This is what it was supposed to look like.
When all the ESPN “experts” picked UCLA to reach the College Football Playoff, this is what they had in mind.
UCLA’s defensive performance against Arizona Saturday was just that good.
Facing the most explosive offense in the Pac-12 and one of the most dangerous offenses in the nation, UCLA made Arizona look pedestrian at best. The Wildcats couldn’t even muster half of their average per game yardage against the unbending Bruins. Arizona’s seven points, scored on its first drive, came only as the result of UCLA’s own miscues – penalties.
If not for sophomore outside linebacker Myles Jack responding to some trash talk, UCLA would have held the NCAA’s No. 12 scoring offense scoreless.
The Bruins harassed Arizona redshirt freshman quarterback Anu Solomon all night, excelling in edge containment, an area that has caused them problems against mobile quarterbacks all year. But anytime Solomon looked to flee from the pocket, Jack or sophomore outside linebacker Deon Hollins were there to funnel him back to the middle of the field or force him to throw the ball away.
Solomon, who averaged 347.1 yards per game on 63.3 percent passing, was held to just 175 yards on 18-48 or 37.5 percent passing, Saturday.
All this to say, it was UCLA’s most impressive game of the season. Forget about the big win at Arizona State; the Sun Devils were still figuring out their offense without injured senior starting quarterback Taylor Kelly and had a weak defensive start to the season. Forget about ridiculous amount of penalties and the occasionally inconsistent offense, Saturday’s brick wall impersonation by the defense was the Bruins’ best performance this year.
The Bruins teased themselves with their own potential. If they carry their success over to the final three games, they can still finish 10-2 in the regular season, which is a very good record in a challenging Pac-12 conference.
But imagine if UCLA had figured itself out at the start of the year.
A UCLA team with the defense it showed Saturday would not have lost to Utah. It wouldn’t have been close.
UCLA would have put up a much stiffer fight against Oregon, though the Ducks are too talented a team to say with any real confidence that a stronger Bruin defensive performance would have changed the result.
But with the way the Bruins constantly applied pressure to Solomon Saturday and their adjustment to edge containment – which was a key area of weakness against both the Utes and the Ducks – it’s not too far a stretch to say the Bruins could have been undefeated, in the top five and deserving of all their preseason praise had their defense executed from the start the way it did Saturday.
It may have taken nine games, but the Bruins are finally starting to look like they were supposed to.