Head coach Jim Mora talks about the defense’s performance against Memphis and a few injuries UCLA picked up.
I missed some of his interview, so to read all of what he said, hit the jump.
Opening statement
A lot of things got us today. In the formula for winning, you can’t turn the ball over and you can’t give up explosive plays and we turned the ball over, we gave up explosive plays in the first half. They caught us in pressure-ones, some busted one on ones, we got beat a couple of times and we missed a tackle on the first run and those things, they hurt us. We didn’t capitalize on field position well enough in the first half offensively and put the ball in the end zone, so a very disappointing loss. I have no doubt that our team will come back strong, they’ll find a way to put the disappointment behind them and get back at it and work. These guys, they work hard, everyone in that locker room every single day comes to work and tries to do the very best job that they can to have a positive result and today we didn’t get it. But we know the reasons, we talked about the reasons right there, and it’s going to take every single one of us to correct it and we will continue to work very, very hard on that, so that’s what I have to say.
On Josh Rosen
Good and bad. He made some really good plays and obviously he would love to have the turnovers back. He has to learn to be a little bit more careful with the ball. One of the things about a guy like Josh Rosen is, they don’t ever like to concede a play and that’s a mind-set that you love but it’s a mind-set that can get you in trouble at times and so he’s just got to continue to work through that and I have no doubt that he will.
On playing more of a 3-4 defensive front this week:
We played almost exclusively, really 5-2. As everyone knows, we were limited personnel-wise on defense, so we played most of the game with five down, two linebackers and four defensive backs. We played Jaelan (Phillips) and Keisean (Lucier-South) as 3-4 as outside linebackers, essentially, and Krys Barnes and Lokeni (Toailoa) inside and Josh (Woods) when we got him back in the second half and then Rick Wade played some in there as well as an outside linebacker. You can call it a 3-4, or a 5-2, whatever, it was an odd front, is what it is. Besides that first run where we missed two tackles, were right there and missed the tackles, those guys did a heck of a job playing the run. But it wasn’t good enough.
On the last drive:
We had it, we were moving it, like I talked about, our quarterback just making good decisions with the football, knowing when to throw it away. He tried to throw the ball down the sidelines there and Theo (Howard) did all he could to try to eliminate an interception and it ended up being offensive pass interference that put us in first and 25, which is obviously not a good situation to be in when you don’t have a timeout and the game’s on the line. And then we couldn’t dig ourselves out of it. I thought Jalen Starks made a tremendous job to get us to fourth-and-6 or fourth-and-7 and we have to find a way to come up with a make on the fourth-down play and continue on and we didn’t get it done today.
On Rosen putting more pressure on himself as the game got into a shootout:
I don’t know. I mean, you’d have to ask him that. I think that he’s the ultimate competitor. Like I said, I think it’s one of the reasons that at times he tends to do some of the things with the ball that he does because he refuses to concede a play. I think the next step for him in becoming a great quarterback is getting us to the next down and for some reason that’s difficult for him to do right now. Like I said, I appreciate that mind-set; I’d much rather have a guy that’s like that than it’s the other way and coach him out of it and I know that Jedd (Fisch) is working hard at that and I know Josh takes it very seriously. I’m sure you guys will get a chance to talk to him and I’m sure that he’ll be very hard on himself. But I know this: He’s one heck of a player, he’s one heck of a competitor, he’s a great kid, he’s a great leader, his teammates love him, he works his tail off to be great and this will affect him losing the game, as it will all of our players.
On the defense and the secondary giving up six passing touchdowns:
Well, the two screens weren’t necessarily on the secondary. The first one, we’re in a man pressure and they came down and picked Lokeni, couldn’t get to his guy; the second screen, the outside linebacker busted the coverage, so those weren’t on the secondary but any time they pass for that much, you don’t like it. We weren’t doing a good job really of getting pressure on the guy and they got those two long screens. Boy, those really hurt us in the first half. They really hurt us.
On Jaelan Phillips and Nate Starks’ injuries:
I haven’t got an injury report. Jaelan went out in the fourth quarter and it looked like it was either his ankle or up in his shin area—I have not talked to the trainers about it. I know he was on crutches but I don’t know what the diagnosis is there.
On Nate Starks
I believe it was something in the knee; once again I have not got a report on what that was yet. I usually get that later. During the game, our medical staff does a great job taking care of those guys and then I’ll get the report when I need it.