Toward the end of the UCLA-Stanford game Sept. 11, neither team’s starting quarterback was taking snaps anymore.
But it certainly wasn’t for the same reason.
Cardinal coach Jim Harbaugh subbed Andrew Luck, his star quarterback, to protect Luck from getting injured, seeing as how Stanford had the game in hand.
UCLA coach Rick Neuheisel subbed his quarterback, Kevin Prince, after Prince banged up his previously injured shoulder.
But I can’t say I believe that the injury is entirely responsible for Prince’s benching.
“Tonight was an offensive disaster and there’s no other way to say it,” said a visibly distraught Neuheisel after the game. “It was an offensive disaster and we’ve got to look ourselves in the mirror, accept that and fix it.”
That statement, coming from Neuheisel, the ultimate optimist that we know and love, is enough to raise eyebrows.
Near the end of the third quarter, Prince’s backup, Richard Brehaut, took the field in place of the injured Prince and remained in the game for the duration of the fourth quarter.
But up to that point, Prince was 6-for-12 for 39 yards and one interception.
That’s not the way he wanted to bounce back from last week’s Kansas State debacle, and once again, the conundrum that is UCLA’s quarterback situation has yet to be solved.
Neuheisel mentioned after the game that Prince had a minimal amount of preparation, because he missed the majority of training camp with a strained
oblique.
But the bottom line is, Prince has to be better than this. The running game has looked above average in the first two weeks, and if it wasn’t clear against the Wildcats, it is certainly clear now. The lone Achilles’ heel of this team is the passing game.
Even though Stanford hung 35 points on the Bruins, they only led 13-0 at halftime. The UCLA defense was nowhere near as bad as the score indicates.
Akeem Ayers made several athletic plays from the linebacker position, and the Bruins secondary corrupted a good amount of Luck’s passes on the night. Luck, who is one of the top quarterbacks in the nation, completed less than 50 percent of his passes, going 11-for-24, and only racked up 151 passing yards.
“Defensively, I thought we played valiantly until we ran out of steam,” Neuheisel said. “We can’t leave the defense on the field as much as we have in each of the first two weeks.”
The UCLA defense came to play Saturday night.
The offense, on the other hand, did not.
Wait, let me rephrase that. The passing game did not.
Johnathan Franklin and Malcolm Jones both put on impressive running displays, combining for 125 yards on 18 carries.
“We’ve been, I think, a more efficient running football team,” Neuheisel said. “But somewhere in that, we’ve lost our ability to throw the ball and throw the ball consistently.”
You see how Rick keeps going back to the passing game? Don’t let the relentless optimism blind you, folks, Neuheisel knows that the passing game has been the root of all the UCLA woes so far.
Once again, Prince missed open receivers, and when his passes were on line, they were dropped.
“It is going to be a great challenge to get that accomplished,” said Neuheisel of revamping the passing game. “It’s going to take great work on the part of everybody involved. And it’s going to be very rewarding when it gets accomplished.”
UCLA fans want to believe you, Rick. But there have been little to no signs that this Bruin passing game is heading in any direction but downward.
Once Brehaut took the field, I felt a jolt of excitement to see what he can do, and I was also excited that Neuheisel was willing to make the adjustment. But after Brehaut’s first play from scrimmage, where he scrambled while carrying the football like it was a lunch pail and he was in the third grade, my excitement deflated back to frustration.
Maybe UCLA quarterbacks simply get the jitters in big games. Maybe they want to perform so well that they end up tanking. Maybe they just don’t have what it takes to operate the new pistol offense, which has succeeded in helping the rushing attack.
But whatever it is, hopefully Neuheisel can find the cure in a hurry. The Bruins are staring down the barrel of an 0-3 start, with Texas looming in week four.
And an 0-4 start would prove to be even more of a disaster than the Bruins’ passing game.