The Eye Test: UCLA Offense Dominant Against Utah

The defense was not nearly as good but got the job done.

Kam Brown celebrates a touchdown against Utah. (Photo credit: Kiyoshi Mio-USA TODAY Sports via uclabruins.com)

---

Last week was a bit of a wild one for me; the high school had College Week which meant on Wednesday I took the 9th graders to Southern Cal and on Thursday we went to a real school. Walking around campus in the middle of a school day was very fun (corralling high schoolers: less fun) and I even saw the Murphy twins walking around (if they’re reading this: hey guys, hope class was good!).

We’re getting back into the swing of things now, however, by looking back at the Utah game. The week off has provided a bit more clarity on things that I saw, especially as we got to watch Utah come storming back to knock off Southern Cal this past weekend. That game did not change my perception of the offense, but the defense did look a little better in retrospect.

Let’s get into it.

Offense

Quarterback: A+

Running Back: A

When you have a duo operating at the level that Dorian Thompson-Robinson and Zach Charbonnet are currently at, you’re going to win a lot of football games.

Thompson-Robinson went a dazzling 18-23 on the day, with three of those incompletions coming on passes that still hit his receivers in the hands (he also had the bad interception at the end, but that was such a “for fun” play that it’s hard to be too mad). He had 299 yards and four touchdowns through the air while adding a more-pedestrian 17 yards and one touchdown on the ground, as Utah seemed to key in on his running ability to force him to be a passer. Thompson-Robinson obliged by carving the Utah defense up and getting whatever he wanted.

Zach Charbonnet was equally good even with the Utah defense looking to stop the run. They did a good job of that in the first quarter but in the second Charbonnet ripped off two devastating runs of 44 and 49 yards that effectively set the tone for the rest of the day, ending up with 198 yards on 22 attempts (a mind-boggling 9.0 yards per carry). Normally UCLA likes to operate with a “run to pass” offense; that is, the offense wants to establish the run early to open up the passing game. In this one, they went with the opposite, passing early and often which opened up the rushing attack. It was a brutally-efficient display from UCLA’s two best players, and something that can hopefully carry forward on the road.

Wide Receiver: A

I’m going to start by mentioning Keegan Jones here. Yes, Jones is a running back, but he continued his poor running today by gaining zero yards on three attempts. That said, he did have a catch where Jones was able to take advantage of his speed and go for 24 yards, and it made me think that a switch to wide receiver might be a smart path in the future.

This game was a great showing from the receiving corps, showcasing the breadth of talent they possess. Jake Bobo gets the top billing with his two touchdowns, but he was mostly used as a red zone threat. Kazmeir Allen had one of his better showings of the season after being deemphasized a bit these past few weeks, grabbing six passes for 41 yards and working the sidelines effortlessly. Kam Brown ran a fantastic route on his touchdown pass, while Titus Mokiao-Atimalala showed a ton of toughness in taking a big hit while securing the catch on the first touchdown drive. Logan Loya showed some solid speed on his 70-yard touchdown catch (especially since he caught the ball about two yards past the line of scrimmage. Michael Ezeike had one of his best days on the season, taking his two catches for 66 yards and looking every bit like the matchup nightmare he could potentially be for opposing linebackers.

I also want to shout out the blocking by this group. UCLA had a game plan of attacking Utah with speed to the outside, but that doesn’t work if the Bruins could not execute blocks. The receiving core was able to do that and more, with key blocks turning modest gains into big plays routinely.

Offensive Line: A

This was the toughest test of the season for this offensive line, and they passed it with flying colors. Utah was never able to generate anything approaching consistent pressure, and worse for the Utes they were continually blown backward on UCLA run plays. Thompson-Robinson was really only sacked once, as the two other recorded sacks came on zone reads where DTR was tackled outside the box. If there were issues, it was with Garrett DiGiorio committing a few false starts, but considering the excellent job the line did I’m willing to overlook it.

