Utah vs. UCLA: Game Grades for Bruins

On the legs of Devontae Booker and Kendal Thompson, the Utah Utes were able to upend the UCLA Bruins by a score of 30-28. 

The duo combined for over 200 yards rushing. Credit Kyle Whittingham for inserting Thompson into the game early. It was apparent UCLA did not prepare for the zone-read aspect of Utah's offense. 

On the other side of the coin, UCLA's protection of Brett Hundley was horrific. Hundley was sacked an eye-popping 10 times on the evening. To make matters worse, the play-calling by offensive coordinator Noel Mazzone was bizarre and downright bad. 

A full box score can be found here, courtesy of NCAA.com.

Check out first-half grades and final game grades for the Bruins. Additional analysis for positional units will also be addressed. 

Position Units	First-Half Grades	Game Grades
Passing Offense	C	B
Pass Defense	C	B
Rushing Offense	B	D
Rush Defense	C	D
Special Teams	C	C
Coaching	C	D

UCLA Bruins Game Grades

Passing Offense

From a statistical standpoint, Hundley was solid. Going 16-of-21 for 269 yards and two touchdowns would normally be a decent night. When Hundley had time to throw the ball, he was effective. When inundated with pressure (as he often was), he had the tendency to drop his head and look at the pressure—as opposed to searching for his receivers down the field. 

Unfortunately, the horrid throw on a screen attempt led to a pick-six by safety Tevin Carter. The early score helped to give Utah immense momentum from the beginning of the contest. 

Pass Defense

The secondary wasn't really tested. Due to the success of the Utah ground game, there wasn't much of a need to throw the football down the field. Utah's two quarterbacks combined for only 100 yards passing the entire ballgame. 

However, Utah did capitalize on a deep throw to Dres Anderson for a 42-yard touchdown. UCLA's defense cheated up in hopes of stopping the run. Utah was able to exploit it and go over the top for the score. As former Bruin Flipper Anderson prophesied, his son did "wreck it" for UCLA. 

Rushing Offense

The running backs did a decent job. UCLA relied on Paul Perkins extensively in the second quarter for a scoring drive. He finished with 99 yards on 17 carries. Jordon James took over the majority of the carries in the second half and came away with a respectable 51 yards on 11 carries. 

The offensive line was a different story. Hundley was sacked 10 times on the evening. Yes, that's not a typo. Nate Orchard lived in the UCLA backfield for the duration of the contest. The UCLA tackles weren't quick enough to deal with Utah's speed rush, and the interior of UCLA's offensive line didn't obstruct the exotic blitzing schemes of the Utes' defense well enough. 

In short, it was both an embarrassing and shocking effort by the group.

Rush Defense

There were times UCLA did do a nice job of bottling up Booker. However, the threat of Thompson running the football made things difficult. The zone-read was an aspect of Utah's offense not extensively used coming into tonight. I'm sure UCLA did not think Thompson would play virtually the entire contest. 

Booker broke numerous tackles and ran extremely hard. On the night, Utah rushed for 242 yards on 55 carries. UCLA's biggest problem came on containment. The defensive ends crashed very hard on the zone-read option exchange. Thompson simply pulled the ball out of Booker's belly and ran on the edge when the ends committed. 

Utah killed UCLA on this multiple times. 

Special Teams

Credit Utah's supreme special teams unit for not kicking to Ishmael Adams. On the one kickoff return Adams had, he ran for 72 yards. Unfortunately for the Bruins, a holding call negated the big return. 

The missed field-goal attempts at the end of the game also were unfortunate. Ka'imi Fairbairn's second-attempt from 50 yards away just narrowly missed wide. It was a long kick, but one Fairbairn needs to make. Punting from Matt Mengel was solid on the night, kicking with a 45.5 yards-per-punt average. 

Although no points came from it, Utah's surprise onside kick recovery in the first half was a negative. The Utes have a famed special teams unit. UCLA needed to be prepared for anything and everything. 

Coaching

The defense didn't adjust well enough on the zone-read. I'll give Jeff Ulbrich a bit of a pass. No one expected the mobile quarterback Thompson to play as much as he did. I'm sure UCLA did not dedicate a ton of time to defending against this wrinkle. A ton of credit does go to Whittingham for integrating this aspect of the game.

Offensively, Mazzone's play-calling was abysmal and puzzling. Hundley was pressured all night long—as evidenced by the 10 times he was sacked. In order to combat against this pressure, one would assume Mazzone would opt to throw slants, screens, quick-throws, run draws or even roll Hundley out of the pocket. 

NONE of these things occurred. It was if the UCLA play-calling was subjugated to four or five plays. There was no imagination, no creativity and no adaptation. 

In a word, it was bizarre.