The way redshirt junior quarterback Brett Hundley held his ground in the pocket as a swarm of Utah pass rushers engulfed him was almost poetic – a captain going down with his sinking ship.
The Bruins may not have accepted their fate – a 30-28 loss to the Utes – but when Hundley was taken down nine more times, they struggled to find a way to avoid it.
In dissecting UCLA’s 10-allowed sacks, finding a singular culprit is impossible. UCLA coach Jim Mora’s post-game explanation – that all 11 players shared responsibility for the sacks as well as the coaches – was no coach’s cliché or attempt to avoid answering the question.
Between missed assignments on the offensive line, receivers not getting open, Hundley holding the ball too long and a lack of short pass play calls, the entire offense was out of sync Saturday.
After analyzing film, Mora said he noticed a weakness on the offensive line along the edges where the usually stout sophomore right tackle Caleb Benenoch and redshirt senior left tackle Malcolm Bunche didn’t play up to their normal high level.
But once Utah got into the backfield, Hundley didn’t do much to bail his linemen out.
“I take accountability for that,” Hundley said. “I (could have helped) get the ball out of my hands fast and (moved) around and stuff like that.”
Hundley did neither of those things, often seeming unaware of the pressure on him. Normally a creative scrambler, Hundley was able to escape the rush and get downfield only a few times all game. And when he didn’t, he stared down his receivers in the pocket far too long, an area of his game that has been criticized by fans and NFL draft analysts alike for years now.
On Sunday, Mora took a turn analyzing Hundley’s pocket presence.
“I think he could have handled it better but a lot of that pressure was quick pressure,” Mora said. “I think that any time a quarterback gets hit early and often it affects him.”
Mora added that the Utah defense did well to close up running lanes for Hundley to escape through, forcing him to remain in the pocket.
But the blame for holding onto the ball doesn’t rest solely with Hundley. UCLA’s wide receivers struggled to get open, and with Utah’s relentless pass rush, Hundley didn’t have the time to wait.
Junior wide receiver Jordan Payton said Utah’s press coverage was challenging, playing UCLA’s receivers close to the line and pressuring them right from the snap. Combining that with a dearth of play calls for quick passes left Hundley exposed.
Utah’s defensive front came into the game with a strong reputation and more than lived up to it, now leading the nation with 28 sacks on the season. In Hundley’s eyes, however, the sacks are something that can be fixed – more a result of UCLA’s errors than Utah’s strengths.
“We’re such a great team when we stay positive with what we do, when we don’t have negative plays,” Hundley said. “But when we hurt ourselves is basically when we have self-imposed things.”