Overall: A

I wanted to highlight one drive in particular. With 6:05 left in the game, UCLA took over at their own 24-yard line holding a 42-25 lead. The game felt like it was nearing a conclusion but the Bruins needed a few first downs to milk the clock and really solidify their win. The drive ultimately ended in that pick-six, but it lasted over five minutes and went for 52 yards, effectively ending the game in the process. That was the most impressive drive for me, because it featured UCLA at its most efficient, ruthlessly grinding out first downs to keep the drive going and suffocating the Utes. That was winning football, something that has not been present in Westwood in a long time.

Defense

Run Defense: B-

Pass Defense: B

Overall: B+

In retrospect, I do think the defense did a solid overall job when it came to achieving their goal, with the caveat that Utah just stopped using Tavion Thomas in the second half for some reason. The Utes were able to gain 128 yards on the ground in the first half compared to only 64 in the second, and while I think UCLA adjusted a bit, Utah basically switched their approach offensively in the second half and just stopped using one of their best players, specifically one that basically got to do whatever he wanted in the first half.

It’s the Thomas thing that lowers the run defense down a peg, but in taking the overall look at the defense, this was a “sum is better than the parts” situation. UCLA really struggled at times with the pass defense, especially closing off the middle of the field, but they also didn’t get burned by Dalton Kincaid the same way that Southern Cal just did. Similarly, Cam Rising was able to do some damage with his feet, especially near the goal line, but he was mostly kept in check. And what was most important, the Bruins were able to string together enough stops early to let the offense get going, and then took advantage of the pressure being applied by the offense to get a few late stops to seal the game. That feels like the recipe going forward.

I thought the defensive line did an admirable job given the task assigned to them. Gary Smith is probably UCLA’s best interior lineman, and the Bruins made sure one of him and Jay Toia were on the field at all times in order to keep the interior stout. On the outside, Laitatu Latu was again excellent and was complemented by a solid game from Carl Jones. The Murphy twins were a bit quieter in this game, outside of the double penalty they collectively took in the middle of the game.

Linebacker play was pretty spotty in this game, likely due to something being wrong with JonJon Vaughns. Vaughns has really been UCLA’s best linebacker this season, and he looked a bit limited on the field. On the flip side, Darius Muasau had his best game of the season, notching an interception and forcing the late fumble that essentially sealed the game for the Bruins. He still had some mistakes in missing gaps, but overall a good job.

The secondary play was interesting. I don’t know that it was necessarily good, but it was consistent and full of sure-tackling. The Utes only had 87 yards after catch, more of those due to the routes rather than missed tackles, and UCLA really looked to limit the explosive plays. The loss of Stephan Blaylock, who has been a rock on the back end, was what effectively opened the floodgates for the Utah offense, but he will luckily be back for the Oregon game.

Special Teams

Overall: B+

Would you like to know the point in this game where I felt most confident that UCLA would win? It came in the second quarter following Utah’s first touchdown. Kazmeir Allen was able to return the kickoff 27 yards, and looked close to breaking one. Why was this a big deal? Because excellent special teams play had been a hallmark of Utah teams for awhile now, yet UCLA looked much better in both kick coverage and return. Even field goals were a push; Nick Barr-Mira missed a bad-angle kick late in the second quarter, but Utah returned the favor when their normally-consistent kicker Jordan Noyes put his kick well left of the uprights.

Coaching

Offensive Gameplan: A

Once-again, Chip Kelly was in his bag against a highly-regarded opponent. After an early feeling-out period, Kelly let loose and UCLA began moving the ball fairly easily, getting anything it wanted against what was considered to be a good Utah defense. Utah lacks in sideline to sideline speed, and so UCLA attacked them relentlessly on the outside, only to turn around and run the ball up the middle for big gains. Utah was on the back foot from the midway point of the first half on, and only got stops due to a missed field goal and a “for fun” 4th down attempt when the game was essentially over.

Defensive Gameplan: A-

I actually like the idea behind UCLA’s defensive gameplan here, because it features something that has been missing from the defense for awhile: self-scouting. The UCLA coaching staff clearly knows the pass defense is its biggest Achilles Heel, so they put a bit more resources into the secondary and played everything in front of them with a Cover-2 shell. Did this give up some consistent drives? Sure, but it limited the explosiveness of the Utah offense, something that Southern Cal did not do to their detriment. It also helps when the pass rush is able to generate pressure without extra bodies - UCLA was not sending blitzes as often as you might expect. The late sack of Cam Rising that ended Utah’s last scoring threat came on a simple three-man rush, with Laitatu Latu simply beating his man and Jacob Sykes coming for the cleanup.

