First of all, congratulations to Memphis. The better football team won the game. That doesn't mean the better athletes won, the better football team won. It's nice to have great athletes and it makes coaching easier, but as everyone saw yesterday good coaching and focus can beat better athletes.
QB Rosen is still the team. As he goes, so goes the team. In point of fact, there's a good chance UCLA is at best 1-2 and very likely 0-3 without him. That said, his first interception was beyond bad that's a play that a HS kid should make not a 3 year starter and top 10 draft pick. The second one was also pretty bad but it was hard to tell if the WR missed the blitz and should've run a hot route. But it still was a bad throw. Playing amateur shrink here; Rosen is smart, smarter than most football players and not a blind follower. He knows how bad his line, he knows how mediocre his WRs are (watch him ignore Lasley on the first pick), he knows the defense is terrible, and at this point while he may like Mora he knows he isn't much of a football coach (yes, you can like your coach and still think he's bad at his job). I have a feeling he thinks if he doesn't win the game they will lose, and sadly he's right. I think this leads to him playing "hero ball" more than he should. Players of his level, when they trust those around them, are far more efficient, but it helps to have players worthy of any trust. He's made some of these throws in every game, this was the first time it burned him. It's not an excuse, but I think it explains the mentality.
RB They were better than bad which is a step up, but this was not a very good defense they were playing. Great catch by Starks was the highlight. The level of talent and confidence is pretty low.
WR/TE Andrews was once again an excellent steady player. Theo Howard made a great play to stop a pick (the smartest play by a UCLA player all season). Lasley is a great athlete who drops 35-50% of the balls thrown to him, which makes him somewhat useless. Wilson's only issue is limited athleticism, but there's not much he can do about that.
OL Gave up 11 tackles for loss. They are pretty bad. Not much has changed. You still see guards pulling and seeming to have no idea who they are supposed to block. Miller has several plays every week where it looks like he is going to get Rosen killed. As the competition ratchets up, it becomes more worrisome...
DL outside of Nnoruka there weren't a lot of positives. Memphis line handled them while accumulating 560 yards.
LB They were pretty terrible as well. Bad reads, bad tackling, even just looking lazy on plays. This is possibly the worst coached unit on the field. Their fundamentals are so unsound you would think nobody coaches them at all.
DB Toast. The coverage so far had been decent but not this game. They were roasted, toasted and demolished. As in previous games, tackling was poor.
Special Teams - kickers were good once again. coverage was average. return game is still pretty grim.
OC - Fisch isn't the problem. It was another pretty good game-plan. It kept them in the game. He never gave up on the run. He always has a new wrinkle each game which is the sign of a smart OC.
DC - Well on the upside they tried something new. We saw a 5-2 and even a 3-4. None of them worked but I guess kudos for trying. This staff clearly did a poor job of self evaluation in the off season. They don't have the personal to play their 4-3 bend don't break (part of this might be because they spent 3 years recruiting to a 3-4 but I digress). Once again the game plan didn't make any players better which has been a theme. If UCLA doesn't trot out NFL players at every position their avg defense becomes a bad defense. UCLA is 122nd out of 129 is yards yards given up. They have become almost Alford-esque in their commitment to stopping the other team (that may not be fair to the Bball team they were 258th out of 347 in defense). Think about that they are worse than the basketball team in defense. It's amazing.
HC - He didn't piss away time outs on the upside. Taking a time out at the end of the first half though was a laughably bad decision. He just isn't a very aware coach, the moment is always too big for him. The upside for this year was always going to be 2005ish. Be a bad team that is fun to watch with a great player or two. It looks like they will just be a bad team. 10 penalties for 99 yards was also a nice reminder that nothing has changed. The cracks were actually beginning to show in his last 10-3 season. And last year was the beginning of the unraveling. Next year there's no Rosen and I wouldn't expect change on defense as Bradley was his dream hire (admin wouldn't let him hire him after the rape state kerfuffle).
Looking ahead - There are a lot more losses on the calendar staring with Stanford. That said it is unlikely the team gives up as that has been Mora's one enduring constant. The locker room likes him and will play for him (they may not play well, but they will play). I think he survives this year at 6-6. Then next year, without Rosen the house of cards will collapse and they win 3-4 games. On the upside... wait there isn't one. Sorry.
here's my season prediction from 9/3. so far 3 for 3. I'll update it....
