The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: Rose Bowl Overheard Edition
by DCBruins on Oct 10, 2011 11:00 AM PDT
in Football
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PrintI was at the WSU game Saturday. There is always a different perspective when one is at the game versus watching it on TV. While you definitely miss some things, you also get a feel for the game you don’t in person. That was also the good bad and ugly of UCLA fans and I thought I would try to describe the "vibe" I got at the game.
The Good
We won. I don’t think this was a "bad win" or a moral defeat. I was impressed with the way we overcame mistakes and did not let down after them. Two quick examples:
1. We stopped WSU 6 times inside the 10 to hold them to a field goal late in the second quarter after Joseph Fauria’s leaping penalty. No team should be able to stop any other team 6 times on first and goal. I realize it was WSU and not Oregon but I don’t care if it is SJSU, that is an impressive accomplishment. More so because UCLA is so emotional under RN that we always seem to let down after a big mistake. Not this time, the defense never gave up and was really pumped up. They were determined and got the crowd into it. The only time they let down was on the second FG attempt where literally I don’t think anyone moved to avoid another leaping penalty. It was great to see the team stay into it and the crowd as well.
2. At the end of the game, after Andrew Abbott's interception everyone in the crowd knew what was coming: three runs by Derrick Coleman up the middle. Everyone said it around me. Coleman would not fumble and we all hoped he could grind out a first down to seal the victory. But of course on third and 3, we committed a stupid penalty which made it third and 8. Most thought we would still run Coleman, set up for a punt and hope to hold on. I thought we might fake Coleman and run Prince but I was definitely in the minority. Instead we rolled the dice and were daring. Prince threw a nice pass for 12 yards to Josh Smith and the game sealing first down. When Prince went back to pass it was nervous city but we played to win, not to "not lose" on that call.
The Bad
To me the player of the game was Eric Kendricks. I have been waiting for someone to step up on D and Kendricks did. He was everywhere. I am not sure how many tackles he really got but it was great to see him run all over the field and be involved everywhere. The only time we stopped WSU and made them punt in the first half it was because of Kendricks who was involved in three straight stops. While this game is rightly labeled only WSU, he made me hope we have a defensive leader going forward.
So why is this in the bad? Kendricks does not start and only played less than half of the game. Now let me be clear, I do not want people to attack the starter Sean Westgate. He was second on the team in tackles last year and is by all accounts a hard worker. So again why is this the bad?
As my buddy said: "Who is the guy with one hand?" It was Sean Westgate. You see Westgate's right hand was heavily bandaged. It looked more like a club than a hand to tackle with. Yet Westgate was playing over Kendricks. Westgate was not having a good game but ,come on coach, he only has one hand!?!?
In addition to this being another week to not throw the ball to Fauria, RN once again played a hurting player over an arguably better backup. But let me be clear: When Westgate is hurt, there is no doubt: Kendricks is better. This is bad because it goes to prove that RN not only does this for Kevin Prince who he has started multiple times hurt but for other players as well.
Play the best player RN!
The Ugly
There was a lot of controversy over the booing when Kevin Prince came into the game for Richard Brehaut. I heard only a smattering where I was sitting. Any booing is totally wrong and those who did so should be ashamed. However, I did overheard something else. The guy behind me was looking at the scoreboard and said "Why are they showing Prince's 2009 stats" on the jumbotron. It was a logical question . Prince has played significantly this year and last but they put up his freshman year stats when he entered the game.
Of course that was Prince's best year statistically personally and for UCLA. My buddy answered under his breath "because that is when we played a real offense." Now he hates the Pistol as a gimmick but at that moment it was hard to disagree with him. Brehaut had just fractured his leg when he ran the zone read in the Pistol and always looks a bit awkward in the offense. Prince has become progressively worse in his career and it seems just a matter of time before he gets hurt again. If we played the 2009 offense (the only time under RN when we had a wining record), how good would this team be? Obviously we will never know but it seems some of the ugliness of Brehaut running and Prince's passing would be reduced if we were still in a "regular" offense.
Go Bruins.
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is Westgate the defensive communicator/caller?
I read in one of the comment threads about Westgate calling out the correct defensive plan on a play and Larimore not reacting to it. If Westgate is the guy who is ‘running’ the defense and is better at it than others, that might be a reason he plays ahead of guys who seem to be more impressive physically. Just a thought – in the words of Herman Cain, “I don’t have the facts to back this up”….
At the game, I remember seeing Westgate calling out defensive signals
But I don’t remember if Larrimore was on the field at the same time … will have to go back and look at the tape.
Re: Fauria call
That was a horrible call. That luckily only led to a field goal for WSU. Someone should be reprimanded for that call. I think everyone is in agreement with Kendricks. He should see way more playing time, not taking away anything from Westgate’s passion.. he’s a warrior. Whether he calls the plays’s or not, we have a week off to get Kendricks prepared. Having the best players on the field makes sense to everyone except the coaching staff. That’s what frustrates me the most. Nice write up. Thanks for the perspective.
DGB
by westwood12003 on Oct 10, 2011 11:55 AM PDT via mobile reply actions
In fairness to the ref
it probably looks like Fauria is climbing on someone just about every time he tries to block a field goal, especially if you are standing behind the O-line.
No Defense for That Call
It was the worst I’ve seen in some time. Looking at the game replay, Fauria ran toward line with his arms above his head and jumped straight up as the ball was kicked. He landed with glancing contact on a player in front of him, but not enough to knock over that player or to prevent himself from remaining upright. I have no clue what the ref thought he saw, but I’m not buying that what Fauria did was illegal.
