Noel Mazzone walked into the Rose Bowl media room munching on a Diddy Riese cookie after UCLA’s third-highest single-game passing total in school history. Despite the sweet nature of his post-game snack, the offensive coordinator made little effort to sugarcoat the words coming out of his mouth about an offensive performance for which he had lukewarm feelings.
Mazzone said that the game, at times, featured everything from bad decisions from his quarterback to instances of poor blocking and subpar play-calling.
To Cal’s credit, he pointed out how the Golden Bears were determined to make the Bruins throw the football, a goal that proved successful in how Saturday wound up being UCLA’s worst rushing performance this year. Cal limited the Bruins to just 78 rushing yards.
While UCLA got little rhythm going on the ground, with its longest run going for 11 yards, an effective short passing game kept the team going with its skill position players’ speed and elusiveness.
Mazzone thought that UCLA’s lack of shorter passes stymied his team against an aggressive Utah blitz, and the team emphasized the strategy against a Cal team that he saw was committing extra defenders to stop the run.
“We kind of didn’t have a lot of it in the game plan the week before, I thought it hurt us,” Mazzone said. “… (Redshirt sophomore quarterback Brett Hundley) kind of overdid it a little bit at times. Brett likes (the short routes) … He throws that pass really well, pulls it out and gets the pass out to those guys quickly.”
Mazzone’s play-calling seemed to favor passes stemming from motions into or originating from the backfield, especially in the first half. Redshirt sophomore running back Steven Manfro and sophomore wide receiver Devin Fuller proving to be the main beneficiaries on a few highlight plays.
Right before the end of the first quarter, Manfro evaded three tacklers on a 24-yard catch and run, putting the Bruins in Golden Bear territory during UCLA’s second touchdown drive. Manfro’s gain came on a swing route, a passing design in which he opened his hips and ran directly toward the sideline, parallel to the line of scrimmage out of the backfield, catching a pass for little to no initial gain.
Fuller capitalized on two similar, consecutive routes on UCLA’s first scoring drive, netting 31 yards and UCLA’s first touchdown during a first quarter sequence. His touchdown showcased him evading a defender with a juke move, then sprinting past another Golden Bear for the score.
Fuller also hauled in a short pass from Hundley after dragging across the field, and made Cal pay for losing sight of him. Fuller broke off his route, waited for the pass, then ran up the sideline for a 35-yard gain in the 3rd quarter. The gain was UCLA’s second longest of the game.
Fuller said that his drag route, which he has run to success numerous times this season, is one of Hundley’s primary option when faced with a blitz.
Though Jordon James, a redshirt junior running back who did not play Saturday because of a sprained ankle, stated that UCLA’s offensive identity revolves gaining tough yards on the ground, fellow running back Damien Thigpen sees no problem with UCLA gobbling up yards with short passes, versus grinding out yards with runs.
Thigpen, a redshirt senior, notched his first carry since tearing his ACL last November on a short, backward pass from Hundley that was eventually ruled as a run.
“As long as we’re moving the ball consistently, it doesn’t really affect us,” said Thigpen, whose carry went for 10 yards. “As running backs, we want to run the ball, but (if) we hit intermediate routes, as long as our offense moves like that machine we can be, then everything works.”
It should be noted, that Thigpen’s only two touches resulted in first downs. Further, had Hundley thrown even a HALF decent pass – on the only other play Thigpen was targeted – Damien would have scored; welcome back, Speed Merchant!