Josh Rosen reflects on misses despite contributions to victory over BYU
Quarterback Josh Rosen threw two touchdowns in a 17-14 against BYU, but was still frustrated with his performance. The sophomore believed UCLA should have been able to score at least 21 more points. (Mackenzie Possee/Assistant photo editor)
By Derrek Li
Sept. 18, 2016 3:58 p.m.
PROVO, Utah — Josh Rosen threw 26-of-40 for 307 yards and two touchdowns. Yet, the sophomore quarterback minced little words to criticize his own performance.
“Taking a step back like this is frustrating,” Rosen said. “Absolutely a step back. I’m not just going off stats – yards, touchdowns, picks, whatever – it’s just going on film and how many coaching points there are.”
More than anything, he was frustrated. Frustrated that he kept missing open receivers, or not throwing to them altogether.
Rosen said that no one is harder on him than himself, and everyone knows that already. Coach Jim Mora said that he thought Rosen struggled in the first half because he was tight and was able to settle down a bit in the second and get into a rhythm. But he already knew that his quarterback thought differently.
“Now you can ask him and he could give you a completely different answer,” Mora said. “I don’t know, you know how Josh is, but that’s how I felt.”
Rosen admitted that he improved in the second half, but not because anything changed at halftime.
“Nope, nothing,” he said. “Same plays, just throw it to the guys. I just hit guys when they’re open, it’s pretty simple.”
The game should be simple for Rosen, and he should be executing everything to perfection. Three games into his sophomore campaign, he still hasn’t been able to find it.
After converting three straight third and longs en route to a touchdown in the second half, Rosen claimed that it wasn’t anything special.
“Just executing, that’s how I should be playing every drive,” he said. “It’s not what I do on those plays, it’s what I don’t do on others.”
He’s not thinking about what went right, but dwelling on the missed long bombs and the receivers he didn’t see running wide open drag routes.
“Josh has a high standard for himself so what people think, what the stats look like, it doesn’t matter,” said redshirt junior wide receiver Darren Andrews.
Rosen thinks that UCLA should have scored at least 21 more points in the 17-14 win. He rattled a list of the plays and the receivers he missed that would have gone for touchdowns.
And it could be this obsession over the minutia that’s causing Rosen to lose focus.
“It’s very simple, I’m just not seeing the field for some reason, I don’t know,” Rosen said. “You can’t get distracted, and you got to zone in and focus on certain reads. When you try to look at the big picture, you really see nothing and a lot of the times it just scrambles your throws.”
He’ll go back to practice Monday eager to fix the simple execution mistakes he made Saturday night in Provo. But if it was up to his coach, Rosen would try to get his rhythm back a different way.
“I think sometimes Josh has such high expectations for himself that sometimes he lets it get the best of himself,” Mora said. “He has to realize that he’s not going to play a perfect game.”
Email Li at [email protected] or tweet @DerrekLi.
