The Eye Test: UCLA Plays Second FCS Game of Season Against Colorado

The Buffaloes are extremely bad, so it's hard to take anything of note from this game.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson was near-perfect on Saturday. (Photo credit: Shayne Smith/uclabruins.com)

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Another week, another subpar opponent.

It’s becoming increasingly hard to rate UCLA at this point. By advanced metrics like SP+, the Bruins are pretty good; SP+ has them as the 19th best team in the nation at this point, with an offense that ranks 12th and a defense that ranks 39th. But a lot of that ranking has to do with a combination of last year’s improvement and this year’s cupcake schedule. Of the Bruins’ four opponents so far, South Alabama rates as the best with an SP+ rating of 64th, sandwiched between UC Berkeley and Arizona State. The others are much worse, with Colorado at 117 and Bowling Green at 123. Throw in an HBCU team, and it is increasingly clear that UCLA, to steal a popular phrase in the south, ain’t played nobody.

All that to say, UCLA was clearly going to win this game by a large margin. Colorado is the worst Power Five team in the country, and perhaps one of the worst teams at the FBS level. It is a disaster of a program at the moment, to the point where UCLA could have played the backups the entire game and still would have had a good chance to win comfortably. There is nothing exceptional to take from this game, so I hope you’ll permit me to breeze through most of this Eye Test. I can at least guarantee that things will pick up in the coming weeks.

Offense

Overall: A-

It’s mostly minor quibbles here, but when the team runs for 7.8 sack-adjusted yards per carry and throws for 8.6 sack-adjusted yards per attempt, you’re going to have a pretty good day. And again, you do have to factor in the opponent.

Let’s start with the offensive line for once, as they had perhaps their best game of the season. I don’t know if there’s a lot to take from this, as Colorado’s defensive front is possibly worse than what Alabama State trotted out a few weeks ago, but the line only gave up one sack and a QB hurry on the day, which is pretty good. The run blocking was at its best in this game, opening up gigantic holes that made things really easy for Zach Charbonnet. I don’t have access to the yards before contact for the running backs in this game, but I’m going to assume it was the highest number they’ve had this year. We’ll see if they hold up this week, but this was a positive game to build on.

Charbonnet was astounding in this one. He only carried the ball nine times, but still managed to get 104 yards on the ground, and broke off two touchdown runs of 35 and 46 yards. On both of those long touchdowns, Charbonnet put a poor Colorado secondary player on roller skates. I don’t think he’s had this easy of a time running the ball since he played in Pop Warner leagues.

Dorian Thompson-Robinson was equally great, only missing on four throws on the day and putting up a gargantuan 196.8 passer rating. The best part of the day is that it appears he is developing a connection with transfer Jake Bobo. The rest of the receiving core had themselves a strong day as well; unlike many of the other games so far this season, it appeared the receivers finally realized they had a talent advantage over their opponent and played like it. Kam Brown had a ridiculous catch in coverage.

The backups played fine. Ethan Garbers continues to look like the best backup QB in the conference, and Keegan Jones looked better than he did last week. That said, TJ Harden had another solid performance, and I think we’re nearing the decision point where the coaching staff decides whether to burn the redshirt on Harden and make him the secondary back or not.

Defense

Overall: B-

I don’t know how much of this is the defense’s fault, per se. From a scheme standpoint, UCLA again went very conservative, reasoning (correctly, I should add) that Colorado would never be able to sustain drives over the entirety of the game. The blitzing was limited, the corners gave some cushion, and the Bruins simply sat back and let a historically-bad offense go to work.

To continue this point, the defensive line, already starting to look thin, got hit even harder in this game, as Jay Toia left early due to injury. Combine that with Gabriel Murphy leaving the game early due to a targeting penalty, and the defensive line was rotating in some of the deep depth just to get through the game. That depth got through the game fine, but it definitely did lead to a less-productive rushing attack considering UCLA’s gameplan.

And finally, you have to consider Colorado, which is just so, so bad. The Buffaloes were starting their third quarterback in four weeks, and Owen McCown looked capable, he also was not very good. Colorado’s offensive line is maybe the worst unit UCLA will face all year, and their receivers had trouble holding on to the catch. They’re just incredibly bad all around.

So all that said, the defensive performance was fine. Not as dominant as you’d like, but not an outright disaster.

