UCLA falls at Houston, 38-34
HOUSTON -
UCLA took the bait, but it certainly couldn't tackle.
Allowing quarterback Case Keenum to surgically maneuver all over the field, the Bruins were done in by the Houston short game, falling 38-34 in the teams' season-opener at Roberton Field on Saturday afternoon in front of 31,144.
The Bruins were reeled in by a rope-a-dope offense that was more than happy to take what they could get as opposed to stretch the field deep, which the UCLA defense expected and for which it prepared.
Keenum, in his first game back from a season-ending torn ACL suffered at UCLA last season in Week 3, was methodical and patient in leading the Cougars to six scoring drives. The Heisman candidate - who should finish his Houston career as the NCAA's most prolific passer - completed 30-of-40 passes for 310 yards and two touchdowns while not completing a pass of more than 26 yards.
"I'm pissed off about the way we played," said senior safety Tony Dye, who led the team with 10 tackles. "The offense did an amazing job. You put up 34 points for us, that's a win. That's a win. That should be a win every time."
Only it wasn't, as when the Bruins weren't tripping over each other, they still could not trip up the Cougars.
Repeating a sore subject from last year - a theme that helped contribute to the firing of defensive coordinator Chuck Bullough - the Bruins took poor angles of pursuit, whiffed at air and allowed 6.2 yards per carry to running backs Bryce Beall and Michael Hayes.
The most egregious miss? A Hayes 34-yard touchdown run late in the second quarter in which three Bruins converged on the Cougar ball carrier, only to be shucked off like flies at a picnic. Houston would add another touchdown with less than a minute left in the half as the offense moved 64 yards in three plays, culminating in a 23-yard Keenum-to-Tyron Carrier touchdown pass.
"We missed a lot of tackles," acknowledged senior linebacker Sean Westgate, who battled a bad arm bruise for much of the game but finished with nine takedowns. "They got us in space with good athletes. I feel like we can practice better. You fit the tackle right, you finish your tackling. We've been coached to do it. We've just got to practice better."
The defensive effort combined with poor play in the kicking game as redshirt freshman Kip Smith missed a crucial field goal and had a PAT blocked, spoiled a standout performance by the UCLA offense.
A year after finishing 100th in the country in total offense and 116th in passing yards per game, the Bruins burst out for 554 yards, including 322 yards through the air.
Junior quarterback Richard Brehaut, who relieved junior Kevin Prince (concussion) with UCLA down 10-7 in the second quarter, completed 17-of-26 passes for 264 yards and two touchdowns and added 13 rushes for 87 yards and a score.
Brehaut was at his best during the third quarter as the Bruins attempted to rebound from a 31-14 halftime deficit, completing 6-of-7 passes for 110 yards and adding 39 yards on the ground as the Bruins scored two touchdowns to make a game of it.
But just battling back was not enough to leave UCLA players satisfied.
"This is my senior year; I'm tired of losing," senior wide receiver Taylor Embree said. "I'm tired of almost getting stuff done. There's a point where it has to happen now. We showed some flashes of what we can do offensively, but we didn't close."
Still lacking the cutthroat mentality that eluded them last year, the Bruins weren't able to overcome little mistakes against an offense that rarely makes them.
Down 31-28 with 14:15 left in the game after forcing a Cougar punt, UCLA was not able to take control after a false start by center Kai Maiava kicked off a drive that covered just four yards.
Houston got the ball back at its 37-yard line following a Jeff Locke punt, and Keenum went back to work, leading the Cougars into the red zone in less than three minutes. In fact, Keenum was so good, even a Houston offensive lineman scored, as center Chris Thompson recovered a Carrier fumble at the 1-yard line and rolled into the end zone to stretch the lead to 10.
"He's proven why he's such a great quarterback," safety Alex Mascarenas said of Keenum. "There's a reason he's a Heisman candidate. He's on point with every throw, quick with every throw. He's a good one."
The Bruins were not able to respond in kind, as a seven-minute, 15-play, 65-yard drive stalled at the 15-yard line and resulted in a Smith 32-yard field goal miss. While UCLA added a touchdown late on a Brehaut-to-Anthony Barr 11-yard touchdown pass, Smith missed the PAT and the Bruins could not convert an onside kick.
"I've been telling guys we beat ourselves today," Brehaut said. "Houston did not beat us. They were not doing anything out there that was stopping us. Our offense was unstoppable today. We were beating ourselves up. The penalties, that one turnover, those are things that if we want to take this team to the next level and be the championship team we all know we can be, we can't be doing that."
Brehaut is half right, the UCLA offense stopped themselves mostly, and there is reason for optism on that side of the ball. But the UCLA defense did get beat, in fact, they got their asses handed to them.
