Cal whoops UCLA, 35-7
BERKELEY -
UCLA made it clear it could handle the state of Texas.
Now if only the Bruins can do something about their brethren to the north.
Just four weeks after a 35-0 throttling by Stanford at the Rose Bowl on Sept. 11, UCLA traveled to Cal and was once again smacked around, this time a 35-7 loss in front of 61,664 at Cal's Memorial Stadium.
It was 14-0 less than seven minutes in, and it only got uglier from there.
"(Special teams coach Frank) Gansz talks a lot about the fog of war - when the marines get into war, they lose their minds, and it becomes hard to do the assignment," said UCLA junior safety Tony Dye, who had 10 tackles. "It's hard to get other guys to get on board when they get into the game and their head is spinning. Sometimes it's hard to recover from that, but we have to find a way to stop that."
As openings go, UCLA's first drive went over like the Titanic.
Only the Titanic actually got somewhere before it tanked.
After Cal scored with efficiency and precision, running back Shane Vereen (202 total yards, two touchdowns) capping a long drive with a one-yard touchdown plunge, the Bruins started at their 23-yard line.
This was it, UCLA's phenomenal ground game versus a Cal defense that had both an extra week to prepare, and a sneak preview of the Pistol offense, as Nevada demolished the Bears in Week 3, 52-31.
But a holding penalty on junior right tackle Mike Harris set the Bruins back 10 yards, and UCLA was ultimately forced to punt.
Round 1, Cal.
Rounds two, three, four, five and six? Cal, Cal, Cal, Cal, Cal.
UCLA punted on five of its first six drives, and the other? A Johnathan Franklin fumble at the Bruins' 17-yard line on the second drive that set up a Vereen four-yard touchdown three plays later, making it 14-0.
"We can't beat ourselves," UCLA head coach Rick Neuheisel said. "We can't have holding calls, we can't fumble the football. When we play a field position game with people, as we did in the second half, the score was 7-7.
"We can't do it to ourselves."
Oh, no, coach, Cal did it to UCLA, as well.
The Bears moved the ball with relative ease behind Vereen, sophomore running back Isi Sofele (80 yards rushing) and quarterback Kevin Riley (83 passing yards and one touchdown, and a one-yard touchdown run).
Meanwhile, the Bruins had their backs against the ropes, down 28-0 at the half, and they had to try to throw their way out.
Not the best idea.
With poor protection, little help from receivers who dropped pass after pass and coming off a knee injury that cost him the team's Week 5 matchup with Washington State - a 42-28 win led by backup Richard Brehaut - UCLA sophomore quarterback Kevin Prince was hung out to dry.
Prince completed just 13-of-31 passes for 99 yards, with a six-yard touchdown pass to F-back Christian Ramirez and a late interception. Worse, Prince was ineffective in the zone-read running game, only twice carrying the ball on keepers, and was sacked four times, the Bears totaling five sacks and 10 tackles-for-loss.
"We had an idea that they were going to try to take the run away and make us throw the ball," Prince said. "That's what they did; they played a lot of man coverage, and they were able to load up the box a little more. They did a great job of taking the zone read from us. It seemed that every time my read told me to pull it, they had an extra guy coming around on me. We couldn't get anything there."
For the first time since its loss to Stanford, UCLA found out what happens when the Pistol misfires.
The running game, which was brilliant during the Bruins' three-game winning streak, totaling 967 yards against Houston, Texas and Washington State, was exposed.
The passing game, which simply hasn't gotten off the ground this season, was exposed even more.
"At some point I think you do (have to develop offensive balance," Prince said. "If you stick to the run in this kind of offense, there's ways to take it away. Any time you become a one-dimensional team, defenses figure out a way to take it away. The Pac-10 is too good to not have defenses not be able to do that.
"We have to find that balance."
