Each week, Daily Bruin Sports takes a look at the game film for UCLA football and grades each position group on its performance. This week, we examine UCLA’s 35-31 win over Colorado.
Quarterbacks: B
There was something interesting about Josh Rosen’s stat line against Colorado.
The freshman quarterback had 33 pass attempts – 11 on first-down plays, 11 on second-down plays and 11 on third-down plays.
Now, in contrast to the trend earlier in the season, Rosen actually performed the worst when he threw the ball on first down. Of his 11 first-down throws against Colorado, only five went for completions. But, as offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone said, it was a “famine, famine, feast” type of game, and two of Rosen’s biggest throws came on first-down plays.
Those two throws occurred in back-to-back fashion, to spark UCLA’s go-ahead touchdown drive in the fourth quarter.
The first was a 26-yard, double-move route down the right sideline to Jordan Payton. Payton didn’t have much separation from the Colorado cornerback, but Rosen put the ball on Payton’s back shoulder – where only Payton could catch it. The precise pass placement illustrated the NFL-level potential that Rosen has shown this year.
On the very next play – a first-and-10 from the Colorado 43 – Rosen hit junior receiver Thomas Duarte on a crossing route, 15 yards downfield. Duarte ran for 23 yards after the catch to set up the go-ahead touchdown for UCLA on the very next play.
Those two long throws were indicative of the kind of game Rosen had. He wasn’t nickel-and-diming his way down the field like he was against Cal; instead, he cashed in on the deep ball. Rosen went three-for-six on throws beyond 20 yards from the line of scrimmage, making it his best deep-passing game since the season opener against Virginia.
Still, even with his deep-throw success, Rosen had a few missed opportunities against Colorado. He clearly overthrew Payton on a 44-yard streak in the second quarter, and had two more overthrows on UCLA’s 10th drive of the game.
“I don’t know that he played exceptionally well (Saturday),” said coach Jim Mora. “But … he’s doing great. He’s making improvement, he’s making big-time improvement.”
Running backs: C+
It might be surprising to some why this grade isn’t an A, especially with redshirt junior running back Paul Perkins’ standout 82-yard touchdown run and his 31-yard touchdown catch as grounds for a top grade.
Make no mistake, those plays were stellar. But outside of those, the UCLA running backs put up a pretty meager performance against Colorado.
If you take out Perkins’ 82-yard rush out of the equation, the running backs averaged just 3.3 yards per carry on 22 attempts against Colorado. And if you take out Perkins’ 31-yard touchdown catch, they averaged just 2.3 yards per reception. Considering that Colorado was No. 102 in the nation in rushing defense, UCLA’s performance looks even worse.
Overall, this position group lacked consistency, and that was one of the reasons why the defense was on the field for so long during this game. Only four of the Bruins’ 13 rushes on first down went for more than 4 yards; none of their eight rushes on second down went for more than 4 yards . That’s not a formula for success against a top Pac-12 team.
Wide receivers: C-
UCLA’s receiving corps reverted back to a two-person operation on Saturday. Payton and Duarte accounted for 11 catches, and the rest of the UCLA receivers accounted for three.
Slot receiver Darren Andrews came back down to earth a little bit after posting a 100-yard performance against Stanford and a five-reception performance against Cal. The sophomore only had two catches for 20 yards against Colorado.
Aside from Andrews, UCLA’s other top candidate for a new receiving standout – senior Devin Fuller – injured his ankle early in Saturday’s game and didn’t return.
One of the main problems for the UCLA receivers was gaining separation. Whether it was bubble screens or deep streaks, Rosen rarely had a wide open throw.
Offensive line: B-
This was a patched-up, injury-riddled group on Saturday.
Redshirt freshman Kolton Miller was in his first career start at right tackle. The reason Miller was there was because the starting right tackle – junior Caleb Benenoch – had to move over to right guard.
The reason Benenoch was at right guard was because the starting right guard – junior Alex Redmond – was out because of “personal reasons,” according to Mora.
That makeshift lineup took another turn when Miller sustained an injury, forcing freshman center Fred Ulu-Perry into right guard and Benenoch back out to right tackle.