The big star was Laiatu Latu, who looks completely rejuvenated now that he has a new lease on his football career. Latu was an absolute force on the interior, dominating every matchup he faced, racking up three sacks, a pass breakup, and a forced fumble in the process. If Latu can keep this level of play up throughout the season, it would seriously help to raise the floor on what this defense can do.

Linebackers were fine, with JonJon Vaughns again looking like the best of the bunch. Darius Muasau, the hyped transfer from Hawaii, has yet to have a legitimately good game beyond racking up counting stats, but this was perhaps his best game so far. Carl Jones is technically a defensive end in UCLA’s system but he continues to demand a greater share of the playing time than he gets.

The secondary….I don’t know anymore. I think we’re definitely at the point where I can say the unit as a whole isn’t good, but I’m still unsure if this is a scheme problem or a personnel issue. Corner play seems to be the biggest issue, as the safety combination of Mo Osling and Stephan Blaylock (and Kenny Churchwell as the rotating third) has been playing well. John Humphrey is still trying to find some consistency, and Azizi Hearn seems pretty maxed out in his ability. Devin Kirkwood is the clear best option in this group, but I’m expecting future opponents to key in on that fact and just avoid throwing to where he is, similar to what Jay Shaw would see in previous years (at least, whenever he was allowed to see the field). The coverages and cushions are doing this group no favors, but even with them, an anemic Colorado passing game was still able to hit multiple downfield passes. I am deathly afraid of how this unit performs against Washington.

Where I am also going to ding this group is with penalties. Of the eight penalties by UCLA in this game, five were by the defense, and all of them extended Colorado drives when they should have been over. The Bruins forced a fumble on the opening Colorado possession only for it to return to the Buffaloes via an offsides penalty. An incomplete pass on third down became a fresh set of downs due to a targeting. Same thing later with a roughing the passer. Stop a run on 3rd and 4? Doesn’t matter, you were offsides again. The Bruin defense is not particularly good, and it does not help if they keep getting in their own way.

Special Teams

Overall: A-

Nothing bad, and considering how the first week went that’s a good thing. I really felt this could be the game where someone would break something in the return game, but Kazmeir Allen didn’t return any of his kickoff chances, and Logan Loya only gained seven total yards on his two returns.

Coaching

Offensive Gameplan: A-

Defensive Gameplan: B+

Overall: A-

This isn’t a game with much to complain about from the coaching standpoint. The gameplan on either side of the ball did not have to be that complex because Colorado is not that good, but I am dinging the defensive side more for playing as passively as they did against a first-time starting QB and all the penalties. The offensive side takes a ding for still managing to fail at marrying personnel usage and playcall, as the failed fourth-down run again featured Keegan Jones, who has repeatedly shown he is not the guy to trust in that situation.

Vibes

Vibe check: I will miss Ralphie

Of all the things UCLA will be losing upon leaving the Pac-12 for the Big Ten, I think I will miss Ralphie the most. I know having live mascots is starting to go out of style, but there’s something so captivating and majestic with having that beautiful buffalo make that run right before the game is about to start. Ralphie should get to roam throughout the stadium during the game; if she ends up at midfield while the opposing team is driving, that’s just an environmental hazard for them to work around.

Ok but, for an actual vibe check:

Vibe check: Uneasy?

This was an easy win. If you were grading just based on this game, it would feel very carefree. But considering how the season has gone, and what is about to come, I imagine most people following this program are getting wary of what is to come. This Friday’s game against Washington went from a probable win in the preseason to a toss-up leaning towards a Husky win since the season started. Things are not much better as we go down the list, as Utah still looks great, Oregon looks more competent than last year, Southern Cal looks really good, and even Arizona and UC Berkeley have shown new life. The road got much harder for UCLA, and the times of plenty may be coming to an end.

Final Composite

Offense grade: A- (3.7)

Defense grade: B- (2.7)

Special Teams grade: A- (3.7)

Coaching grade: A- (3.7)

Vibe check: Uneasy?

Final grade for Colorado Buffaloes: B+ (3.38)

A reminder of the previous grades:

Bowling Green Falcons: B- (2.76)

Alabama State Hornets: B+ (3.47)

South Alabama Jaguars: C (1.91)

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Fun time is over. Time to see what this team is made of, and to make the final judgement of Chip Kelly’s tenure in Westwood.

Go Bruins!

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