I'm very disappointed in the team and the coaching staff. The Bruins were never in the game. Its one thing to get beat,but to get dominated in a conference game is unexcusable. This team should be improving with "our youth" as Coach would say. But this is an embarrassment and shows me that having a "competitive" football program is no where in the near future. CRN is running a pistol offense without a QB than can run it functionally. The pistol needs a QB that has the ability to run with quickness. The only one is Bell and he'll never see the field. He's the QB that should atleast be given a chance to compete. Why not? Prince & Brehaut are doing little to be a playmaker on offense. This coaching staff should be embarrassed with the product they put on the field. It'd be different if the Bruins were competive and losing, but that isnt the case. After being a Bruin fan for over 40 years it is very frustrating to watch. I'm not looking forward to the Oregon game on national TV. I didnt think it could get any worse, but it may. Come on CRN. Find a playmaker and get them on the field. It's you team now. No excuses.
On the bright side, BruinRob is enjoying himself posting vulgarity on Inside USC.
Im just dissapointed in Prince. He's so bad. Its amazing after 3 years he still looks like a freshman. No composure whatsoever.
I'd go out and sign 2 more QBs.
It's like a broken record: UCLA beats out-of-conference, big time program, and then gets shalacked by a PAC10 opponent.
CRN needs to change something up, or he'll be out of a job after next year. I can't see us breaking through next year without a new QB, defense, and some receivers.
Kevin Prince is averaging less than 100 passing yds pr game! We need to find a quarterback that can stetch the field and make plays. It's embarassing losing the way we did. Ou defense held up in the second half. We had about 4 three and outs in a row and couldn't move the ball! I don't blame the defense at all except for the first drive. How can our defense be good with our offense going 3 and out every series? Our offense is pathetic and we run no middle routes or deep crossing patterns or take any shots downfield ever! Harkey shouldn't be starting period! He's dropped a pass in every freakin' game this year! We need a Locker, Luck, or somebody! Where in the world is Cade McNown when you need him? Hope Brett Hundley is ready to start next yr!
Riddle me this CRN...if we were going go pistol, shouldn't we have kept Forcier around!
What is the plan here? Did I miss something or is K. Prince the next Steve Young! Mike Vick! Kordell Stewart! I love Prince's Heart and determination but the unfortunate realty is that he is a injury prone, average QB with a heart as big as the Rose Bowl and that = 6-6. I agree with everyone else, I just don't see what he's done to keep Brehaut, Bell and Co. from getting a chance. It reminds me of dare i say Dragovic.
Prince is at his ceiling, where is Brehaut's....sadly it looks like we may never find out
GO BRUINS!!!
That was painful to watch. Don't blame Prince for everything. The offensive line is poor at pass blocking and Prince always has pressure right up the middle and can't follow through. If he does have time the receivers drop the ball. UCLA does not have a play maker at the receiver position. The whole game, the bears were pressing our receivers and didn't respect any deep threats. Next year, the whole offensive line is gone again and they will be rebuilding. I'm not sure next year's going to be any better.
I like CRN but, I'm losing patience. The team needs to be competitive in the Pac 10 which they have not been. The schedule gets worse and this is going to be a long season. CRN will be given at least another year after this but, I'm not sure I've seen any progres especially after watching Jim Harbaugh at Stanford.
A question for everyone here, when these offensive linemen graduated this year, what make you all think we would be better offensively next year?
Wouldn't we be the same like last year or the year before with totally new core of offensive linemen and inexperienced?
Sad to say, but I agree with every post on the board. I will not wear my UCLA gear in public until we beat a respected Pac-10 opponent. It's just too damn embarrassing. There's no sense in demanding Rick's or Norm's heads...they are secure in their employment for at least another year...most likely until the end of 2012. When they use the excuse that our team is young and inexperienced and also old and inexperienced, I guess that just about covers every excuse they can think of. But what about Woods at $UC? A true freshman, and he was awesome today. And in his second year, so was Barkley. Now, that kid is a real QB. Sure, he's arrogant, but he's got every right to be. The kid's a gamer. And, man, wouldn't I love to have Andrew Luck under center. Basically, we sucked so bad today, I really don't want to watch the Oregon game. Only desperate hope would get me to watch it. We were humiliated, and there is no excuse for it. Rick can't coach or motivate, Norm can't scheme, and Chuck must just toss a coin whenever he calls a play. These are a hopeless trio of over-hyped underachievers. Time for a change!!!
