By Jon Gold
Staff Writer
Taylor Embree’s face changed from elation, smile stretching from shoulder to shoulder, to simple, pure relief.
He sighed, nodded, pursed his lips.
Finally, the UCLA offense had performed. Finally, the UCLA offense gave the defense something to smile about. Finally, the UCLA offense scored.
There is a you’ve-got-our-back-we’ve-got-yours relationship that exists between the offense and the defense, and when the offense falters, the defense feels the pressure.
Worse, the offense feels the defense’s pressure.
After a 35-0 loss to Stanford at the Rose Bowl, it was there, the sideways glances, the frustrated head shakes, the cursing and anger, the “I don’t want to comment on the offense” brush-offs.
After a 31-13 win over Houston in Week 3, quite simply, it wasn’t.
Offensive coordinator Norm Chow and defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough weren’t exactly playing patty-cake in the locker room, but the faith was back, bolstered by 266 rushing yards and five scoring drives.
“You never want the blame on you, you never want to be the reason that things aren’t going right,” UCLA wide receiver Taylor Embree said on Wednesday, as the Bruins prepared for part two of the Texas two-step, as they travel to Austin to play the No. 4/7 Longhorns today at 12:30 p.m at Texas Memorial Stadium. “You could tell all last week during practice, we had guys on offense sick of being the reason why we weren’t getting the job done. I think we turned that around last week.”
The UCLA offense can’t afford an about-face this week.
Not against Texas. Not against a crowd expected to be in the 100,000s. Not against a Longhorn defense that some consider the best in college football or a Texas offense that is due to break out, despite the relative youth of quarterback Garrett Gilbert (621 yards passing, three touchdowns, three interceptions), who has taken over for legend Colt McCoy.
“When we can score for them, for a defensive guy, that’s the best thing that can happen,” Prince said. “It just motivates them to get the ball back, because they have faith you can get more points. For an offense just seeing a defense do big things like they did on Saturday night, make huge turnovers, gives you momentum. Really puts the emphasis on you to be able to put the ball in the end zone.”
Mr. Prince, it’s your turn.
UCLA’s passing offense has been anemic, lacking both short and long, ranked No. 118 out of 120 teams in the country, and No. 119 Georgia Tech and No. 120 Army are rushing offenses that have attempted just 27 passes each. Prince has completed just 24-of-55 passes for 258 yards with one touchdown and four interceptions.
But the Crespi product appears fully recovered from back and shoulder issues that plagued him for nearly a month during fall camp and early in the season, and the UCLA passing offense was crisp and efficient in practice as the Bruins prepared for Texas’ phenomenal secondary of cornerbacks Curtis Brown and Aaron Williams and safeties Blake Gideon and Christian Scott, the first three named to the Thorpe Award watch list.
“No. 1, we have to hit passes that are open,” UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel said. “Whether its accuracy or protection or route-running, we have to hit things that are open. We have to continue to see how people are playing us, on any given day, and be able to dial up what we need to take advantage of what we have in the run game.”
And the running game has indeed been a revelation, jumping from 134 yards per game last year to 203.67 this season, 31st in the country, as Johnathan Franklin has emerged as a future star with 158 yards and three touchdowns against Houston.
The running game will be tested against the Longhorns, though. Boy, will it be tested.
Texas ranks No. 1 in the country against the rush, surrendering just 44 yards per game, though its opponents – Rice, Wyoming and Texas Tech – aren’t exactly rush-heavy offenses.
“We have to let go of the past,” Franklin said. “Past is over with. We have to have a short-term memory. Big front window, small rear-view window. We have a lot to prove to ourselves.”
They proved much against then-No. 23 Houston at the Rose Bowl last Saturday.
Proved that they could move the chains, three of UCLA’s first four drives going for touchdowns.
Proved that they could stop a high-powered passing attack, holding one of the top quarterbacks in the country, Case Keenum, to just 83 yards and two interceptions before he went down with a torn anterior cruciate ligament in the second quarter.
Proved that they can mix-and-match personnel to fit the occasion, as the Bruins heavily employed a nickel defense to combat the Cougars’ spread game, though Texas should present a more familiar front.
Proved that the offense has the potential to match the defense on any given Saturday.
And now, there is harmony.
They sit in a circle and hold hands, offense and defense united, even the special teamers joining the love-fest, Kumbayah, my lord, Kumbayah.
“Since I’ve gotten here, the offense has been a struggle,” UCLA junior safety Tony Dye said. “I mean, there are times I’ve wanted to just go play offense. It was so nice to see those 31 points on the board, it really was. Every time we got the ball, I was confident we were going to score. That hasn’t happened since in a long time. I haven’t had that feeling since I’ve been here.”