Breaking down the UCLA defense, and all of its breakdowns
It’s not always just about what the UCLA football team’s defense is doing wrong.
Other factors were conspiring against the Bruins last Saturday when Arizona quarterback Khalil Tate faked a toss to the running back and cut back upfield for a 45-yard touchdown run on the game’s fourth play.
“It was just a great call for the defensive call that they were in,” said Nigel Burton, a Pac-12 Networks analyst who broke down footage of UCLA’s 47-30 loss to the Wildcats for The Times. “At best, UCLA keeps that to a nine-, 10-yard gain. Worst-case scenario, it’s a touchdown.”
Unfavorable outcomes have become the norm for the Bruins defense, whatever the cause. Halfway through the season, UCLA ranks second to last in the nation in rushing defense (313 yards per game), fourth to last in total defense (523 yards per game) and sixth to last in scoring defense (40.5 points per game).
It’s a collective failure that Bruins coach Jim Mora acknowledged “rips my guts out,” leaving UCLA with an overall record of 3-3, 1-2 in Pac-12 Conference play, despite having one of the nation’s top quarterbacks in Josh Rosen.
“In my career,” Mora said, “I’ve taken great pride in being able to stop the run, and historically been a pretty good coach when it comes to stopping the run, and right now I’m a really bad coach at stopping the run and it’s disconcerting.”
The problems include missed tackles, players straying from their assigned spot and, perhaps most bewildering, half-hearted effort.
Several players jogged instead of sprinted to try to stop two screen passes against Memphis, and linebacker Kenny Young questioned whether a few of his teammates “came with the full commitment” against Arizona.
“I think there’s got to be something to get those guys playing faster because they do seem on their heels a little bit for some reason,” said Burton, former head coach at Portland State and defensive coordinator at Nevada. “Guys aren’t attacking gaps, guys aren’t necessarily being physical with their hands play after play.
“It doesn’t seem like guys are dying to get there. Sometimes that’s not a result of want-to, it’s a result of overthinking, which all young players do.”
UCLA’s starting defense has included three sophomores and two freshmen. Freshman defensive end Jaelan Phillips hasn’t played since his right ankle was injured against Memphis on Sept. 16, but the Bruins hope he can return Saturday at the Rose Bowl against Oregon (4-3, 1-3).
Part of UCLA’s problem against Arizona might have been schematic. Burton said the Bruins were in a formation that left them in a lot of single-coverage situations in the first half, not ideal against Arizona’s read-zone offense. The Wildcats rolled up 30 points by halftime.
“It’s basically like one-for-one football — I’ve got this cat, he’s got this cat, you’ve got that cat,” Burton said. “That’s how it works across the board. If your one cat with the ball is better than my one cat that I have that’s going make the tackle other than the free safety, I’m going to lose.”
Burton said UCLA switched to more of a zone scheme in the second half, allowing for more overlap among defenders, but sometimes it seemed as if the Bruins could have surrounded Tate with their entire defense and come up empty.
The Arizona quarterback broke three tackles on a 71-yard touchdown run in the third quarter.
“The D-lineman tried to tackle the guy too high and the move [Tate] made was freakish, so that is what it is,” Burton said, referring to defensive tackle Osa Odighizuwa. “[But] I don’t see a whole lot of guys who close when they tackle. Like they’ll run to a point and then stop their feet and try to lunge. That’s a great way to miss.”
UCLA defensive end Rick Wade was left behind earlier in the game when Tate pump-faked a pass, getting Wade to leap into the air, before pulling the ball back and running for a 17-yard gain. Burton said blitzing defensive linemen are usually taught to run through a pump-fake and never break stride.
“You can maybe put a hand in the air if you’re close, but that’s it,” Burton said. “Never leave your feet, never jump. That’s exactly what the D-end did and that’s all it took.”
There was plenty of blame to go around on night that Tate ran for 230 of Arizona’s 457 yards rushing and the Wildcats finished with 605 yards of offense.
“There are a lot of times when a guy slightly slides out of his gap,” Burton said. “There are other times when it was just a great play call versus a defense call. There’s other times when there’s two, three guys completely unblocked to the point of attack and miss tackles; there’s times when there’s players on the field who look disinterested; there’s times when guys just get straight-up beat — like, they’re trying, but the other guy is just more athletic.
“Khalil Tate is a freak of nature. That dude, to do the stuff that he does, is not fair.”
Burton said if there was something to build on for the Bruins’ defense, it was stopping Arizona short on seven of 10 third downs. He suggested more pre-snap movement might make the opposing offensive line less certain about what it’s going to see from the defense and how it’s going to attack the line of scrimmage.
Mora has remained defiant amid his team’s struggles, saying he needs to provide answers that are not be readily apparent.
“You can’t give up, you can’t give in, you can’t lose hope, you can’t lose faith, you can’t be negative,” Mora said. “You have to be demanding, but you can’t demeaning. And sometimes, you know what, sometimes you have to lose it a little bit to get their attention and that’s just part of coaching.
“It’s a difficult time right now because I believe if we can stop the run, we would be a really good football team and a really good defense, but that’s a huge if.”
Follow Ben Bolch on Twitter @latbbolch
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