Wusses. and I ain't talking about the football players, the coaching staff nor the 'program' either.
Whoops?
I like most people posting wasn’t happy with KP play. But, in his defense I put the majority of the blame for this embarrassment on the coaching staff. The “adjustments” made to the offense to confuse CAL because they had seen this offense against Nevada were horrid! It was obvious by the 2nd possession that they were not going to work. Where was the contingency plan? The Nevada QB ran rough-shot over Cal, the UCLA QB’s attempted to run the ball less than 10 times. This team was ILL prepared for this game. We deserve better! I have been a RN fan since he was QB for the Bruins, but frankly am just tired of hearing “we need to fix this, or fix that”. At one point there was a TV shot of the Bruin sideline, our team looked like a bunch of kids who were getting slapped around by their big brothers and were looking for a place to hide! COACHING! If I got paid as much as they do and came into a presentation as ILL-PREPARED as the Bruins were yesterday, I would have been invited for a private counseling session with my superior and possibly be updating my resume. Come on coaches we deserve better! Right now, I am humiliated to call myself a Bruin
hiya teDDies!!!
don't cry =( =( =( i told u this would happen...
U CAN NOT WIN AGAINST MIGHTY CAL =) =) =) AND trOJies ARE NEXT!!!
do u finally understan=D???
U REALLY REALLY SUCK!!!
bye bye teDDies!!!
♥ ♥ ♥ GO BEARS ♥ ♥ ♥
It's qb play that's killing us. Prince has got some guts, and I love that, but he can't throw. He's a decent runner, but he's too willing to take hits, which gets him injured. Brehaut can't run, and his passing isn't much better (if at all) than Prince's. The Pistol needs a running qb, so Prince is the better choice. But if he's hurt, it just won't work. He's already not a threat to pass, and now not a threat to run. I really think (hope?) Hundley will make a big difference. If so, he'll make the rest of the offense better and give the defense some rest. I have no idea how good our receivers are when we can't get them the ball. We've got some athletes on this team, so there's hope. But man, we need a qb.
Reality is whether it's a pistol, pro set, veer, etc the team with best, most prepared players usually wins. I still believe the pistol was a desparation move that will set UCLA's recovery back several years as they try to recruit players to run it and the coaches learn to coach it. I feel bad for the quarterbacks who were never recruited to be runners. 6-6 may be optimistic.
UCLA has no deep threats because the offense isn't set up to throw anything deep. Randall Carroll is the fastest wide receiver on the West Coast. in a year and a half, he's had exactly two long passes thrown to him, both resulted in PI's because he outran the DB's. Josh Smith was brought in and gets to return kicks.
The o-line can't pass block and Prince can't throw deep.
Kevin Prince can't motivate the offense like Brehaut - simple as that. Brehaut has a better arm than Prince. But if the receivers can't catch, bench 'em and give some guys who are willing to prove themselves a chance.
CT, I hope this message reaches you. Chin up, we go to Jon's site to read/watch his content PERIOD. I try not to get too involved with the comments on the message boards. However, sometimes even I need to decompress so I break out a low quality, blended scotch and save the good stuff for better days. OR, the majority of times, I visit Scott Wolf's Inside SoCal page after reading Jon's posts (sorry Jon, I'm sure you get HUGE amounts of visitors so you don't mind) and specifically look out for "Ghost of Charlie Bucket." He's on his own level when it comes to gamesmanship. I nearly spat out my coffee laughing so hard the other day. Hope this helps.