UCLA Recap 2010

(Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images)

In an absolutely critical game for both teams, Cal and UCLA battled it out on Saturday in Memorial Stadium. Well if you call a 35-7 romp, a “battle” that is.

The Bears looked fired up and ready to make things right after a few early season gut-wrenching losses. Cal absolutely owned the Bruins in the trenches, imposing their will en route to holding UCLA to just 143 total yards of offense.

While there were some areas of concern, Cal fans should be absolutely thrilled with some of the things we witnessed.

Battle Won in the Trenches
Me? I’m ecstatic that we have a game we can really point to this season as one in which the Bears dominated in the trenches—on both sides of the ball. The Bears have had their share of blowouts, and a lot of them have been because a number of big plays that usually make highlight reels, but don’t really do a lot in terms of building confidence in either line.

Saturday’s game however was a different story altogether. The Bruins knew our passing game had been the weakness of our offense, but the Bears still managed to open up some giant running lanes for the backs as Cal totaled 297 rushing yards. UCLA had only been giving up 158 yards per game on the ground. The Bears eclipsed that number partway through the second quarter.

There was some fantastic blocking all around, particularly from the fullbacks who had previously struggled in some blocking assignments. In sum, the offensive line really imposed their will in the running game today.

Most fans however, are probably more amped about the defense’s performance in defending the vaunted UCLA pistol attack that had seemingly found its rhythm headed into the game. UCLA had come into the game averaging 262 yards per game on the ground and scoring 25.8 points a game. Yet the Bears squelched the UCLA rushing attack, holding the Bruins to just 25 net yards on the ground. Most of those came from a 31 yard scamper from UCLA RB Jonathan Franklin (which came after some shoddy tackling).

If there’s anything I like more than a blowout, it’s a blowout when both lines are dominating.


Nastiness on Defense
The defense was nasty today, on so many levels. The Bears brought a multitude of looks, shutting down the Bruin rushing attack and pressuring Prince all day.

I stated in My Keys to the Game that the Bears would want to force Prince into throwing positions. And other than one drive in which Prince looked sharp, the Bears did a fantastic job of committing to taking away the run and putting the Bruins into some third and long situations. It was exactly what they were looking for.

Kevin Prince was held to just 99 yards, completing just 13 of 39 passes on the day, with a TD and an interception. The Bears also notched 5 sacks on the day and 10 tackles for loss.

I liked the calls for the corner back blitz, allowing Hagan to making some really nice looking sacks.

The defensive performance could best be exemplified by Mychal Kendricks’ filthy tackle on Derrick Coleman. It was ala Bret Hart style right before setting up the sharpshooter.

All in all, other than some shoddy tackling on a 31 yard scamper by Jonathan Franklin, the Bears played like their hair was on fire, gang tackling and rallying to the ball.

Fantastic effort and focus defensively.

Something to Consider
After today, the Bears defense have given up just 15.8 points per game on average, good for second in the conference. They have also just given up just 254.2 yards per game, tops in the category.

Now, take out the debacle that was the Nevada game? The Bears would have given up just 193 yards and 6.5 points per game, which would have put them tops in the nation in both categories. I know it’s still early on in the season, and you can’t strategically factor out certain losses, but it truly speaks volumes as to how well this defense has played when focused and prepared. Impressive.

One-Sided Offense
How you feel about Cal’s offense probably is very telling of what type of Cal fan you are. If you can ignore Cal’s deficiencies in its passing game (just 9 of 16 for 83 yards), you’re probably a “Sunshine Pumper.” Conversely, dismissive of Cal’s 297 yards of rushing and are calling for Allan Bridgford to start taking first team snaps, you’re probably a “Negative Nancy.”

I pride myself in being fairly level-headed, while others might say I’m dithering. On one hand, the rushing attack was absolutely phenomenal. Just a thing of beauty. The Bears were running at will and our backs looked fantastic. Given Cal’s ability to run the ball, I’m quite alright with the Bears having decided to stick with the running game more.

