The Eye Test: Late Flurry Can't Mask UCLA Mistakes vs UNLV

The Bruins had another miserable first half, so hopefully they find some positive momentum in the second half.

Mateen Bhaghani (Photo credit: Nate Donlevy/uclabruins.com)

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UCLA played a Jekyll and Hyde game against UNLV last Saturday. By that, I mean the Bruins looked like a team that did not belong on the field with a Mountain West opponent in the first half, and switched into a more dominant team in the second half. Unfortunately for UCLA, football games are sixty minutes long, and if you spend the first 30 minutes digging a hole for yourself, it is hard to get out of it without your opponent helping you.

Which, let’s be fair here: UNLV absolutely helped UCLA out in the second half by going away with what was working offensively. The Rebels were much more conservative in their approach to attacking the Bruins, opting for a ball-control offense that aimed to minimize risks as much as possible (i.e., ensuring Anthony Colandrea, notoriously turnover-prone during his time at Virginia, didn’t commit any costly mistakes). The difference in their output is stark, with UNLV going from 7.8 YPP in the first half to 4.8 YPP in the second. If UNLV doesn’t go into brain-dead conservative playcalling mode, UCLA likely doesn’t even get a chance to attempt a comeback.

In the grand scheme of things, this game did nothing to change my outlook on the season. Were there some positive adjustments that led to better results? Sure, but the end result was still a road loss to a Mountain West team that, like UCLA, brought in a ton of portal talent this offseason, leading to the obvious question of whether the UCLA coaching staff did a worse job of identifying, acquiring, and deploying said talent than UNLV’s staff did. The fact that this is a question in general should be damning.

Let’s get to the grades.

Offense

Quarterback: C

Was Nico Iamaleava better here than he was against Utah? Sure. Does it help that UCLA’s offensive line was providing better protection against a weaker defensive front? Again, sure. Was this a great performance given the talent Iamaleava possesses?

Not even close.

The first half was characterized by Iamaleava again missing on some key throws that could have helped the offense get into a rhythm, and generally looking erratic when faced by UNLV’s pressure. The offensive line shift and improved protection in the second half seemed to help him, and he started making more throws as a result, but the interception was a bad throw that should have been caught by the linebacker in the first place. Iamaleava has been getting a decent number of passes tipped these first few weeks, some of which come down to luck, but also a sign that he’s telegraphing some things.

I’m going to save some of the psychoanalyzing of Nico for the bye weeks, but I do wonder how he is dealing with the outsized pressure this offseason placed on him. Let’s be honest: Iamaleava is in a much worse situation now than the one he was in at this point last year, both from a team perspective and financially. I would guess that a good amount of his problems are related to his need to prove the doubters wrong, which is leading to a lot of pressing. Again, something I’d like to get into more in the downtime of the season.

Running Backs: B-

The situation made it pretty hard for the running backs to get a lot of play in this one, but they generally had a good game overall. Jalen Berger was, again, the weakest of the three, with a 20-yard gain late masking that he was pretty ineffective overall. Anthony Woods was a little better, though again, half of his runs only went for one yard. Jaivian Thomas was the best of the three, and realistically, should see more of the workload going forward, as he’s the most talented of the three backs.

Receivers: B+

Just a solid performance from this group. Kwazi Gilmer had one hell of a second half to help the Bruins get back into the game, making a series of excellent catches that seemed to fire up the rest of the team, including an impressive bobbled catch with a defender draped over him. Titus Mokiao-Atimalala was more present in this game and had positive contributions as a result, though his OPI that wiped out a touchdown was fairly blatant and unnecessary. I thought Jack Pedersen had a nice game and could be turning into a weapon in the passing game, which would be a nice development for him and the offense in general.

Offensive Line: D+

The offensive line in the first half was miserable, failing to hold up to any sort of pressure and forcing an already-rattled Iamaleava into making plenty of bad decisions. There were changes made in the second half, starting with Garrett DiGiorgio shifting over to left tackle from right tackle, and Reuben Unije taking over on the right side. This iteration of the line was “better”, though it still wasn’t exceptional, likely because Sam Yoon is still a sieve at center and the Bruins don’t have any real options to replace him. DiGiorgio and Eugene Brooks did at least give UCLA a strong point of attack in the run game, and at this point, you’re looking for any positive developments you can.

Overall: C-

Definitely a step in the right direction for the offense, but it required digging a gigantic hole in the first half to get it. UCLA had only 64 yards in the first half before the offense was able to string together some plays to set up for a field goal at the end of the half, and that seemed to work as a pressure-release valve for the offense in general, which exploded for 318 yards in the second half. That’s progress, but given what the UNLV defense looked like heading into this game, you would have hoped for much more here.