The Vibe
I’ll have to disagree with you about the “bad win.” Most people expected UCLA to win, and while I am glad that we won, because after all, a win is a win, I was also a little disappointed. It has become obvious to me, and to a lot of people around me, Sec. 1H, that the problem isn’t the players but the coaches. There was a few good play calls, but for the most part I thought the play calling was horrible. A guy that sits a few seats behind me kept on asking, “how do you get two quarterbacks hurt every season? That’s on the coaches.” And to be honest, now that I think about it, it’s true. I just think that this was a “bad win” because it prolongs RN’s stay at Westwood.
The Vibe in Section 4
Was into the game…glad we won. A win is never a bad win.
But there is no denying that the fan base around me has given up on this coaching staff.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Oct 10, 2011 5:05 PM PDT up reply actions
Nice post ...
though I must add that it’s sort of sad that under “The Good” we mention a short pass on third and 8 — the sort of pass that every team at ever level of football routinely attempts. For most, it’s just what you do, for us it’s an out-of-the-box surprise.
I think he meant
That we passed to “take” the first down and ice the game, rather than just run it up the gut, punt on 4th and whatever, and hope they didn’t tie/win in the time remaining. The Good in this case was that we played to win, rather than playing not to lose.
well it is kind of like celebrating
when your drunk ____ (insert relative here) shows sober at a family party. It is something to celebrate!
Maybe they don't have Prince's
latest statistics. The scoreboard operators are idiots. Did everyone notice that the TV on the north end didn’t have the game summary information (score, down, yardage, position, etc.) for the first half? It wasn’t there for the San Jose. It was there for Texas (maybe in part to some of the e-mails they got from us), so you’d think it would have been there for WSU at the start. I noticed that it suddenly appeared during halftime. It’s as if someone said, “Oh, what does this button do, let’s try it out!”
by SonOfWestwood93 on Oct 10, 2011 1:33 PM PDT reply actions
I didn't notice that
I did notice though that they added lights to shine up at the retro scoreboard on the opposite end, making it far more readable during night games.
Hester?
Being at the game you get a view of the whole field and the way the whole team execuctes plays. Did anyone else notice how WSU was running the ball toward Hester? It seemed like 90% of the running plays were toward Hester, and he could not stop it. The few times they ran towards Abbotts side we had pretty good success at stopping them for a minimal gain. It seemed like they were changing the play to exploit Hester. I remember a few years ago teams were exploting Price the same way. Which begs the question when Price returns we will have two corners who can’t contain, or tackle. I know Price has improved, but Abbott is our best contain corner, and tackler. I don’t think Abbott is a better cover corner, but I haven’t noticed him getting burnt to often. Is it better to give up a little cover to be able to contain, and tackle better, or are cornerbacks only supposed to be able to cover?
Hester seems to want to hit guys
instead of tackle them. He tries to knock guys off their feet instead of tackling them.
Not Hester
Not Hester It’s actually Westgate. Hester did a decent job in run support yesterday..specially in the red zone when he was up on the LOS playing bump instead of the soft cushion. You are right though Achilles, he doesn’t wrap up enough and tries to deliver big hits instead.
The guy who actually gets picked on is Sean Westgate…you hate to keep pointing it out but there is no other option at this point. He never sheds blocks and gets taken out of plays on a constant basis. The only time I see him is running up to players and jumping all over them after they’ve made a good play.
I Disagree
I’m not saying Westgate is not a problem also, but my friend, and I were watching WSU key on Hester with the run, and he looked helpless. Although there was a quick throw to his side that he was able to make a nice tackle.
westgate
I haven’t been as critical of westgate as others have…..until this weekend. It was apparent watching the game from my seat that sean is just overmatched out there. One specific play stands out to me in which westgate got blocked and almost knocked over on a run play by the QUARTERBACK. That defensive player needs to send the QB a message if he’s trying to block him….not get embarrassed and knocked around. What really made it so apparent to me this weekend was the outstanding play of Eric Kendricks. He was all over the field. In fact on one possession Eric made the tackles on first, second and third down to force a punt. It is ridiculous that Kendricks is coming off the bench behind Westgate.
by Bruin_Al on Oct 10, 2011 5:35 PM PDT via mobile up reply actions
Yes and to add
I saw both and I disagree with you only in that it was worse and better than you say.
Westgate was knocked over by the QB, not almost.
Also on Kendricks. He made three tackles in a row in the possession I discussed above and was on both sides of the field. Wow.
BTW,
A bigger issue I have with the CB’s is that they don’t seem to react to the short passes like other teams do. I see our CB’s almost wait for the ball carrier to get to them before tackling.
I see schools like LSU where their CB’s see the short pass and immediately attack. They deliver hits that seperate the ball from the receiver.
Good point.
Was also thinking along the same lines, that we don’t jump/gamble on enough of the short routes to either break them up or go for an INT return.
I Agree
There was a few plays where Hester lined up 8 to 10 yards off the ball, and was backpeddling as soon as it was snapped, and by the time he reacted to the ball it was already caught. He got there just in time to push the receiver out of bounds for an 11 yard gain.
UGLY: attendance
Do NOT let the announced attendance fool you. The end zones were packed with kids from the “I’m Going to College” program. The real attendance was probably in the low to mid 40’s.
The GOOD: I think te “I’m Going to College” program is a great thing. They seemed to arrange dinner for the kids over by the Jackie Robinson Memorial Field (near lot I). The kids really seemed to have a good time. Proud to be associated with a university doing such a program.
by Bruin Dad and Grad on Oct 10, 2011 5:07 PM PDT reply actions
and a student told me they were giving away tickets to studnets
so that affected the attendance too
Good idea to give tickets to students
Get them out there to games. You don’t need to gouge any student any more than he or she is already getting gouged by “the man” in terms of tuition.
definitely a great idea
the student section was full and loud. I usually get my student friend to get me in and watching games there is so much more fun.
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