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If you bought tickets to Palo Alto for another Pac-12 championship game after the Ducks choked hard in Tucson against the Mildcats, you better bring some shade of red with you, because unless the Bruins turn it around real fast, it'll be the Sun Devils heading up north to take on Stanford for a berth in the Rose Bowl. Or, maybe someone with a ticket to the Kraft Who Gives a F**k Bowl in San Francisco will trade with you, since that's where this season seems to be going, especially with Southern Cal firing on all cylinders under Orgeron. At the half, our Bruins are well behind 35-13.
Jim Mora's team came out unprepared and, except for the first offensive play of the game, has looked completely inept on both sides of the ball. If not for Jeff Ulbrich's special teams unit (why the hell has Ishmael Adams not been returning the ball all year long?!) giving Hundley's offense great field position (and thus forcing Arizona State to drive longer to score), this could be a lot worse. The Sun Devils have dominated the Bruins on both sides of the ball and it's clear Todd Graham is here to beat UCLA down. To end the half, the Bruins (sprung by a huge Adams return) once again stalled and settled for a FG. Arizona State, on the other hand, drove down the field for a TD. Todd Graham plays to win. Jim Mora is playing not to lose.
Myles Jack has been pulled from his defensive duties, where he was one of the most outstanding linebackers in the whole country and been tasked with exclusively running the ball in Noel Mazzone's vanilla, predictable offense. The net effect? The offense still looks as terrible as it has against solid defenses (read: Stanford) despite Jack's hard-running, but now the defense looks lost and is sorely missing his dynamic athleticism. Great call Jim: you've f**ked up both units in one single coaching decision. Look at the silver lining folks: with Brett Hundley missing wide open receivers on national TV, anyone who still thinks he's NFL ready will sound about as sane as Dennis Rodman when he talks about how awesome Kim Jong-un is.
Well, the first half was a total joke, so let's see if Jim has anymore of that second-half magic to conjure up, or else the hunt for the Rose Bowl will end, ironically, at the Rose Bowl tonight. This is your second-half thread. Fire away in the comments sections.
GO BRUINS