Defense

Run Defense: D-

Pass Defense: D-

Overall: D-

Here’s the chicken-or-egg question: Did UCLA’s defense improve, or was UNLV just a worse opponent than Utah? I’d lean towards the latter, but there were some improvements in personnel. On the defensive line, there was more Kechaun Bennett and Anthony Jones and much, much less Jacob Busic, which is as it should be. Bennett and Jones feel like UCLA’s best bet to generate something approaching a pass rush, as each had a sack in this game, though they’re still struggling to establish contain on the edges, which UNLV’s Anthony Colandrea was more than happy to exploit. The interior of the line is still a problem, which is disappointing given the talent that is in that spot.

Linebacker play remains too reactive and not proactive. JonJon Vaughns and Isaiah Chisom, who played the majority of the snaps as Ikaika Malloe starts to tighten up rotations, had plenty of tackles, but too many of them were made downfield, a good sign that these guys aren’t diagnosing plays quickly enough and are reacting to what’s happening in front of them too slowly.

The secondary was a major problem (again, outside of Roderick Pleasant, who played a solid game compared to everyone else). UCLA is getting poor safety play from Key Lawrence and Cole Martin, which isn’t helping with the poor run defense. Similarly, the corners struggled to contain UNLV’s passing attack, and while you could argue that part of the blame falls on UCLA’s anemic pass rush, it does not help that this group is dropping so far back in coverage and giving up easy completions and YAC. Early on this season, I’d also say that UCLA has a particular problem with covering tight ends.

Special Teams

Overall: A-

Mateen Bhaghani hit all his kicks, Will Karroll’s two punts were both solid and put UNLV inside its own 20-yard line (not that it mattered much). Again, it didn’t end up impacting the game much, but it’s good that at least one aspect of UCLA is running on all cylinders.

Coaching

Offensive Gameplan: C

For as much as I like what Tino Sunseri has been doing with the offense so far, I am going to criticize his approach at the start of the game, because he seems to be falling into the same trap that Chip Kelly and Eric Bieniemy did regarding self-scouting, particularly with the offensive line. UCLA’s line is not particularly good, and asking them to hold up for a long period of time against a pass rush, or to create consistent holes in the run game is asking a lot of them. Similarly, Nico Iamaleava is a rebuilding quarterback who needs to see some easy passes completed to gain confidence, so I’m not sure why Sunseri started this game with more complicated pass plays. My assumption here is that Sunseri and company had the wrong takeaway from UCLA’s early success against Utah and assumed things would work similarly, but I would chalk that early success up to the element of surprise; once Utah saw what UCLA wanted to do, they shut down the Bruins for the most part. I would assume that Sunseri will come out with more simple concepts to start the game, just to allow the offense to get into a groove.

Defensive Gameplan: D

There were definite improvements, as the defensive staff is rotating more bodies in to try and find something that works. That’s good, and exactly what you would want given the situation here.

That said, the positive defensive improvement in the second half feels less a result of what the defense was doing and more a result of UNLV’s offense taking its foot off the gas. Even despite the Rebels screwing around in the second half, they still averaged 6.6 yards per play, an astronomical number and one that is hard to win against.

Overall: D

On a micro level, Deshaun Foster continues to show improvement on in-game decisions, such as his continued decision on 4th down attempts. He fits into the larger trend in college football at the moment, but progress is progress.

No, this grade is low for two reasons. First, UCLA again came out flat to start this game, which was unacceptable given the circumstances going into this game. The Bruins needed to win this game just to change the narrative about the team following the Utah drubbing, and instead the fanbase was treated to more of the same. It does not matter if the team fought back in the second half - most of the fans (including those who traveled to the game) had already turned away beforehand.

Second, the amount of penalties in this game was ridiculous. UNLV had their fair share, and maybe you could blame part of this on an overzealous officiating crew (and I would certainly agree that they missed on a number of calls) but 14 penalties for 129 yards is unacceptable, especially for a coaching staff that wore Foster’s DRE slogan on the field. It was another bad look in a young season already full of them.

Trend

Trending: Down

A road loss to a Mountain West team was never going to lead to a change here, even if there was a comeback in the second half. I don’t think I have much to add here. The vibes are rancid at the moment.

Final Composite

Offense grade: C- (1.7)

Defense grade: D- (0.7)

Special Teams grade: A- (3.7)

Coaching grade: D (1.0)

Trending: Down

Final grade for UNLV Rebels: D- (0.6)

And here is how the grades have looked this season:

Utah Utes: D- (0.6)

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Friday’s game against New Mexico has taken on new meaning following this performance. In many ways, you can consider it Foster’s last stand, as a loss here would make it hard to envision a successful season, let alone three wins in the remaining slate. At least last year, you could justify the early season struggles as UCLA facing a murderer’s row of Indiana/LSU/Oregon/Penn State, which made it hard to know the true level of the team. This year’s opening slate is much more forgiving, so a similar poor start would be more indicative of a team that has taken a clear step back.

Deshaun Foster was sold as a continuation hire by the athletic department, so a disaster season this year would not get the same leeway that a new hire would have gotten. There is already chatter in the agent circle that this job could open if things do not turn around, and if things end up as a disaster, it would not shock me to see decisive action taken, even at a level above Foster.

No pressure.

Go Bruins.

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