Takkarist McKinley shot off the edge of the line, sprinted a few yards, then dove.
The sophomore defensive end came up just short.
Cal’s punter Cole Leininger just got his kick away ahead of McKinley’s outstretched arms, drawing a collective sigh of relief from the Golden Bears’ faithful in Memorial Stadium last Saturday.
It was a reaction McKinley would become used to hearing by the end of the game. His numbers against Cal don’t jump off the stat sheet – he had 1.5 tackles, one of them for a loss – but his relentless pass rush kept Cal quarterback Jared Goff and the Cal fans watching, in constant distress the whole game.
McKinley’s presence and disruptiveness in the pass rush aided the defensive line in arguably its most impressive performance of the year. The unit that was much ballyhooed before the season for likely featuring several future NFL players, but has underwhelmed for much of the season, currently ranking dead last in the Pac-12 with just 10 sacks.
That underperforming appeared to end last week.
“I think it’s just they want to inflict their will a little bit,” said defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich. “They’re tired of the way it’s kinda gone as of late so they’re creating the change.”
The change was a constant presence in Cal’s backfield and three sacks, though the Bruins came close to having even more. But that change was brought about by another change.
McKinley played more. A lot more.
After only being featured sparingly in recent weeks on special teams and passing situations, McKinley played what coach Jim Mora estimated was 50 to 60 plays on defense Saturday.
After McKinley’s standout performance, defensive line coach Angus McClure said he expects McKinley to maintain that amount of playing time, which he’s worked hard to earn.
“(McKinley has) spent some extra time before and after practice learning different techniques and it’s a credit to him he’s done a great job,” McClure said of the defensive end who transferred to UCLA just over a month ago.
“Obviously we all know he’s way behind the eight ball compared to the rest of the team with preparation and that type of stuff. So he’s caught up and I thought last Saturday showed.”
Now the challenge for McKinley and the defensive line is to replicate that success. Facing a Colorado team this week that has surrendered just 12 sacks this year – the fewest in the Pac-12 per game – means that task will be even tougher.
Having watched film of the Buffaloes, McKinley said he saw an area he could exploit, claiming that getting quick jumps and speed rushing Colorado’s offensive line could be effective.
Doing so, however, could come with a risk.
“They try to chop block you; they try to tear your ACL,” McKinley said. “To me, that’s dirty but to them, that’s their job.”
McKinley said the Bruins practice everyday at avoiding chop blocks – when opponents dive at a rusher to take their legs out from underneath them – and if they see chop blocks coming, they’re easy to avoid.
Playing a Buffaloes team that averages over 49 passing attempts a game and throws for 307.6 yards per game, means avoiding those blocks and applying pressure to quarterback Sefo Liufau will be even more important. But after last week, McKinley is so confident in the pass rush, he’s more concerned about slowing Colorado down on the ground.
“First thing you gotta stop the run,” McKinley said. “If you stop the run, they have to pass it and once they pass it, it’s pretty much over.”