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We have talked a lot about the amount of sacks Brett Hundley has taken. In the Utah game, he was sacked 10 times. And there is this:
Random facts: #UCLA is 123rd out of 125 FBS teams in sacks allowed (23) this yr. Only other top-25 team in bottom 25 is Oregon (T-110th)
— Chris Kalra (@chriskalra) October 5, 2014
The commentators during the game kept bringing up the fact that no quarterback had been sacked as much as Brett Hundley in the last three years and seem befuddled to explain how such a thing could happen on a good football team.
I am sick of this. I am sick that this has not been taken care of. It is not a new issue. I do not know if it is bad teaching, scheming, or negligence. I just know it should not continue to be a problem. If it were a "this year" issue, I might be tempted to look at the players. But it is a "three year" issue, so I put it squarely at the feet of the group of coaches responsible for allowing this. All that said, I never want a highlight film that shows our elite quarterback and leader taking so many hits ever again.
Video made and distributed by University of Utah Athletics.
I did a little data checking and found the following:
- In 2012 UCLA ranked 118 out of 120 among FBS teams allowing 52 sacks for the season and 3.71 per game.
- In 2013: UCLA did better, allowing 36 sacks for the season, 2.77 per game, but still ranked 105th out of 123 FBS teams.
- And this year, UCLA has already allowed 23 sacks! 4.6 sacks per game, ranking 123/125.
- For 2 + years that is a total of 111 sacks for an average of 3.47 sacks per game.
I also was curious how we compare to other Pac-12 schools and found the following:
|
School |
Avg, (#sacks allowed, #games) |
3 Yr. Avg. to Date |
||
|
Stanford |
1.43 (20,14) |
1.14 (16, 14) |
2.2 (11,5) |
1.42 |
|
Arizona |
1.38 (18,13) |
1.3 (17, 13) |
2.2 (11,5) |
1.48 |
|
Oregon |
1.46 (19,13) |
1.38 (18,13) |
3.0 (15,5) |
1.68 |
|
Utah |
2.08 (25,12) |
1.92 (23,12) |
2.2 (11,5) |
2.03 |
|
Southern Cal |
1.31 (17,13) |
2.43 (34.12) |
2.6 (13,5) |
2.13 |
|
Oregon St |
2.54 (33,13) |
1.92 (25, 13) |
2.4 (12,5) |
2.26 |
|
Washington |
2.92 (38,13) |
2.31 (30,13) |
1.8 (9,5) |
2.48 |
|
Colorado |
4.17 (50,12) |
1.67 (20, 12) |
1.33 (8,6) |
2.60 |
|
ASU |
2.92 (38, 13) |
2.93 (41, 14) |
1.4 (7,5) |
2.68 |
|
Berkeley |
3.42 (41,12) |
3.0 (36,12) |
1.6 (8,5) |
2.93 |
|
Washington St. |
4.75 (57,12) |
2.46 (32,13) |
2.0 (12,6) |
3.26 |
|
UCLA |
3.71 (52,14) |
2.77 (36,13) |
4.6 (23,5) |
3.47 |
Clearly these schools have different schedules, even within the conference, so strict comparisons are not possible. Also, this year we only have partial data and a large part of that data reflects vastly different non-conference opponents. However, there are a couple of things that jump out at me that are relevant to our situation. First, UCLA is in the bottom three every year, so there is a trend. Clearly there was improvement last year, and that improvement can probably be attributed to personnel. But we were still ranked 9th out of 12 schools. Second, some teams have been able to improve their sacks allowed numbers over time, particularly Washington State, Berkeley, ASU, and Colorado. Again, shifts that are noticeable only this year could be a reflection of easier non-conference schedules. However, Colorado and Washington St. made dramatic improvements last year and are sustaining it this year.
Enough is enough!
Go Bruins!
