UCLA handles Houston 31-13
Oh, so now they know the problem.
UCLA just had no bullets for its Pistol offense.
Could it really be that simple?
The Bruins sure made it look that way Saturday night.
Behind a healthy Kevin Prince and a healthy dose of Johnathan Franklin, UCLA pummeled visiting No. 23 Houston 31-13 in front of 54,407 at the Rose Bowl.
A week after being handed its worst Pac-10 home loss in team history, a 35-0 thrashing at the hands of brash Stanford, the Bruins were simply a different team.
Maybe Prince was just a different quarterback.
The sophomore Crespi product was far from perfect -- completing just 9-of-17 passes for 99 yards and an interception -- but he didn't struggle like he did in UCLA's losses to Stanford and Kansas State.
"It's tough, especially when there's so much demanded on you," Prince said of his first two starts, when he completed just 15 of 38 passes for 159 yards, three interceptions and a touchdown, his 67.52 quarterback rating ranking last in the NCAA. "Especially in this offense; you've got to make the right reads on every play. (UCLA offensive coordinator Norm) Chow says that in certain offenses, quarterbacks have to be in it only 70 percent of the time, because 30 percent, they're handing the ball off. In this offense, you have to be reading someone on every play, and you have to be thinking all the time."
Prince was able to move the Bruins downfield for scoring drives of 51, 80, 42, 35 and 12 yards, using his feet efficiently while helping UCLA convert 5-of-11 third downs.
Prince gained 57 yards on nine carries, including a second-quarter two-yard touchdown run that put the Bruins up 14-3, their biggest lead of the season to that point.
"In that read-zone game the Pistol presents, you just have to be smarter and patient with those reads," Prince said. "There were a few opportunities there where I could keep it and make some plays with my legs."
Prince did his fair share of handing off Saturday, often to Franklin.
Franklin, who had 133 yards rushing in the team's 0-2 start, had 157 yards on 26 carries, including three touchdowns, for 12, 11 and two yards, respectively.
His first score -- an 11-yard burst up the middle -- put UCLA up 7-3, as the Bruins capitalized on a curious Houston kickoff call that provided ample field position.
After a 29-yard Matt Hogan field goal, the Cougars attempted a pooch onside kick, recovered by UCLA at its 49-yard line. After a 24-yard run by Prince put the Bruins in scoring position and a Prince-to-Damien Thigpen nine-yard pass put the ball at the Houston 18-yard line, Franklin had a seven-yard run followed by the touchdown.
"The offensive line did a great job; they really stepped up today," Franklin said. "It was about finding the crease and being consistent. Continuously working and not letting up."
After the offense built a 31-3 lead, the UCLA defense took over, shutting down Houston's vaunted passing attack. Highly touted quarterback Case Keenum completed 11-of-19 passes
for 87 yards and two interceptions before going down with a knee injury in the second quarter. His replacements -- Cotton Turner and Terrance Broadway -- completed 11 of 19 passes for 123 yards and a touchdown, as the Bruins held Houston to more than 200 yards less than its season average.
"I was extremely impressed by the way the defense came out," Prince said. "I don't read much of the media stuff, but I'm sure people were afraid of what that offense could do. But our defense responded; we responded to what happened last week.
"Last week was pretty rough, but we went to work this week in practice, forgot about it, moved on, and realized that we don't have time to rest and feel sorry for ourselves."
Go Bruins!
yo where is VB at so he can eat his words and shut up..
Why on Earth is Prince the focus of this story and Johnathan Franklin buried as a secondary issue?
To me the primary reason we won this game tonight, regardless of specifics and individual performances, is we came hard and did something we don't usually get to say - we beat up the other team. We physically dominated that team and that to me was the difference. Not just knocking their QBs out - guys all over that team took a beating. My new personal nickname for Larrimore is "Blunt Force Trauma." That dude lays some hits! We came tonight with heart and played with emotion and aggression and it showed.
The penalties we committed, and one stupid 3rd down where we had them 3rd and long and CB didn't bliz right at the beginning (resulting in 3 points for them) were really the only way they kept drives going. Two of the roughing calls on us were BS.
Given the success of our run game, I'd like to think we'll have some good PA passing coming. We do eventually need to throw some TD passes.
Individual performances and items I noted:
- Franklin - welcome to the upper tier of Pac-10 RBs. The guy ran hard, smart and punished tacklers.
- Prince - accuracy still an issue!!
- Rosario - still don't like his laziness going up for high balls/ Painfully lazy and soft. Time for the bench on this one. Guy just doesn't have it.
- Oline - great job
- Ayers - like the extended use at DE
- Graham - needs to get better angles when speed rushing - a couple sacks eluded him
- Owa - is he forgotten? I hope we don't burn his RS over a couple plays
- Smith - forgotten man?
- Jones - freshman mistakes - ran tentative after the fumble(s)
- Bullough - glad to see he opened up the pressure as the game went on
where are all the trash talkers from last week? lol.
Where are all the fire Neuheisel turds now? I told you all to be patient. We barely have enough scholarship upperclassmen to field a starting lineup!
It's a beginning. I try not to get too high nor too low. Houston has a nice program and can certainly put points on the board but this is the kind of team we must beat to grow. Our kids are bigger, faster and come with more refined pedigrees than players in second tier programs. Yes, Houston was ranked and will continue to close the recruitment gap but not yet. We're still bigger than they are. We should win. To have any hope of growing up this year this is the one we had to have. Now the coaches have some film of a win, how successful things look. Now the kids can believe a little more in what they're being asked to do. The next one could be ugly or maybe not.