However, I’m enough of a realist to know that today’s passing performance simply isn’t going to cut it on a consistent basis in this conference. It’s not so much that the Bears chose not to pass as much, it’s how they looked when they did. There was too much hesitation, and I’m not quite sure whether that was Bears’ receivers’ inability to get open or Riley’s inability to locate the soft spots in the zone coverage. Heck, Cal’s offensive line had a poor day in pass protection, so I’m not ruling that out altogether. What I do know though, is that the few chances the Bears had at running looked out of sorts and tentative.

Variety in Offensive Looks
I loved the different looks the Bears showed on offense today. We saw Cal’s first attempts at the Wildcat this season, the zone read (although I think some were designed QB runs), an option at the goal line, end arounds, reverses, fly sweeps, and so on and so forth.

While I’m a bit surprised that Cal chose to reveal so much in terms of its different looks, I think it speaks to the urgency the Bears had coming into the game, as well as their insistence on trying to stretch the UCLA defenders to the edges to open up the inside running lanes for Cal’s backs.

Shane Vereen…So Hot Right Now
For the third straight game, Shane Vereen rushed for over 100 yards on the ground, and continued his annual gashing of the Bruin defense. Vereen had 151 yards on the ground and two scores. He also added three receptions for 51 yards.

Vereen has had some impressive games, but he looked phenomenal today. On Vereen’s second touchdown, he bounced it to the outside, stiff-armed a Bruin defender, and dove for the pylon for the score.

On a floater of a screen pass from Riley, Vereen launched himself into the air, spun out of a tackle, and carried a defender for a first down.

Just brilliant stuff. After today, you’ve got to think Vereen has to be in the discussion for all-conference honors.

Ridiculous Penalties
Penalties really hurt the Bears on their third scoring drive, and could have been a game breaker had it not been for the Bears’ ability to move the ball. Two penalties in particular were absolutely awful calls.

I have to watch the highlights again, but the holding call on Dominic Galas on Jeremy Ross’ would be TD run was laughable, with Galas having only gotten one hand on the defender.

The Conte call that was called for roughing the kicker was laughably bad though. Conte threw himself into the air, landed, had the punter land on him, and was called for roughing the kicker. Pfff. Get out of here.

Special Teams Struggles
It was a down day for the special teams unit, which is a bit concerning and disappointing. It was particularly disappointing to see Cal’s kickoff coverage team give up so many yards to UCLA after seemingly having made such progress in this regard. Josh Smith is the most talented return man the Bears have faced thus far, but we should not have seen those lanes open up as quickly as they did.

Anger, was fantastic again punting the ball on the few occasions he did. However, it was a bit concerning to see how close UCLA got to Anger on punts. One of those will get blocked this year at that rate.

And Tavecchio has somehow called upon the ghosts of Holmoe past, with his ability to hit the cross bar in back to back games. He’s definitely shown plenty of leg this season, but you’ve got to scratch your head a bit at the rate at which he’s hit iron.

Finally, it was a tough day for Ross fielding punts and kickoffs. He botched a number of kicks, and his last one led to Cal’s only turnover on the day, and could have helped UCLA make the score look a bit more respectable had Cal’s defense not clamped down at the goal line.

Moving Forward
The Bears came out fired up, and answered some questions as to how they might fare against UCLA and their *gasp* pistol offense. At the end of the day, it might be more of an exposure of UCLA and the teams they beat, as well as an affirmation of the fact that the Bears rarely lose to mediocre teams at home.

Regardless, the Bears dominated in a win they desperately needed, and now face a USC team that seems to be clicking, but simultaneously getting kicked in the nuts in the waning moments of games.

Next Saturday’s game will be one of the tougher tests of the season, and I’m both encouraged by the Bears’ defense while my concerns with Cal’s offense seem to be fairly validated at this point.

As for today, who can ever complain about crushing the Bruins on beautiful Saturday afternoon? I sure can’t.