UCLA coach Jim Mora doesn’t want players to stress about tackling problems

Don’t worry about it?

That might be part of the solution to the UCLA football team’s epic tackling difficulties.

Bruins coach Jim Mora said Monday that he sensed growing unease among his defensive players about their seasonlong struggles bringing down ballcarriers, in part because the team made it such a constant focus.

“We work so hard on tackling and I think sometimes guys get a little anxious or overreact,” Mora said. “It’s that coaching issue that you face times every year with a particular part of your team that’s struggling is, how much do you talk about it?

“Is talking about tackling putting in their mind, ‘Oh, we can’t tackle’? It’s a dance that you have to play out and try to figure out.”

The Bruins’ tackling problem seemed to worsen early in a 47-30 loss to Arizona on Saturday. On the first play, Wildcats quarterback Khalil Tate cut outside for an 11-yard gain. On the second play, he completed a pass for 13 yards. On the fourth play, he ran for a 45-yard touchdown.

Big plays by the Wildcats weren’t the only theme on a night they rolled up 605 yards, including 457 on the ground.

“The first three plays, guys got out of their gap or missed tackles,” Mora said. “So when you’re teetering on the edge of confidence and something bad happens to you immediately, human nature is to go, ‘Here we go again.’

“And so one of the things you have to do a great job of fighting and hoping you can provide for your players is a sense of hope and confidence and ‘Here’s how we get better and this is the answer and here’s how we’re going to fix it and it’s gonna take all of us but we’re all going to do it.’

“And then you get some good things happening to you and you build on it. And so we have to move away from being fragile and move into being confident. And that’s difficult, and that’s one of the great challenges of competitive athletics.”

Mora said he thought his team made progress during practices in the two weeks leading up to the Arizona game.

“Just the energy, the effort, the enthusiasm, the understanding of what we’re trying to do,” Mora said when asked what he had liked about those practices. “The focus by the guys on getting better at the things that had hurt us. You know, especially defensively just being very consistent in terms of being where we’re supposed to be.”

In-n-out

Tailback Soso Jamabo was briefly benched against Arizona after fumbling the ball. Receiver Jordan Lasley was allowed to stay in the game after a couple of dropped passes and an offensive pass interference penalty.

Does Mora have established benchmarks for an offense that would automatically send a player to the bench?

“It’s a feel thing, it’s a coach thing,” Mora said. “It’s a guy like [coaches] DeShaun [Foster] or Jedd [Fisch] having a feel for, hey, where is this guy emotionally, where is he mentally, where is he physically? Do we need someone to try to give us a spark? Was it careless or was it an aggressive fumble where a guy made a play on the ball?

“I mean, there’s so many factors that go into every decision; it’s never just one thing.”

Jamabo returned shortly after being taken out of the game and finished with 33 yards and a touchdown in eight carries, part of UCLA’s season-best 190 yards rushing.

Quick hits

Mora said he was hopeful that tailback Jalen Starks and defensive end Jaelan Phillips could return against Oregon. Starks suffered an undisclosed injury against Arizona and Phillips has not played since sustaining an injury to his right ankle against Memphis on Sept. 16. Mora said Phillips participated in team activities Monday but would need to show he can move laterally to play against the Ducks. … Right tackle Sunny Odogwu has been cleared to play after enduring an assortment of injuries since training camp, but Mora said he didn’t feel the need to change his starters on the offensive line. … UCLA’s game against Washington on Oct. 28 in Seattle will start at 12:30 p.m. and will be televised by either ABC or ESPN2.

ben.bolch@latimes.com

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