UCLA Football: Utah Post-Game Roundtable

1. Help.

Ok, actual first question: was the first half of this game the worst piece of football from two teams that you’ve ever seen in your life?

Markybcool: Yes, it was the most embarrassing Pac-12 game that I have watched all year long, and of course it had to have my Bruins associated with it.

AnteatersandBruins: I refuse to call this a game. It was a scrimmage. Watching Utah play in the first half was like watching ourselves play and it was awful. Mission Viejo HS was playing San Clemente HS about the same time, and that game was more entertaining.

Dimitri Dorlis: Credit to Utah here: they saw how bad UCLA was to start this game, and decided to match them drive for drive. That takes courage, and shows a real will to compete. Plus, this lasted a whole half - the third quarter of USC/Arizona was really painful to get through, but that was only 1 quarter.

2. Oh, this should be fun: rank the losses this season from best to worst.

Ted Baas: Well for starters I think the loss to Washington is the best loss considering how good Washington is (ESPN’s FPI ranks them as the 4th strongest team in the nation). Next I think I’d put the loss to Memphis considering how close that game was. The Stanford game was bad (405 rushing yards allowed) but somewhat expected so I’ll put that third. The Arizona game was bad but I think this week against Utah was the worst by far. A 31-point loss to a mediocre at best team is the low point of this season and possibly of the Jim Mora era.

Markybcool: I am not even sure that I can rank the losses because each one has it’s own distinct stench associated with it. However, based on the state of Utah football this year, this was definitely the worst defeat of the year even though Rosen was not playing.

AnteatersandBruins: This was the most despicable loss to date. They let the #6 team in the south hang 47 points on them. Just awful.

Dimitri Dorlis: This is the worst loss, if only because you can somewhat justify the other ones (Washington is a top 10 team, Arizona, Stanford, and Memphis are clearly better teams than UCLA). Utah came into this game at least on a similar level to UCLA, and completely wiped the floor with the Bruins. After this game, the order of worst-to-best would go Stanford, Arizona, Washington, and Memphis.

3. Reports are Josh Rosen suffered a concussion that knocked him out of the Washington game and kept him out against Utah. He may end up playing this week against ASU, but should he?

Ted Baas: It depends who you are. If you’re a UCLA fan who is hoping for a win this week, a winning season, and a bowl game then Josh Rosen playing is essentially corollary. If however, you’re thinking about Rosen and his NFL future, rushing in too early may be negative especially considering Rosen is a major contender to be the number one pick this year.

Markybcool: I support whatever decision that Rosen makes. I support him playing and fulfilling his obligation to the 2017 team. I would also support him making the decision to sit out and make sure that he is 100% healthy before playing again.

AnteatersandBruins: I think she should follow medical advice. No game is worth sacrificing your noggin.

Dimitri Dorlis: It’s up to Josh at this point, but I sit in the camp that he has absolutely nothing left to prove to the NFL and to Bruin fans.

4. Use your words to paint me a picture of the defense at this point.

Ted Baas: The front seven is cast of spectral figures; you can see them and you’re pretty sure they exist but they don’t seem to have any impact upon the material world.

Markybcool: The words that I would use to describe the defense this year cannot be printed in this article. The 2017 UCLA defense will go down as the worst defense that I can remember watching as a Bruins fan.

AnteatersandBruins: Worse than anything we saw under Karl Dorrell, and that was pretty awful.

Dimitri Dorlis: I actually made you art! Please take a look:

5. Did this game do anything to take the shine off of Jedd Fisch for you?

Markybcool: Not at all. Coach Fisch is not working with a full deck. There is no way that this game can be taken as a reflection of Coach Fisch.

AnteatersandBruins: A bit, but he let his back ups throw so that wins me over. I can’t stand it when all back ups do is hand it off (although we can’t because we can’t block for our runners, so…).

Dimitri Dorlis: UCLA went to a 2:1 run:pass ratio in this game, which makes sense if you’re trying to ease in a new quarterback, but doesn’t make sense if this team is trying to win football games. There was a ton of creativity in some of the play calls, but this game did make things even more obvious regarding the fact that the offense will only go so far as Josh Rosen takes them.

6. The Extra Point - Sound off!

Markybcool: There were all kinds of predictions for this team this year from pundits and people that love this program. I really thought that the addition of Coach Fisch and Coach Fraley would elevate the offense to another level. A level that would be able to compensate for a defense that I thought was not going to be good but average. Well, my thoughts on the offense were correct. However, in my wildest dreams I would never have thought that I would witness a UCLA defense give up over 300 yards a game rushing and almost 40 points per game. I literally cannot even fathom either one of those stats, but I have to fathom it because I have witnessed it this year.

AnteatersandBruins: I’m going to the games for the tailgates at this point. I seriously can’t believe we’re looking at another bowl-less season. This is not the kind of football UCLA should be playing. I was talking to my husband this week and he said something pretty poignant--Mora pulled a Tiger Woods. The wheels fell off when he started having problems at home and it obviously affected his professional life. Is is a coincidence that the season he gets divorced is his worst in Westwood? I don’t know. Up until yesterday I was looking forward to basketball.

Dimitri Dorlis: There’s a recent tradition in UCLA sports, particularly basketball, where an embattled coach would win a relatively big game, and people would start to say that things have turned around. Well, I think this is one of those games coming up. UCLA finds a way to win this game, which allows Dan Guerrero and his cronies to pull a Kevin Bacon in Animal House.