Worst defense I have seen in YEARS. That was absolutely horrific.
"Our offense was unstoppable today." That's what I like to hear. Reminds me of Cade McNown.
Now if the defense can get on board. The D was what ruined our chances at a national title way back when.
Westgate is horrible and should not be the voice of the D. I don't get why he gets so much play.
There are 3 parts of a football team (offense, defense, and special teams). You can't win with only offense.
offense was only 'unstoppable' because Houston's D is horrendous. Don't get too excited, Brehaut. You didn't look that great to me.
Seriously, I'm in my 50's and run a 7.6 40 and I know I would of moved up on those receivers and covered them better. Jon you have to ask the D coordinator if he is using some kind of bend but don't break defensive scheme. At some point you have to adjust and say beat me deep.
264 yards passing and two scores, 87 yards rushing and a score? 554 yards of total offense to Houston's 469. You're a tough nut to crack, I guess.
Those are awesome numbers from what we've seen in the last 10 years.
Was at the SC game and the Trojans did not look great, and could have lost.
And it sounds as if ucla is in trouble too
Gonna be a long year in Los Angeles again, but Oregon has calmed down from their dominance, so there is only Stanford and perhaps ASU to get by in the Pac-12
Why interview Westgate. He doesn't belong on the field.
Preparation for deep passing game showed. Ability to adjust to screens and hot routes was non-existent.
As bad as the tackling was, our new D coordinator had better just had an off night.
Mascarenas and Westgate instead of Riley and Kendricks. Someone in control is brain dead.
I think Bullough got shafted. At least he usually made some good adjustments at halftime. Tressey made 0 adjustments, i mean absolutely nothing changed. That's inexcusable.
Enough is enough. Our recent defensive coordinators just don't read what's happening in the game....and that means few effective adjustments are made. To have Larimore covering a quick WR was ludicrous. And poor Westgate...how many tackles did he whiff? The Houston O-line didn't have to overpower our rushers...they simply guided them past the QB, often by up to 10 yards. Where is our technique? No spin moves, no swim moves, certainly no power moves. Rather than putting on weight, our D should be working on improving speed, reaction time, quickness, balance, and tackling. And are there too many cooks in the offensive kitchen? Who's making the calls? Are Mastro, Johnson, and Coach Rick on the same page? No more 2 QB schemes! Coach Rick, make the decision NOW to start Brehaut and then stick with him. Prince is, sadly, just too injury prone to merit the starting job. When he goes down, it affects the rest of the team emotionally and psychologically. Then Richard has to come in and try to pump things up again. Give him the starting job and get some continuity into the O. The players will love you for it. We are now 0-1...just like last year.
We were at the game today and most of us Bruin faithful were very dissappointed. Yes, the offensive played very hard all day and the D just looked like they were frustrated and had enough. Corners were playing so far of the ball, that Keenum could get rid of the ball so quickly. Ask our D coach why we rarely sent pressure. Keenum had all day to throw the ball. What happened to our new aggressive defense. CRN needs to wake up and stop playing it so close to the vest. Down by 10 with 5-6 minutes left and he continually runs the football up the gut. We were all amazed at his no sense of urgency. Slow huddles and not aggressive. Frankly, this style of football is getting old, not to mention expensive. I do believe it's not so much the players but this coaching staff. Most of the fans that traveled this weekend have come to the same conclusion. Here's hoping we can get better. The only place left to go is up!
Uh, UCLA outscored Houston 20-7 in the second half and allowed 173 yards. That's not second-half adjustments?
Like Jon said, we outscored them 20-7 in the second half. Brehaut did a fantastic job and deserves more credit. Hopefully that second half team is the one we'll see going forward.
I'm really worried about our kicking game though. Kip Smith's confidence must be shot!!!!
Our offense was not the problem, they were great today. The defense however, blargh
Jon, why do you continuously stick up for this coaching staff. I know you interact with them on a daily basis and have a job to do and don't want to ruffle any feathers, but these guys have failed miserably. I just hope that when Neuheisel doesn't live up to the expectations YOU laid out (bowl eligibility at least) that at least you will suck it up and admit that this coaching staff has failed and it's time to clean house. UCLA deserves better. Part of the reason we keep failing is because of apathy and unwillingness to hold coaches accountable. If UCLA were a big time football school there would be no way Neuheisel would have survived last season. I can't look at this game today and say the team has improved even one iota after all the glowing reports out of practice and all the "relentless optimism" spewed by our clueless coach. I mean the only silver lining is that maybe the Pac 12 sucks so much this year that we might be able to squeeze out a few wins, but then I remember that Neuheisel has a 25% conference winning percentage or something completely pathetic like that.
