Takkarist McKinley, UCLA prepare for ‘dirty’ Colorado offensive line

Colorado has allowed just 12 sacks. Only one Pac-12 team — Arizona State — has allowed fewer this season.

According to Takkarist McKinley, there’s a pretty clear reason for that, and it’s not legal.

“Colorado and their offensive line, I feel like if we get off with speed, we can beat them,” the sophomore said after practice on Wednesday. “They’re dirty, but if you use your hands, use your speed, rip and dip, we can beat them with speed.”

When asked to clarify what he meant by dirty, McKinley said, “They try to chop block you. They try to tear your ACL. To me, that’s dirty. But to them, it’s their job. To me, it’s pretty dirty.”

McKinley, who has played Pac-12 football for a little over a month but started against Cal last week, also said that he sees some similar tactics when watching other conference schools on film. Utah had a similar offensive game plan, while the Bears had their running backs try to chop block out of the backfield, he said.

But according to McKinley, if Colorado continues to chop block, the Bruins should know how to stop it.

“We work on those drills every day in practice, so we should know how to prevent that,” McKinley said. “You just have to see it coming and use your hands.”

For more Bruin observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter @everettcook