It was a good win against a decent team but there is now way you can be an upper tier program with a passing attack like this team presents. They won with rushing and defense, in spite of Prince's passing and he misses very easy throws. Its looking more and more he is not the guy and no way he holds up physically with running 10 times a game
I called it! Next week the nation takes notice. We beat Texas! Go Bruins!
it still seems to be a weekly ritual that Cory Harkey must drop an easy ball somewhere in the first half. I'd like to see more Fauria, or anybody else, in that role.
Team looked a lot better than they did against Stanford, who looks like potential PAC-10 champs along with Oregon and Arizona.
The bigger and better teams like Texas this week will most likely load up the box to stop the run and dare UCLA to beat them through the air. It will be a lot more difficult, and don't be surprised if the team looks more last weeks team, then this weeks team.
Ther will be plenty of highs and lows this season. Hopefully, there are more highs than lows as we go along.
can everyone just be happy for UCLA we just beat Houston.stop saying all this negative crap. I think Kevin prince killed it in the last game and good for him that he didnt give up because im pretty sure every ucla fan wanted richard to start. I also think Washington killed it too. And our defense was amazing .by the end of the game houston had their 4th string qb in and for all the media was saying that houston had the best offense thats preetty cool. I am exicted about the next game and i wish all of you are too and im so done with all these bandwagon fans that only comment on here to say how much ucla sucks.go join another team.we dont need you.
GO BRUINS!
If Prince could get his passing going (looks like he is too excited out there) and the Bruins could stop the stupid late hit penalties, they might have something.
I'm glad that Prince is steadily improving, but 9-17 for 99 yards, 0 passing TDs and 1 interception isn't fantastic. He did a great job with his legs, and an even better job confusing the defense with his (fake) handoffs, but this is not the balanced attack we will need going forward.
The defense looked great, but started to falter later in the game and gave up a few big plays. It wasn't even a fitness issue as they had plenty of rest. I expect that they will continue to improve as the younger players get more experience.
Hooray for the win, but next week will be a true litmus test. For now, though, god it feels nice to have actually throttled someone.
Of course I want UCLA to succeed. Neither "trash talker," "turd," nor "bandwagon" (another thread) apply when you bleed with every humiliating Bruin loss.
All of us who want Bruin success with every fiber of our being and express impatience when the team is completely unprepared, undisciplined, and unmotivated are fans just as much as you, only we're a lot less credulous.
Find some other team with which to indulge your exclusivist fantasy (perhaps South Central . . . their wagon will be emptying soon).
I'm happy for Rick and the boys! They looked like a team with heart this week. As long as they play with that intensity and the coaches continue to make wise choices (finally, the running game received the emphasis it deserved), Neu should stay.
GO UCLA!
Gotta give props to the O-line as they made some very nice holes for JetSki
Before the game thru bruin walk, they looked intense and focused, and ready to play. Go Bruins!!
Before the game thru bruin walk, they looked intense and focused, and ready to play. Go Bruins!!
Hey Jon,can u get a video of Kevin Prince.havent seen him in awhile and he played a lot better yesterday
That was better. Way to go Bruins! They're going to need the same attitude against UT.
Was Prince perfect? No. Was he a heck of a lot better than in the previous 2 games? Absolutely. A few drops again, but we were 5/6 converting 3rd downs at one point. Prince completed passes when he needed to, and he made some GREAT reads on when to pull it down and run it himself. The threat of Prince running was a huge contributing factor to the success of the running game overall.
That being said...Franklin and the O-line did an amazing job.
This win belongs to the defense though. Key players made some big plays. Ayers was a beast again and Larimore has left no doubt he deserves to be the starting Mike. Westgate even had a decent game.
We won ONE game. Let's not get ahead of ourselves. This is what happens every time. We'll win a game and suddenly everyone drinks a little bit too much of the Kool-Aid and get their expectations back sky high only to be let down the next week. This is still the same team who for two weeks looked pretty hopeless which includes getting absolutely embarrassed at HOME to a conference rival.
I don't know blitzed... I'm feeling pretty good about that stanford game after seeing them put up 68pts on a usually competitive wake team. If our offense was firing last week like it was this week I think we would have had a shot.
Kudos to the Bruins and to the coach for not going for unneeded points at the end of the game like cheaty would have done.
A lot of you people need to realize this is a young team trying to get better. It's good to be happy about this win. I don't think anyone's expecting a national championship here. They came out tough, focused, and beat up a ranked team. Good for them - especially after last week's embarrassment. Neu had them ready to go. And Stanford could be a top 5 team.
There's still plenty of things to improve upon. The young players look good and will hopefully get better. We've got something to build on. I agree Prince needs to be more accurate, but he played tough and led that team to a W with Franklin. This program won't turn around overnight. We took a nice step forward, and we can take another next week even if we don't win. If you have the proper expectations, you should be happy about yesterday's performance. I'm very happy.
The roughing calls were BS.
Brock, the ACC is pretty bad in general this year, not including Wake coming across the country to play on the road. They came into OUR house and stomped us out. Stanford is a good team yes, but even a remotely decent UCLA team would have been able to play them tough. And we didn't. And not to take anything away from the win yesterday, but that seemed more like Houston not showing up compared to UCLA being THAT much better. Our offense last night wasn't what I would call stellar but it got the job done.
I think we need to keep things in perspective. This is still a .500ish team on it's best day. Let's see what they do on the road Vs. a very good Texas team.