Ironically, the unexpected combo of Ulu-Perry and Benenoch on the right side helped set up one of UCLA’s best blocking wedges of the year. In the second quarter, that duo paved the way for Perkins’ 82-yard touchdown run. The running lane was so big that Perkins wasn’t even touched on the play.
After a pretty smooth start, the UCLA offensive line struggled as the game wore on. Rosen had to throw away three of his passes in the second half, as Colorado’s defense increased its number of blitzes. There was also the complete breakdown on the offensive line, which led to Rosen fumbling in the backfield and Colorado returning the fumble 33 yards for a touchdown.
Overall, considering how much adversity the offensive line faced, its performance was not bad. UCLA still scored four offensive touchdowns and had seven plays of 20-plus yards.
Defensive line: A
This was, by far, UCLA’s best-performing position group on Saturday. Sure, the Bruins only had one sack for 6 yards, but they constantly pressured Colorado quarterback Sefo Liufau into mistakes.
When Colorado had a fourth-and-4 play on the UCLA 23-yard line, late in the fourth quarter, defensive end Takkarist McKinley saved the game for UCLA. The junior burst off the edge and forced Liufau all the way back to the UCLA 40-yard line, before Liufau threw the ball up in desperation.
“I felt like something was coming (on that play),” McKinley said. “So I just stayed outside and was waiting for somebody to come back and once (Liufau) did, from there it was just, ‘Don’t let them get the first down.'”
And on Colorado’s last offensive play of the game, the UCLA front four pushed the Colorado offensive line all the way back into Liufau’s lap, forcing him into throwing the game-clinching interception.
The most impressive thing about the UCLA defensive line was its stoutness in the red zone. Colorado ran 19 plays inside the UCLA 20-yard line, but only averaged 2.2 yards on those plays. A big reason for that low number was UCLA’s strength up front.
Linebackers: B
In a game filled with injuries for UCLA, this position group was hit the hardest.
At one point, true freshman Josh Woods was on the field playing Mike linebacker. Woods hadn’t played all year, and Mora said he wanted to redshirt him for the 2015 season. But Woods was forced to play because the two players in front of him on the depth chart – junior Isaako Savaiinaea and sophomore Kenny Young – were out with injuries.
Then, strangely enough, Woods pulled his hamstring muscle and had to leave the game. That forced junior outside linebacker Cameron Judge to play Mike linebacker for the first time in his life, according to Mora.
The result wasn’t pretty – UCLA allowed 242 rushing yards on 56 attempts – but it was enough. The Bruin linebackers played their best when they needed to, holding the Buffs to 3.0 yards per play over their final 23 plays in the game. And as mentioned above, UCLA held Colorado to 2.2 yards per play in the red zone.
That performance was sufficient for defensive coordinator Tom Bradley.
“I’m not a stat guy, I only care about one stat: did you win the game,” said Bradley. “I thought that they stepped up at the end in some big situations.”
Defensive backs: A-
This grade could have been a lot worse if Colorado didn’t drop two touchdown passes.
One of them came in the second quarter, after UCLA redshirt freshman defensive back Adarius Pickett was burned in the left corner of the end zone.
The second came late in the fourth quarter, when redshirt junior cornerback Ishmael Adams nearly surrendered a 29-yard, go-ahead touchdown. Fortunately for Adams, Liufau underthrew the pass slightly, and the Colorado receiver couldn’t adjust to make the catch.
Outside of those two near-mistakes, the UCLA cornerbacks performed well when they needed to. Adams provided UCLA with its biggest defensive play of the year – a 96-yard pick-six in the second quarter – and freshman Nate Meadors stepped in and jumped a curl route at the end to seal the game.
Similar to the performance of the linebackers, the cornerbacks bent a little bit, but they didn’t break.
Special teams: D
This grade has nothing to do with kicker Ka’imi Fairbairn, who did as much as he could in the kickoff game with four touchbacks. Instead, this grade is really a result of UCLA’s undisciplined play on kick returns.
The Bruins finished the game with three penalties on their five kick return attempts . Those penalties added up to -27 yards and an average starting field position at the UCLA 18.8-yard line. In addition to that, freshman kick returner Stephen Johnson fumbled a kick return, setting Colorado up with a drive at the Colorado 41-yard line.