Again, I should note that I do not think this defense qualifies as a good one, but it is good enough to complement an elite offense. As we saw the last few years, that’s not a small thing, and is the difference between average results and something special.

Overall: A

I’m bumping the overall grade up a bit because, even if the defensive gameplan is lacking a bit, the cohesion of the entire coaching philosophy worked to perfection here.

I’m going to quickly quote something I wrote last week regarding the offense and defense.

This is where UCLA is at the moment, with an offense that, by any reasonable metric, qualifies as elite. The Bruins rank 3rd in offensive SP+, only trailing offensive juggernauts Ohio State and Tennessee. Prior to the Utah game, FEI had UCLA’s offense at 12th and F/+ had them at 10th; I imagine both of those rankings are about to go up considering what the Bruins just did to a highly-ranked Utah defense. The eye test (and also THE Eye Test) backs up those stats, with fans and media watching an offense led by an experienced quarterback operating at the height of his powers and a nightmare of a running back, supplemented by a deep receiving group and an offensive line playing well above its talent level. For the second week in a row (and really the fifth in six games) it never felt as though the opposing defense would be able to stop UCLA once it got going, with the Bruins scoring four-straight second-half possessions to put the game out of reach.

The UCLA offense is so good that is helping the defense by proxy. Opposing teams have begun to press in an attempt to keep up in scoring with the UCLA offense, which has led to mistakes that an opportunistic Bruin defense is taking advantage of. The Bruins ended the game with a positive turnover margin for the fourth time this year, and only have one game where they did not at least come out neutral (that game, hilariously enough, was against Bowling Green). I am not going to blow smoke and say that the defense is good, but it is doing what it has to do and is playing off the offense well-enough, which is all we probably should be asking for at this stage.

The Utah game showed what an ideal version of this team should look like. The offense is elite, both statistically and from a viewing standpoint. The college game has changed to the point where you don’t need to be excellent on both sides of the ball to win games (see: Tennessee just last weekend). The UCLA defense is limiting their own mistakes, making sound plays, and letting teams make their own mistakes in an attempt to keep up with what the offense is doing. It’s a formula that works, and works really well, and credit to Chip Kelly and his staff for refining it to perfection.

Vibes

Vibe check: Feels like ‘98

I know I’m jumping the gun here early, but that’s what the vibe check is for: making huge, in-the-moment statements about where the team is at, and things really are starting to feel like 1998. UCLA and Tennessee are both Top 10 teams. Syracuse is good. Tulane is ranked. The only difference (thankfully) is that UCLA does not have a rescheduled trip to Miami at the end of this season.

Now, to come down a bit, do I expect UCLA to go undefeated this year? Probably not - Oregon on the road this week is a tough team, as will be Southern Cal down the line. But UCLA is in position to compete in those games, and the floor for this season has raised drastically in the past few weeks. I don’t know what the future holds, but the present is pretty nice.

Final Composite

Offense grade: A (4.0)

Defense grade: B+ (3.3)

Special Teams grade: B+ (3.3)

Coaching grade: A (4.0)

Vibe check: Feels like ‘98

Final grade for Utah Utes: A- (3.70)

A reminder of the previous grades:

Bowling Green Falcons: B- (2.76)

Alabama State Hornets: B+ (3.47)

South Alabama Jaguars: C (1.91)

Colorado Buffaloes: B+ (3.38)

Washington Huskies: A- (3.71)

---

Oregon time! After the last few games, I’m not going to try and tell you all what will happen. I will say that if the UCLA offense continues to play to the level they’ve shown, and the defense can get a few stops, they should be in a good position to win.

It’s the halfway point of the season, and UCLA still has all of its positive season outcomes on the table. Time to enjoy the ride.

Go Bruins!