to finish 2-2 in this OOC schedule from hell.

Hopefully we can use some of this momentum going into Austin Texas next weekend to play the Longhorns.

wasn’t happy with the fumbles by Jones. everyone calling for more of Malcolm Jones, there’s your answer right there. a true freshman who can’t hold onto the ball and doesn’t have the blocking and all the protections down yet, and you get limited playing time. i would expect more of the same if and when Coleman returns.

and of course the personal foul penalties. unacceptable.

but all in all, still a good night for UCLA and definitely saw some improvement and progress

Besides those already mentioned, Thigpen was used brilliantly I thought, on both sides of the ball and made a lot of really important plays. It was fun to see him. I also, loved Marvray’s incredible catch…wow…but he still has some learning to do when it comes to the personal fouls. They just felt so solid out there. And I do think, like 03rdn9 said, some of that is attributed to playing against a lesser defense. But, we needed that. And I think this experience will provide more confidence so that our team can play at a high level going forward. They have been putting so much hard work into this season and I’m so grateful, especially for them, that they got to feel the success of that work.

There are things that still need to be fixed, as CRN said. I was disappointed that Rosario, again, didn’t seem to know how to jump, and Rahim really was having difficulty out there in space. These are two great athletes. I’m not so worried about Rahim, because he’s so motivated to improve, but I hope that’s also true of Rosario. Obviously, the team also needs to work on lessoning the penalties, especially the personal fouls. But, even there they made progress this week.

But, it is quite amazing to me how much progress they made in a week. I’ve been one of those who thought they would show to be a really good team, but that they moved this far forward so quickly is a great testament to the coaching staff and the players. They were a blast to watch last night. And for those of you not there, the team was always working the crowd, on the field and off, encouraging us to get up and make some noise. I don’t know when I’ve ever seen a team do that all throughout the game. And the crowd was totally loud and supportive from the get-go, not waiting for good things to happen. Even when we were way ahead, yelling on every defensive play and standing on every 3rd down. The band was all there and looked beautiful, the student section was active as always, and it was just a great night to be at the rose bowl.

1. I can’t remember the last time we had an 80 yd drive that ended in a touchdown. I know it goes back to last season, but even then it seemed like we had to wait to get great field position and then hope that we found the endzone. Watching our long, clock-eating drive last night was great. While it was run heavy, there seemed to be just enough short passes to keep Houston on its toes.

2. What a difference it makes winning the time of possession battle and keeping our defense off the field. They appeared more focused, wrapped up their tackles and I only remember one or two times where the QB was flushed out of the pocket on 3rd and long and made the first down with his legs. I don’t really want to complain about the times that the QB was flushed to the sideline and found a WR….eventually someone will get open.

3. All props go out to the Offensive Line. They are playing way above any expectations and giving our work-in-progress new formation the time to develop.

4. I wished that Prince had thrown a bit more to get his reps in. I thought his passing looked better than it has all season (not saying much), but some could have been a bit more crisp.

I hope the momentum carries over in Austin.

Hopefully this performance from Prince is one we can continue to see as he practices more. I also thought it was telling to see Prince running the ball more frequently and how it really opened up more of the Pistol. Against Stanford he had 5 carries (and most of those were probably sacks), while yesterday he had 10 carries, most of them runs by design. The point of the Pistol is to make the defense account for the QB on every play, so it was nice to finally see that happen. Hope they continue to improve heading to Austin.

The defense played outstanding most of the game with the exception of a few plays. CB put pressure on most of the night. It really paid off, even with Keenum. Best of all, the tackling was solid, especially the second guy who often pulverized the guy who got stopped but was still standing.

The offense played outstanding in the first half, but stalled frequently in the second with fumbles, an interception, dropped passes and bad throws. Marvray’s catch was the key pass play of the night. Most of KP’s completions were to wide open receivers underneath coverage. The running game, with KP running the option in the first half, was almost unstoppable. KP and his receivers are still, unfortunately, out of sync. The good news. The pistol does not require it to be successful. The bad news, the continuing subpar passing game remains a mystery. Moral: we cannot rely on the passing game to win, at least not yet. Against Texas we can win if we keep committing to the run to set up the occasional pass.

I will be going to Austin with high hopes. This was UCLA football last night. In fact, the Pistol reminds me of the power running of Red Sander’s old single wing teams with the tailback, the QB in the Pistol, being a triple threat, to run, pass or punt. We’re not there yet, but you can see a glimpse of our glory years coming back into focus.

Kudos to CRN for getting his team focused, disciplined and letting them play in a simple scheme that allowed their talent to shine through.

Did you notice how the team knelt in the end zone when they came out at the beginning of each half? Focusing and filling their passion bucket before play started? A very good sign. I loved it.

GO BRUINS! BEAT TEXAS!

that we can’t figure out who to give the game ball too. I was just looking through the stats from last night and I thought I’d share my favorite aspect of the numbers. Here are our leaders in passing, rushing, receiving and tackles:
 
Prince 99 passing 64 rushing Sophomore
Franklin 160 yds 3 td Sophomore
Marvray 3 catches 34 yds Freshman
Larimore 11 tackles 3 for loss Sophomore

Total yards gained by Seniors = 0
Total tackles by Seniors = 3

Not taking anything away from our offensive line, they played great. Just reminding everyone that called this CRN’s “show me” season – the best is yet to come.

At the end, when clearly we could have scored, went for the 1st down to keep the ball and then took a couple of knees. Hmmmm..who does that not remind me of?

Also, was at the game and am now watching the replay, so I didn’t see that Zumwalt had a great take down. Glad to see he’s in the game. Watching the replay you can really see how hungry the D was.

JJ Stokes in his post game comments mirrored what many BN’ers had suggested, that starting off with the run game (RBs and QB) could get us some yards and take some of the pressure off of the passing game. It really seemed to work and, even though the passing game has a ways to go, you could see that it had more of a calmness about it this week. Good adjustment by the coaching staff.

Long time reader, first time poster here at BN. I was at the game last night and I was impressed and disappointed. I was impressed with the turnout considering we started the season 0-2 and classes have not started yet. The crowd was fired up and was getting loud at the appropriate times. I hope to see a big turnout when we return to the Rose Bowl against Washington State.

However, while leaving the Rose Bowl, I was listening to the Bruin Report on AM 570 and was a little disappointed in the lack of positivity in our program. Our fan community seems to be dominated by people who espouse INTENSE NEGATIVITY whenever we lose, but are nowhere to be found when we show real signs of improvement and progress. Let’s step it up Bruin fans, I would like to see some more energy spent on positive aspects of our program, rather than just focusing on the negative.

That being said – I think Texas has displayed some weaknesses yesterday. I am really hoping the coaching staff can step up to the challenge like they did this week and make the adjustments necessary to highlight our speed and athleticism. My vote for MVP last night: Akeem Ayers AKA " the Freak", with that amazing pick and return at the goal line. Go Bruins!