Let’s start with the most important piece of information from yesterday’s scrimmage. Bruins got out of the deal fairly healthy:
Defensive end Korey Bosworth was the only known injury in the scrimmage. He sprained his left ankle, but it is not considered serious, Neuheisel said.
I am sure the beat reporters and number of fans went down to Westwood to look for offensive fireworks. But as expected the coaches kept the affair totally vanilla sitting out lot of their key offensive players. For example, Kahil Bell carried the ball only once (for a loss) and wasn’t ask to do much for rest of the day.
For the stat geeks who are wondering how our QB did, Chris Forcier was 7-13 for 71 yards, 0 touchdowns and 1 interception:
Forcier Connects. Photo Credit: dabruins07's photostream (flickr)
While Kevin Craft as 8-18 for 93 yards and 3 picks. He did have a 14-yard rushing touchdown:
Craft heads for the endzone. Photo Credit: dabruins07's photostream (flickr)
And a 3-yard touchdown pass to Marcus Everett. Check out all the (meaningless) stats here.
As Ted Miller from WWL noted we shouldn’t read all that much out of Craft’s TD because no was allowed to hit him and Harwell and Price were out during that play. With that said here is Miller’s assessment of QB’s performance from yesterday:
Craft was outplayed much of the day by redshirt freshman Chris Forcier, who completed 7 of 13 for 71 yards with an interception and fumbled snap.
At one point, Craft had produced just one first down compared to six from Foricer.
But Craft did provide the offense's lone highlight, an eight-play, 68-yard drive in which he went 4-for-4 and tossed a short TD pass to Marcus Everett.
"I thought [Craft] passed the test of not going into the tank because it's not going well," Neuheisel said.
Said offensive coordinator Norm Chow, "All in all, I thought he handled himself well."
The drive that Craft put together was somewhat noteworthy because that came after his six straight incompletions. That's why CRN referred to him "not going into the tank." He stuck with it. And before you get too excited about Forcier, here is a little reality check from CRN:
Neuheisel said the redshirt freshman still lacks a grasp of the offense.
"It's just like you wouldn't let your son drive until he knew all the rules, but you know he can drive someday," Neuheisel said.
I think Forcier will have his moments at UCLA before it's all said and done. Again, right now there is really no reason to be discouraged from a defensive dominated scrimmage from yesterday. Here is Chow with perspective on this type of vanilla affair:
Offensive coordinator Norm Chow noted that the offense was without a few key players and that he didn't allow his quarterbacks to call audibles.
Still, the Bruins-by-the-numbers seemed to add up to concern: eight sacks, four interceptions, two blocked field goals, one safety, one fumble.
"This is not a game that you evaluate personnel, this is a game where we make sure we get plays run and make sure we get ready to go," Chow said. "We don't play UCLA, you've got to keep that in mind. UCLA is not on our schedule. We wanted to run plays and get out of that thing."
And as noted in the very beginning, the most important news from yesterday evening (emphasis added):
"I thought the effort was good, but I was not happy with the way we pass protected," Chow said. "But we would do some different things come game time. All in all, we got out of it healthy."
Bruins now will need to get back to work and start focusing on Tennessee. Aundre Dean set the tone after yesterday’s scrimmage for what’s ahead for our boys:
"We have a lot of work to do before we play Tennessee, and that's the bottom line," Dean said. "The coaches know that, we know that, the offensive line knows that, the receivers know that and the defense knows that. It's all on us. We have to fix it and we'll fix it in good time."
Remember, if you want to take in any more practices this fall, Wednesday is the last day. Starting Thursday all practices will be closed, as Neuheisel and his staff will begin preparations for the Volunteers.
GO BRUINS.