I think he was talking about adjusting on the fly. The entire first half we let them have the quick throws and short screens. Zero adjustment and they put 30+ on us in the first half because of it.
Thom, I think that was larimore covering the running back on a wheel route. Not positive though, going to watch that game again tonight.
Jon, we outscored them 20-7 because of a fluke turnover in the red zone, hell closer to the 1yard than the ten. Otherwise it would've been 14-20. That's not much of an adjustment.
Houston kept throwing the same pass over and over again and UCLA could not defend it. At least 5 times in the game I saw three receiver lined up on the right side with only two UCLA defenders, WTH?
And on that run by Hayes for that 38 yard TD, after Westgate missed the tackle three different Bruins were trying to kill Hayes by hitting him with their shoulders and Hayes was bouncing from one Bruin to another, but NONE of those guys ever tried to wrap him, Hilliard, Holmes, and Jones all could have wrapped him but they thought by trying to kill him he would go down, that was the worst example of tacking at this level of competition that I've ever seen.
However our Offense looked great and much to the dismay of the Brehaut haters, he showed some giant sized huevos that I believe all true Bruin fans should be happy to see and I don't expect the defense to make that same mistake again of playing pinball with a runner instead of wrapping him.
Yes, the Bruins look MUCH better than the did in 2010 and I look forward to seeing them win the majority of the games this season.
Go Bruins!!!
You can't totally pile on the defense. The offense didn't help enough in the first half to keep the D off the field. Same thing happened last year. Yeah, tackling could've been better, but that's easy to say from my air-conditioned living room. Houston has a good offense, and it's tough to keep up with them in that heat. Thank you, Gold, for correcting these people about adjustments and how much better we were in the second half.
Being down 17 at half time, this team didn't quit and rallied back to nearly tie the game. We had nearly 100 yards more on offensive for the game. There is hope!!! Our defense didn't go from good to crappy just because of this game. Let's address the problems and move on. We are not going to be playing Heisman level QBs in their 6th year every weekend.
To "Hadenough"
I cringed when I first saw it, but congrats on your picking Houston, 31-24.
With how we tackle, now I cringe at the thought of the real Texas team rolling into the Rose Bowl in two weeks.
This guy has no reason being on the field other then on Special Teams, he just gets killed all game long. He can't tackle, everyone runs over him its like my 4y/o trying to take me down. Did you notice the screen was always thrown to his part of the field? Where was he? Maybe he fell in a hole on the field? But is a shame that Kendricks has to play behind him, Kendricks was the only one who actually tackled. Riley looked good as well, you would think when the RB is matched up with a LB why not put in 2 more safetys at the LB spot to match the speed? I just hope on Monday RN does not come out talking out of his rear! I can't stand that stupid were going to get better talk, or the we need to work harder and were doing as a staff BS. Eihter way the D let this team down and they better look in the mirror and realize this is not practice these games count.
How often do you run over your four-year-old, Meet the Bench!?
All preseason we've been reading and hearing how fast our linebackers are and how the defense is again the strength of the team. Unfortunately, they forgot how to tackle. Time and again, I saw LB's and DB's arm tackling at the shoulder pads. Few of the guys were getting low and wrapping up. It's embarrassing. Tresey blitzed and Keenum picked it up and got it to the right guy. Keenum looked Heisman-like today because the Bruins couldn't stop them. Dumb penalties on both sides of the ball. CRN may need to start going for 2 like Lame Kiffin if Smith continues his kicking woes. This was a winnable game if the defense could only stop them once or twice in the first half.
Bullough----is that you????
I don't stick up for anyone, I condemn ridiculous comments. Houston had 173 yards in the second half after 296 in the first half. They were marching down the field in the first half and UCLA at least improved in the second half. And to say "these guys have failed miserably" after 60 minutes against one of the best offenses in the country, is ridiculous.
John I respect you but you are wrong about this one.That was some of the worst tackling I have seen n a while.Plus our defense which was better n the 2nd half we was getting no pressure on the qb and our linebackers we down r dreadful.I don't care about jousting offense we had all summer to get prepared for it and we failed.the linebackers which was surpose to b a strength on this team can't play n space and don't tackle very well.I know it's just one game but the only difference I c n this team is that our offense is alot better this year.I'm convince we'll win about 4-5 games this year no bowl game,which will include a bad recruiting class and more excuses next year.
