Report Card: UCLA vs. Virginia

No. 13 UCLA football passed its first test of the season with flying colors, defeating Virginia 34-16, nearly covering the 19.5-point spread.

Here are the grades for each UCLA position group in the season opener against Virginia. Many of the players are going to like what they see.

Quarterbacks: A+

True freshman Josh Rosen had his teammates scratching their heads Saturday. He was just that good.

“All those throws to (junior Y receiver) Thomas (Duarte) I was like ‘Oh my gosh,’” said junior wide receiver Eldrige Massington. “I kept telling them, ‘He’s the one, he’s chosen Rosen.’”

Saturday’s game was a cathartic moment for Rosen. He’d struggled a bit during fall training camp, and some questioned if the hype surrounding him was for real.

Rosen put those doubts to rest – real quick. On his first play from scrimmage, he stood firmly in the pocket amid a five-man rush and launched a 50-yard skinny post route down the left seam that landed perfectly in his receiver’s hands. That pass happened to be dropped, but Rosen still ended the day 9-for-15 on pass attempts of 10 yards or longer.

One of the less glamorized, yet still important, parts of Rosen’s performance was his pocket presence. Virginia brought five or more rushers on over 80 percent of Rosen’s plays, yet he was only sacked once and hit six times. Part of that was the offensive line’s doing, but even an offensive lineman admitted that Rosen was smooth back there in the pocket.

“He has a really good sense in the pocket, of where pressure is coming from and how to react to it,” said redshirt junior right tackle Caleb Benenoch.

If there were anything to downgrade Rosen on, it would be making the correct reads and looking off receivers better.

On the play below, Rosen locked in to his intended receiver – the X receiver on the right sideline – when the underneath receiver is wide open in first-down territory.

On this play, Rosen locked in to his running back in the flat, even though senior receiver Jordan Payton was wide open on a curl route in the slot. After the play, Payton raised his hands in the air at Rosen.

If these are the biggest mistakes Rosen made, UCLA can probably live with that. After all, he is a true freshman.

Running backs: A

Redshirt junior Paul Perkins was expected to be the lead man in the UCLA offense Saturday. He was the Pac-12’s reigning rush leader and Rosen was a true freshman quarterback starting for the first time ever.

But when Virginia stacked the box with seven players on the first play, UCLA offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone knew he had to switch things up.

“It looked like (Virginia) was gonna make Josh make some plays,” Mazzone said.

UCLA ran the ball on just seven of its 31 plays in the first half as Rosen stole the show. Nevertheless, Perkins made a statement in the receiving game, catching a 30-yard screen pass on third-and-8 to set up UCLA’s first touchdown. Perkins also showed an improvement in pass blocking. Look at how he stanches Virginia’s blind-side blitz on the play below.

The running backs were for the most part overshadowed by Rosen and the passing game Saturday. But they still were solid. As a whole, the unit averaged 4.5 yards per carry. Freshmen SoSo Jamabo and Bolu Olorunfunmi both showed some of the potential they flashed in the fall scrimmage on Aug. 21. Each of them averaged at least six yards per carry.

Wide receivers: A

This grade would be an A+ if Kenny Walker hadn’t dropped Rosen’s opening pass. It was a 50-yard beauty that landed right in Walker’s hands, but the redshirt junior receiver let the ball slip through his mitts.

After that, the UCLA wide receiving corps was almost flawless in its performance. There was only one other point-blank drop for the rest of the game, and it came from a running back in garbage time.

What’s perhaps most impressive about the receiving corps in game one was its depth. Eight different Bruin wide receivers caught a pass Saturday, with senior Devin Fuller leading the way with six catches. None of them had gaudy numbers individually, but they ran crisp routes and made Rosen’s job a bit easier.

Offensive line: A

What a difference a year makes.

In the 2014 season opener, the UCLA offensive line fell apart at the seams and nearly cost UCLA the game against Virginia. The unit allowed 14 quarterback hits and five sacks, only leaving enough room for one offensive touchdown on the day.

On Saturday, UCLA’s offense had four touchdowns and only allowed one sack. Rosen was hit six times, but most of those hits came after he already had thrown the ball. Benenoch credited the line’s improvement to offensive line coach Adrian Klemm, who went through countless hours of film study to master Virginia’s blitz-heavy scheme.

The block-of-the-game award goes to both redshirt junior left tackle Conor McDermott and redshirt sophomore left tackle Kenny Lacy (below), who sealed off the left side beautifully for Paul Perkins’ 18-yard run in the second quarter. Perkins didn’t even have to break stride.

Defensive line: A

Virginia made it clear in the preseason that it was going to be a power-running offensive team in 2015. But against the Bruins’ defensive line, the Cavaliers looked anything but powerful.

UCLA’s front three of juniors Takkarist McKinley, Kenny Clark and Eddie Vanderdoes held Virginia to 2.9 yards per carry on 34 attempts. When that trio subbed out late in the second half, there wasn’t much of a drop-off. Sophomore defensive end Matt Dickerson showed burst off the edge, tallying a couple quarterback pressures, and redshirt junior defensive end Eli Ankou was potent in his 20 snaps of work.

“(Anknou) graded out as one of the highest D-lineman for that game,” said defensive line coach Angus McClure on Monday. “He’s really evolved in fall camp with his techniques.”

Ankou and Dickerson will now be tasked to do even more for the rest of the season, as it was announced Sunday evening that Vanderdoes will miss the balance of the season due to a torn ACL.

Linebackers: B+

This was UCLA’s weakest-performing position group Saturday, but by no means was it a bad performance. The linebackers were great in run coverage, they just struggled to guard the Virginia running backs in pass coverage. Virginia running back Taquan Mizzell exploited the linebackers in man coverage on several plays (like the one below), and ended as the game’s leading receiver with eight catches for 100 yards and a touchdown.

Redshirt junior outside linebacker Kene Orjioke was perhaps the most pleasant surprise of the day, as he looked to be completely recovered from last year’s knee injury. He finished with a couple quarterback pressures in limited playing time, showing no problems with his knee. Look at him juke out the Virginia’s left tackle on the play below, putting the pressure on his right knee in doing so.

Defensive backs: B+

UCLA’s defensive backs were so highly touted in fall training camp, but weren’t quite as impressive on Saturday. Senior cornerback Fabian Moreau had a key pass interference penalty that kept a Virginia drive alive in the second quarter, and redshirt junior cornerback Marcus Rios was beat on a couple occasions by a less-than-stellar receiving corps at Virginia. The story here is similar to the story with the linebackers: It was a good, but not great, performance.

The player who really buoyed this position group’s grade was sophomore strong safety Jaleel Wadood. Wadood made a great pass deflection on a would-be first down pass and charged up in the box for some nice tackles on run plays as well. Wadood, like Rosen, appeared to be more like a veteran than an underclassmen Saturday.

Special teams: B

On a day where the other position groups set the bar so high already, the special teams really needed to make big play to stay in the 4.0 grade-point range.

The unit came up short in that category, allowing Virginia to escape with the biggest special teams play of the day. The Cavaliers faked a punt on fourth down late in the third quarter, converting for a first down. Right then and there, the special teams lost any hope it had for an A-rated performance. The kickoff coverage team was very impressive, though, and looks to be a strong point of the team.