In what was supposed to be a historic BIG-10 debut for the UCLA Bruins at the “Granddaddy of them all,” turned into an existential crisis about the state of the program by night’s end. UCLA, who was surprisingly a 3.5-point underdog at kickoff in their home opener to an Indiana team that went 3-9 last season, stunningly and spectacularly fell by 29 points to a merciful score of 42-13. Here are three major takeaways as the Bruins must now pick up the pieces moving forward.
UCLA Bruins Defensive Concerns Become Realities
Will and I discussed this on “The Bruin Bible” earlier in the week that this game would ultimately be decided by the first and third levels of UCLA’s defense. The linebackers would play as supplements and containers but this matchup was all about the Bruin front four setting the edge and generating a pass rush, while its secondary needing to play physical denial of the football.
Both units struggled mightily, as Hoosiers’ quarterback Kurtis Rourke was surgical in going 25 for 33 with 307 yards, four touchdowns, and zero interceptions. The two defining statistics of this battle were Indiana’s third down conversion percentage and the Bruins’ sack output. For the former, Indiana went a staggering 9/12 on third down, many of which were 7+ yards, while UCLA put up a goose egg in the sack department. Translation – the UCLA Bruins’ inability to make Rourke even slightly uncomfortable at any point in the game, particularly on key inflection points in drives, resulted in him decimating the back end of the defense with a plethora of throws at all levels.
We Have a Coaching Problem Here
We didn’t even need to wait one offensive play for the personification of this team’s coaching challenges to be glaringly obvious. On UCLA’s very first formation, after having seven minutes of game time to settle in courtesy of a long Hoosiers opening drive, and two weeks to prepare given the bye week after the Hawaii trip, Ethan Garbers and TJ Harden were inexplicably not on the same page of what the first play was intended to be. The former thought throw, the latter assumed run and what ensued was Harden’s elbow knocking the ball out of Garbers’ hand. The Hoosiers recovered and in retrospect, the game for all intents and purposes, was over right then.
Garbers, after four years in the program, once again had a perplexing performance with a meager 137 yards and an interception to go with the aforementioned “forced” fumble. The conversation about head coach DeShaun Foster going through on-the-job training at the expense of Bruin fans’ EKGs is deafening, but perhaps more problematic is Eric Bieniemy’s offensive strategy.
Through two games, UCLA is only averaging 14.5 points per game, Garbers is the team’s leading rusher, the UCLA Bruins’ most potent wide receiver, J. Michael Sturdivant, had zero catches on Saturday and has 36 receiving yards on the season, TJ Harden is averaging a paltry 2.7 yards per carry and decorated Swiss army knife Keegan Jones only has eight touches over two games.
The questions of what Bieniemy’s actual role was on those famed Andy Reid-led Kansas City Chiefs offenses are getting more poignant.
Where’s The School Spirit?
The one thing Bruins’ fans seemingly could count on at the outset of the Foster era was a revived game day atmosphere with an infusion of energy and exuberance in the football program. Chip Kelly after all left fans disengaged and disillusioned with his lack of interpersonal dynamics. However, Saturday night saw only a smidge over 47,000 attendees at the Rose Bowl, a significant amount of whom were Hoosier fans with visibly concentrated sections of red. The hyped redesign of the student section seemed to create a diluted and fragmented fan experience.
Perhaps the most painful moment of Saturday night was not the score, the style of play, nor the decision-making…rather, tangibly hearing booming lyrics of “goodbye” from Indiana fans with five minutes left in the game as the Hoosiers were running out the clock and running up the score.
The football program is clearly at an existential place of reflection with all elements needing to be reestablished from the studs. With a three-game gauntlet ahead beginning with 16th-ranked LSU in Baton Rouge and with the ESPN Football Prediction Index (FPI) having UCLA as an underdog in all remaining games, things seem as though they will get a lot worse before they get better.
Heads up. Chin up. Fours Up.