GO BRUINS!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Jon, I appreciate that you're trying to make us feel better and breathe optimism into the UCLA football program but you've only been covering this program for two years. Some of us have been living this nightmare over... and over... and over... since 12/5/98. Maybe Houston will be one of the "best offenses in the country" but we cannot judge that after one week of football. All I know is that a 4-8 team beat this same Houston Cougars team by more than two touchdowns last year. And the same 4-8 team (that is allegedly bowl bound and according to Kirk Herbstreit, winning the Pac 12 south)got gashed by the same Cougar team.
I'm saying it right now, UCLA needs to win 8 or more games for Neuheisel to keep his job. There are far better, more imaginative, coaching candidates out there for UCLA to be underachieving at epic proportions. The pressure needs to be on for this team to have a decent season. These players and coaches aren't performing with the sense of urgency needed to reach our expectations.
I saw some real reasons for optimism after this game.
WAY TO MUCH PANIC after ONE GAME people. The offense can go not cause Houston can't play d but cause guys can and did make plays Nelson, Franklin, Fauria, Coleman, Brehaut, and Prince who made a great throw on our first scoring drive. Lastly I think Sheldon price had a great game he put their best receiver on L's and I believe Tony dye when he says he is pissed off at the way the d played and I bet Larimore and Datone are too those guys are leaders they will get on guys and I bet they don't play like that another game this season. It's gonna be a good year trust. We all can help too don't let the rose bowl be HALF EMPTY next week or the week after support your team boost their confidence every team plays better with a SOLD OUT CROWD and TRUE FANS behind them.
Living on the East Coast and working nights, I've seen most of my Bruinball via tape/DVR over the years. It's a double-edged sword, because while I've built quite a library of memorable games I also have the, um, advantage of seeing/hearing/reading the analysis and reaction before I ever watch the actual event. I've got to say (with the exception of 66-19 in '05), I haven't felt this much dread over pressing "play" in a real long time. I'm thrilled at piling up 554 yards and Brehaut and Co. making a game of it, far less so at Kip Smith's performance. I'm willing to give the defense a one-game pass based on the game plan (from what I've read) geared toward Houston's deep-vertical game becoming more intermediate. It's no excuse for the missed tackles that seem to be a theme; maybe the Texas heat has something to do with that. In any case, they say a team shows its most improvement between Weeks 1 and 2, and I'm banking on that. One game does not a season make. If anything, it simply adjusts our expectations (offense - better than feared, defense - a little worse than hoped) we spent 10 months forming. Here's to a 2-1 start before conference play. Go Bruins!
Trying to keep emotions out of my assessment and considering the offensive prowess of Houston; our defense looks really sloooooow. That is extremely disappointing since in my opinion you can improve on most aspects but speed is the most difficult.
To me it looks like we have a weight room defense, guys that got bigger physically but need to work on agility.
Lastly, am I the only one that is concerned about Sheldon Price? He was able to shut down his man (as the commentators also called out) but to me it seems that the level of contact he uses can open the door for penalties. I can count several times where he was beat, started to hold but was bailed out by a long pass.
Huitz:
I totally agree w/yer first 2 grafs and am impressed w/how many others picked up (sadly) on the sad truth exposed in this game ... we are bigger on defense, yes, but seem to be much slower. That's a bad trade, unless you are bragging about beef up front for goal-line stands. Which we didn't do well -- I was shocked by this -- in Houston either. Our 2 guys missing from last year being in the NFL now is partly to blame, yes, but that can't be allowed as a true excuse. Our strength/conditioning/speed/agility crew should be exposed for what we look like right now. And I don't buy the "Houston has a great offense though." Well, so does Oregon. And Stanford. And Cal. And ASU. And UW. And -- maybe not as once feared as before -- but so does SUC, too.
Lastly, I think Sheldon Price should be praised for his effort in Houston. He played it very aggressive against one of the nation's best, toed the line w/what was allowed by the officials, and gives us a lot of hope back there.
Glenn Love was another bright spot before going down ... I hope he's not out long, as he does things you should expect to come natural at the major college level: A). Be in position; B). Make the hit; C). Wrap up & finish it; D). Repeat.
There may still time for improvement and a lot of critics seem satisfied with a vastly improved offense. But I'm not sure five for twelve on third down against a mediocre rush and secondary is enough to get to six wins in the Pac-10 this year.
or the Pac-12
Cheer up Bruin fans. Your guys played well yesterday. Lots of teams are frustrated after they play against a Case led offense. It’s not that you didn’t adjust to cover the underneath routes better, it’s that you were playing the way you needed to play. The only time you switched out of that mode Keenum burned you for 67 yards in 36 seconds. Take heart, if he can stay healthy, the 38 that you held us to will be our lowest output of the year. Now suck it up and go beat Texas :-)