Texas A&M win (toss up)
Hawaii Win
Memphis loss (toss up)
Stanford loss
Colorado win (toss up) 9/17 leaning towards a loss here now
Arizona win
Oregon loss (toss up) 9/17 leaning toward just a loss
Washington loss
Utah loss
Arizona State win
USC loss
California win 9/17 now a tossup but still a win
6-6 with a bad bowl game loss
QB Rosen is still the team. As he goes, so goes the team. In point of fact, there's a good chance UCLA is at best 1-2 and very likely 0-3 without him. That said, his first interception was beyond bad that's a play that a HS kid should make not a 3 year starter and top 10 draft pick. The second one was also pretty bad but it was hard to tell if the WR missed the blitz and should've run a hot route. But it still was a bad throw. Playing amateur shrink here; Rosen is smart, smarter than most football players and not a blind follower. He knows how bad his line, he knows how mediocre his WRs are (watch him ignore Lasley on the first pick), he knows the defense is terrible, and at this point while he may like Mora he knows he isn't much of a football coach (yes, you can like your coach and still think he's bad at his job). I have a feeling he thinks if he doesn't win the game they will lose, and sadly he's right. I think this leads to him playing "hero ball" more than he should. Players of his level, when they trust those around them, are far more efficient, but it helps to have players worthy of any trust. He's made some of these throws in every game, this was the first time it burned him. It's not an excuse, but I think it explains the mentality.
RB They were better than bad which is a step up, but this was not a very good defense they were playing. Great catch by Starks was the highlight. The level of talent and confidence is pretty low.
WR/TE Andrews was once again an excellent steady player. Theo Howard made a great play to stop a pick (the smartest play by a UCLA player all season). Lasley is a great athlete who drops 35-50% of the balls thrown to him, which makes him somewhat useless. Wilson's only issue is limited athleticism, but there's not much he can do about that.
OL Gave up 11 tackles for loss. They are pretty bad. Not much has changed. You still see guards pulling and seeming to have no idea who they are supposed to block. Miller has several plays every week where it looks like he is going to get Rosen killed. As the competition ratchets up, it becomes more worrisome...
DL outside of Nnoruka there weren't a lot of positives. Memphis line handled them while accumulating 560 yards.
LB They were pretty terrible as well. Bad reads, bad tackling, even just looking lazy on plays. This is possibly the worst coached unit on the field. Their fundamentals are so unsound you would think nobody coaches them at all.
DB Toast. The coverage so far had been decent but not this game. They were roasted, toasted and demolished. As in previous games, tackling was poor.
Special Teams - kickers were good once again. coverage was average. return game is still pretty grim.
OC - Fisch isn't the problem. It was another pretty good game-plan. It kept them in the game. He never gave up on the run. He always has a new wrinkle each game which is the sign of a smart OC.
DC - Well on the upside they tried something new. We saw a 5-2 and even a 3-4. None of them worked but I guess kudos for trying. This staff clearly did a poor job of self evaluation in the off season. They don't have the personal to play their 4-3 bend don't break (part of this might be because they spent 3 years recruiting to a 3-4 but I digress). Once again the game plan didn't make any players better which has been a theme. If UCLA doesn't trot out NFL players at every position their avg defense becomes a bad defense. UCLA is 122nd out of 129 is yards yards given up. They have become almost Alford-esque in their commitment to stopping the other team (that may not be fair to the Bball team they were 258th out of 347 in defense). Think about that they are worse than the basketball team in defense. It's amazing.
HC - He didn't piss away time outs on the upside. Taking a time out at the end of the first half though was a laughably bad decision. He just isn't a very aware coach, the moment is always too big for him. The upside for this year was always going to be 2005ish. Be a bad team that is fun to watch with a great player or two. It looks like they will just be a bad team. 10 penalties for 99 yards was also a nice reminder that nothing has changed. The cracks were actually beginning to show in his last 10-3 season. And last year was the beginning of the unraveling. Next year there's no Rosen and I wouldn't expect change on defense as Bradley was his dream hire (admin wouldn't let him hire him after the rape state kerfuffle).
Looking ahead - There are a lot more losses on the calendar staring with Stanford. That said it is unlikely the team gives up as that has been Mora's one enduring constant. The locker room likes him and will play for him (they may not play well, but they will play). I think he survives this year at 6-6. Then next year, without Rosen the house of cards will collapse and they win 3-4 games. On the upside... wait there isn't one. Sorry.
here's my season prediction from 9/3. so far 3 for 3. I'll update it....
Texas A&M win (toss up)
Hawaii Win
Memphis loss (toss up)
Stanford loss
Colorado win (toss up) 9/17 leaning towards a loss here now
Arizona win
Oregon loss (toss up) 9/17 leaning toward just a loss
Washington loss
Utah loss
Arizona State win
USC loss
California win 9/17 now a tossup but still a win
6-6 with a bad bowl game loss
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