UCLA v. Houston Report Card

Jon,

I was with you until your self aggrandizing comment and shot at the coaches. Yes, I know you were doing it tongue in cheek, bu a young beat reporter from the suburbs needs to get dry behind the ears before taking experienced coaches to task. Maybe in 10 or 15 years on the beat and you'll have some cred. Until then play it straight like a professional should.

The one game i miss(celebrated bday in south beach), they play great. Good for them. Glad to see finally a positive vibe around the team. I am honestly not scared of Texas, I truly think we can take these guys. If we can bring the same effort and intensity from what ive read, an upset in Austin can happen. Every up and coming program has thier signature, this could be ours. GO BRUINS!!!

Forgive me but until we can throw the ball down the field at all we don't deserve an A! The Rosario experiment needs to end and we need to throw the ball vertically. TX is going to stack the box.

Defensive line a C? really? I was thinking somewhere around a B-

around a B- is a C

Rosario and Embree both dropped td passes last night. Texas is gonna stack the box and make Prince beat them. We'll see how our hog-mollies do against Tex and our passing game better show up! Don't understand why we haven't seen Carroll and Marvray and Smith in same receiver or slot sets. They can help open the passing game with cossing routes.
Ucla is gonna win next week! Go Bruins!

if B- was a C then i wouldn't have had to retake statistics.

I think your grades were very generous. We beat Houston not Texas. Houston is a very 1 dimensional team which fits into our strength. Don't forget we could have put the game away if we hadn't had 2 fumbles by a running back and an interception as we were driving. We had too many penalties including 2 by one of our defensive ends. The offensive line didn't miss a beat without Kia which makes you wonder how he was awarded the starting job in the first place. Harris had started the previous 2 years. Also it became obvious at the end of the game that our oline was getting tired and not getting the same push. Maybe at that time you give them a blow and avoid the possibility of injury. All in all a great win for the Bruins but definately not an A performance. That performance won't keep you competitive against the Longhorns.

Don't forget, Larrimore had 2 TKO's as well. It was his coming of age party.

I think we've said all along the critical piece of the puzzle, the thing around which everything else revolves was the offensive line. With this line play everything else suddenly becomes possible. kudos to the whole bunch of em.

Yes, It was a great win! However, I agree with the prior posts...Our receivers need to step up. Our veteran receivers (Rosario and Embree) are dropping key passes. Yeah, why aren't Smith, Marvray, and Carroll getting more attention? I was there during the Spring and Summer practices and they stretched the field with some highlight plays....LET'S USE THESE KIDS! If our passing game comes together we do have a chance to surprise Texas. I'm very proud of our offensive line. And Larimore is a BEAST!!!!

Again, a great win! But alot of hard work ahead. The PAC-10 is gonna be very tough...

Nice win Bruins!!!

Franklin played an amazing game, Larimore was incredible and Prince actually had a pretty nice night!

Now for my negative side....It seems to me that Rosario wants to make the spectacular 1 handed grab on every pass thrown to him that does not hit him right in the numbers. I think if he would have gone up with 2 hands on that INT it would not have been an INT!

Anyway great all around win...keep it going!!!

GO BRUINS!!!

Can not keep dropping balls, will come back to bite us,,,,,,,,,

Just great at the game. Hoping for more.

Mantra for the 2010 season: Pass the ball or die tryin'!

Embree at PR is as slow as Philip Rivers in the wildcat. Stupid decision. Second and 1 and they don't throw deep is playing conservative. That happened 3 times. You can still get a 1st down on 3rd down. Rosario always has his arms at his sides. you can't use your arms to catch if your arms are dangling like an ape.( no pun intended). Both players are soft like Brian Poli-Dixon and Dominique Johnson. Lots of wasted talent.

You don't know how bad I wanted Embree to house that thing so I could come back on my "I TOLD YOU SO!" tour...

While the drops are inexcusable...there are other reasons guys like Embree and Rosario play over guys like Smith and Carroll. Route running and downfield blocking ability chief among them. Look no further than Franklin's first TD run to see just how good at blocking Embree is.

Doesn't matter how fast a receiver is...he's not gonna get open unless he runs a great route to do so. DB's are pretty fast too...and they get a 5+ yard cushion.

Hey bruins, I hate to piss in you guys kool-aid but its gonna be a totally different ballgame next saturday. Houston played absolutely no defense and didnt have NOT ONE NFL CALIBER PLAYER on D, Texas has at least three...on the D-line! And that "deer in the headlights" look on KP last night in a victory at home against a physically inferior D is only gonna be magnified in front of 100,000 saturday night at Texas stadium leading to multiple turnovers and another BLOWOUT loss for the bruins! But good luck anyway :)

With regard to the down field blocking abilities of Embree and Rosario...Yeah, that's fine for running plays...I get that. Football 101. However, the way we bring in different receiver sets for different down and distance situations, let's utilize the talent accordingly...Like I said, Marvray, Smith, and Carroll have done it in practice...Get them meaningful game touches. Rosario is just too timid...Light a fire under him by having the others challenge his starting role.

And yes, I do have all the confidence in the world with how Coach Chow calls the game and personnel matchups. I'm just hoping that he will unleash the mid-range and vertical passing game soon. We're gonna need it against Texas. We can't be one dimensional (with our running game). Yes, it's all predicated on how KP's timing is progressing. It's getting there. I would love to see our coaches "unwrap the new toys" and let KP sling it!

Go Bruins!!!

Sorry, but you can't have different personnel packages exclusively for run/pass. Your offense would be way too predictable. If UCLA only ever brought in Carroll and Smith when they were planning on airing it out...the D would adjust accordingly...and they would stack the box whenever Embree and Rosario were in.

If other teams see a pattern of "whenever this guy's on the field, they do X"...they're all over that. It's just like running backs. If a defense catches on that they never pass when a certain running back is on the field, because that RB sucks at pass blocking...they'll just stack the box cuz they know whats coming.

And Marvray has been getting plenty of touches. Only one ball to go around.

Franklin gets 150+ yards and stil gets an A-.
Last week he had 11 carries for 79 yards and got an F.
It is obvious that Jon Gold doesn't know anything about RBs. Franklin is a great runner and is they key to UCLA's season.

The A- for running backs also includes Malcolm Jones and his 2 fumbles.

I totally agree with Anon.

Jon,

How can you rate the RB's an A- when Jones not only fumbled twice, but lost both fumbles on potential scoring drives. Both fumbles were in defenders territory and the first one could have been a disaster, as it killed the momentum of Ayers long Int. return and put the D back on the field after a long opposing drive. This could have been a disaster.

Kid,

This isn't Oaks Christian pal. You can't carry the ball like a loaf of bread.

Can somebody please teach this kid how to protect the rock?

Only minor disagreement would be with O-line. I would give a B. They are doing great on running plays, but still seem to give up too much pressure in obvious passing downs. Perhaps part of this goes on Prince, not making quicker decisions, but it's something I've noticed.

It was a nice win but giving the qb a c+ when the passing attack dropped another three places to #118 out 120 teams is clueless or bias.