Chip Kelly, Offensive Genius, Blows Another Winnable Game as Bruins Lose to ASU, 17-7

This loss is on Kelly who couldn’t call a play to get into the end zone once on seven tries inside the ASU 10-yard line.

Kenny Churchwell defends a pass. He intercepted a pass in the end zone in one of the few bright spots of tonight’s game. (Photo Credit: uclabruins.com)

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Coming into tonight’s game, the Arizona State Sun Devils had won just two football games. They beat Southern Utah, 24-21, to open the season and, two weeks ago, they defeated Washington State, 38-27. Both wins had come at home.

After tonight’s game, ASU now has a road win.

That’s because one of the worst offenses in the country managed to score 17 points on UCLA’s defense which had been one of the best in the country prior to last weekend. And, the best that Chip Kelly’s offense could do was score just seven points against a mediocre Sun Devil defense. It was almost as if the Bruins we’ve watched all season decided to wearing maroon and gold tonight instead of UCLA’s blue and gold.

But the results of this game—and, in fact, the direction of this football program—fall squarely on Chip Kelly, the “offensive genius.” More on that as we go along here.

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The game started off well enough for the Bruins.

ASU received the opening kickoff and the Bruin defense forced them to punt after moving just 18 yards. After ASU punted, UCLA took over on their own 20.

The Bruins started off moving the ball alright. They managed to move the ball 33 yards to the ASU 47, but on third-and-four, Bruin quarterback Collin Schlee was sacked for a 17-yard loss and UCLA punted away on a fourth-and-21.

The Sun Devils started their second drive on their own 30. This time, they moved 43 yards to the Bruin 27. On 2nd-and-13, ASU quarterback Trenton Bouguet threw the ball to the back of the end zone where they only guy close enough to catch it was UCLA’s Kenny Churchwell, who dove and was able to pick it off for a touchback.

That brought the ball to the Bruin 20 for the start of UCLA’s next drive, and the Bruins had moved 54 yards downfield to the ASU 26 where, on second-and-six, Anthony Adkins fumbled, giving up what was UCLA’s first real scoring opportunity of this game.

Arizona State capitalized on this turnover by driving down into the Bruins’ red zone. On third-and-four from the Bruins’ 10, Bouguet completed a pass to Elijah Badger but the play was snuffed out by the UCLA defense for a one-yard loss, forcing a 29-yard field goal by Dario Longhetto which gave ASU a 3-0 lead.

On their ensuing drive, UCLA moved the ball well. Carson Steele ran the ball for four yards on first down and picked up five more on second down. On third-and-1, Keegan Jones scampered for a 38-yard gain to the ASU 28. Schlee then found Maliki Matavao and he nearly made it in for a touchdown, but he was upended when trying to leap a defender and had to settle for a 23-yard gain.

With a first-and-goal from the 5, Chip Kelly called four of the least creative plays ever seen. First, it was a dive to Steele for two yards. Then, Schlee tried to sneak it and gained a yard. On third-and-goal from the 2, Kelly called for another Steele dive which gained just a yard. Finally, on fourth-and-goal, what did Kelly do? Yeah, you guessed it…another Steele dive play. Unfortunately, ASU figured it out too and he gained nothing and the Bruins turned the ball over on the Sun Devil 1-yard line.

Showing the Bruin rush defense some respect, ASU threw the ball on three straight plays, all of which went incomplete and the Bruins got the ball back after a 48-yard ASU punt which Logan Loya returned back to the ASU 18-yard line, giving the Bruins another red zone opportunity.

Schlee picked up nine yards on a pass to Keegan Jones and UCLA was again inside the Sun Devil 10. On second-and-1, Kelly called another dive, this time to T.J. Harden, who gained nothing. On third-and-1, he went back to it again with the same result. On fourth-and-1, you would have thought Kelly, the offensive genius that he is would have tried something which had worked previously, like an option play to Keegan Jones, but you would have been wrong. He had Schlee hand it off to Carson Steele for another dive, and again, ASU stopped the Bruin rushing attack to turn it over on downs.

