Bruins defense stepped up against Arizona, but Washington will be another big test before the Trojans
The UCLA Bruins staved off Pac-12 South elimination with their best defensive effort of the season, beating the then #12 ranked Arizona Wildcats 17-7 at the Rose Bowl last Saturday.
But it wasn’t like they didn’t try to give the game away either.
The Bruins were flagged nine times for 98 yards in the first half alone (two by preseason All-American Myles Jack on Arizona’s opening drive that led to a Cayleb Jones 14-yard touchdown reception). That would be the last time the Wildcats sniffed the endzone.
Head coach Jim Mora said that against Arizona he felt the defense did what they were supposed to do on every play. The Wildcats can attest to that as they were held to 255 yards (well below half their pre-game average,) were 6-20 on third-down conversions, punted 10 times and were held to 21:51 of ball possession.
Let’s look at last week’s three keys to the game.
1) Brett Hundley averaging over 6 yards per attempt
2) Paul Perkins rushing for over 150 yards
3) Jack stepping up
Only Hundley achieved his key, averaging 7.3 YPA. But it appeared that the Bruins found other ways to win last week.
Hundley (right) had his second straight game with 100 yards rushing, he had one in 34 games previously.
And even with the Bruins punting seven times, they clearly won the field position/time of possession battle, which was a must against a highly touted Wildcats offense.
UCLA shouldn’t have to bring nearly that much A-game to Husky Stadium Saturday when they take on the 6-3 Washington Huskies.
The Huskies rank 107th in passing and 50th in rushing in the FBS, while UCLA ranks 35th and 29th respectively. The Huskies team leaders in passing, rushing and receiving yards all fall around half as much as the Bruins’ yardage team leaders at those three positions.
However, the story-lines coming out of this game aren’t about the differences in offensive production, rather they are about the duel threats both teams will be fielding – as well as the dismissal of Huskies junior cornerback Marcus Peters.
Washington’s Shaq Thompson, a starting linebacker on the Huskies defense his freshman/sophomore years, has been thrusted into the starting tailback role due to injuries at that position.
He still takes snaps at linebacker, but has seen a significant reduction in his defensive role even though he prefers to be the hunter than the hunted.
Jack (near left), a Pac-12 Freshman of the Year at offense and defense, is now posting most of his stats at linebacker due to Perkins’ emergence as a natural, between-the-tackles runner who has already eclipsed 1,000 yards on the season.
And with Peters now off the team, the Huskies will start two freshman at cornerback against Hundley, who is certainly looking to release the ball deep to Jordan Payton as he’s done several times already this season.
The Bruins better not treat this contest like a tune-up just because USC and Stanford are on the horizon, lest they find themselves officially out of the Pac-12 South division race.
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