Football still looking for offensive solutions after loss to Cougars
Junior linebacker Kenny Young and the rest of the UCLA defense held Washington State to 356 total yards Saturday. (Jintak Han/Assistant Photo editor)
By TuAnh Dam
Oct. 16, 2016 9:15 p.m.
Coach Jim Mora sounded like a broken record after UCLA’s 27-21 loss to Washington State.
There was more talk about the atrocious run game, the stalwart defense, the call to fix the offense and coming up just short in the Bruins’ fourth loss of the season.
“It was a frustrating loss,” Mora said. “We couldn’t get the ball in the end zone. We couldn’t execute a simple play we work on every week at the end there, on that fumble. There is not much more I can say to that. We resolve to get it fixed, we’ll get back to the drawing board and try to find answers. They’re not easy answers to come by. I’m extremely disappointed.”
[Related: Bruin football beaten by Cougars, 27-21 despite late comeback.]
The Bruins, currently fifth in their division, are off to their worst start in five years with three losses in four games of conference play, thanks in part to the unproductive offense.
Under defensive coordinator Tom Bradley, the defense has been keeping UCLA in the game, limiting opponents to just 344 yards per game.
“Thank god we have a defense that is fricking … boy they play with some grit,” Mora said. “If you can play defense like that, you’ve always got a shot.”
The defense gave the Bruins two late fourth-quarter chances to win the game after forcing the Cougars to punt the ball away on three-and-outs. But the offense couldn’t capitalize, with only a fumble and an interception to show for its efforts.
[Related: Backup Mike Fafaul faces same offensive struggles as Josh Rosen]
In the postgame press conference, most players would not comment on the mood in the locker room, with redshirt junior wide receiver Darren Andrews saying he’d “rather not talk about it.”
Redshirt junior defensive lineman Eddie Vanderdoes said that despite the frustrations, the team needed to stay together or risk falling apart.
“It doesn’t look like it out there, but we just got to enforce playing as a unit and keeping the team together,” Vanderdoes said. “The last thing that we want is for everything to fall apart and for it to get worse and worse and worse and have a snowball effect.”
Junior linebacker Kenny Young said blame for UCLA’s second straight loss to Washington State fell on the defense as well, despite holding the Cougars to 356 total yards.
“We can’t go out there and play (for the offense),” Young said. “We did our part, but we fell short.”
Offensive coordinator Kennedy Polamalu said he had warned players about protecting the ball and limiting turnovers after redshirt senior wide receiver Kenneth Walker fumbled on the Bruins’ opening drive, but ultimately shouldered most of the blame for the anemic offense this season.
After the game, Polamalu went to players looking for any solution.
“I just sat with the guys and went over and talked to them one on one and basically said, ‘How can I help? What is it? Is it the scheme? Is it this? Is it that?’” Polamalu said. “They’re frustrated, all the way from the running backs to the tight ends to the O-line.”
There have been plenty of frustrations with the team’s fourth close loss of the season, but with the Utes (6-1, 3-1 Pac-12) coming to the Rose Bowl next weekend, the Bruins say they can’t let their past performances divide them.
“You can’t feel sorry for yourself,” Bradley said. “You got to hang together or you’ll hang separately.”