But, remember, Chip Kelly is an offensive genius.

That was UCLA’s last chance to score in the first half as the teams traded punts until the clock ran out and they went into the locker room with ASU up, 3-0, even though the Bruins should have had at least a 7-3 lead.

The teams began the second half, picking up with the puntfest that ended the first half. Since UCLA got the ball to start the second half, they punted twice while the Sun Devils punted once.

After UCLA’s second punt of the half, UCLA was able to down the ball on the ASU 1. The Sun Devils found a way to move the ball on this drive, despite the bad starting field position. Soon, they were on the Bruin 25. On third-and-10, ASU running back Cam Skattebo, who was playing QB, found Badger for a 25-yard touchdown pass to put the Sun Devils up, 10-0.

That would prove to be the game-winning score, even though there was still about two minutes left in the third quarter.

On the kickoff which followed, Colton Yankoff decided to run the ball back, even though he caught the kick and ran it back for about 24 yards on the return, but given the fact that he was in the end zone when he caught it, he would have given the Bruins better field position by putting his hand in the air and waving it back and forth for a fair catch. Poor special teams play like this occurred at least twice in the game as Yankoff attempted to run back kickoffs where he was starting in the end zone, only to end up with worse field position than if he had just called for the touchback. They were boneheaded plays, which Kelly is ultimately responsible for since he failed to correct Yankoff after his first one.

UCLA moved the ball downfield pretty well on this drive, but ran into trouble once they crossed the 50. On second-and-10, Schlee ran for 4 yards and he threw a 4-yard pass to Ryan Cragun on third-and-6. That set up a fourth-and-2 from the ASU 37.

You can probably guess what Kelly ran next.

Yup. It was another Steele dive which gained only a yard and the Bruins turned it over on the ASU 36.

ASU’s next drive was almost comical. It was certainly one of the strangest series of plays I’ve seen in all my years of watching football. On their first three plays, the Sun Devils moved about six yards, bringing up a fourth-and-4 on their own 43.

Rather than punting the ball away at the spot on the field, ASU head coach Kenny Dillingham left his offense on the field. But a false start by the Sun Devils pushed them back five for a fourth-and-9. Then, Arizona State took too much time and was called for a delay of game, making it fourth-and-14. Yet, the offense remained on field still. Then, with the offense STILL on the field, Skattebo jumped offsides to make it fourth-and-24. Finally, Dillingham had seen enough and sent out his punt team. Go figure.

Now, those of you watching at home missed the most entertaining portion of the game up to this point, at least if you’re a Bruin fan. During the TV timeout with 11:45 left, the UCLA dance team came out onto the field and did a short routine to AC/DC’s You Shook Me All Night Long. It was definitely better than any of the football UCLA had played to that point.

After the timeout, with a shorter field to work with, thanks to those 20 penalty yards, Schlee moved the ball downfield and found Logan Loya for a touchdown on first-and-ten from the 16 to make it 10-7, ASU.

Whew! Imagine if Loya had only gotten to the 3?

But Chip Kelly is an offensive genius.

That gave ASU the ball back with 9:47 left, and the Sun Devils capitalized, driving 75 yards on 12 plays and eating six minute and 40 seconds of the clock. Skattebo capped the drive with a 17-yard run which put the final dagger into the Bruins’ hopes, making it 17-7.

UCLA tried one last time to move the ball. Schlee ran it on first down for no gain. He threw an incompletion on second down after which he left the game and was seen heading toward the locker room before the game was over. So, he must have been injured. Chase Griffin replaced him on third down, but threw two incomplete passes to turn it over on downs with 2:25 left.

From there, ASU tried to run out the clock, but came up three seconds short, giving it back to the Bruins for one final play, but this one was over long ago, and the team with the sixth-worst offense in the country had beaten the team with the 11th-best defense, 17-7.

It’s going to be a long two weeks until the regular season is over.


Go Bruins.

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