The UCLA Bruins‘ first Big 10 game was held at the Rose Bowl against the Indiana Hoosiers. A big question in the wake of the absorption of former PAC-12 teams into this conference was, could they hang with bigger, more physical teams?
The final score of this game, Indiana 42 – UCLA 13, makes it look as if the answer to that question is absolutely not. But UCLA came into this game mostly well-prepared to stifle the Hoosiers offense. They had averaged 6.4 yards per carry coming into this game. UCLA held them to a very respectable 4.2 yards per carry.
UCLA Bruins Unable to Get Off the Field on 3rd Downs
But what ultimately was the Bruins’ undoing was their inability to close out drives. UCLA’s defense forced 12 third downs in this game, but Indiana converted on all but three of those.
Of course, first downs give teams more chances to move the ball offensively, but ceding third downs is also demoralizing to defenses. After all that hard work to get to that point, the defenders must regroup and start all over again. Not to mention the stress it puts on endurance and longevity over all four quarters.
This wasn’t the case against Hawaii two weeks ago. The Bruins held them to four of 14 third-down conversations, which was integral to UCLA’s comeback to win that game.
That was the biggest reason (outside of unforced errors) that UCLA lost against the Hoosiers. They racked up 131 yards on third downs alone. This represents 30.5 percent of all yards from scrimmage for the team. That means the Bruins gave up 14.5 per play on that down. Seven of the nine plays went for 10 yards or more and two were explosive plays of 24 yards and 33 yards. They also scored two touchdowns while facing a third down.
It was on these plays that Indiana proved to be superior in the trenches. They rendered UCLA’s pass rush ineffective and the defense also couldn’t come up with answers to beat them schematically. This put additional stress on the secondary, which is why Indiana was able to pick up big chunks of yardage on those plays.
