UCLA Football: Growing Pains in the Passing Attack
The UCLA football season has started with some growing pains, as drops and missed targets have stymied the offense. Looking forward, executing on offense will be a crucial factor in how successful the Bruins are this season.
The UCLA Football team has thrown the ball for an average of 305 yards in the first two games of the season and quarterback Josh Rosen is currently tied for 17th place in the 2016 season in passing yards.
While both metrics are well above average, the stats don’t tell the story of how UCLA’s offense isn’t clicking as well as it could be. Dropped passes and missed throws are keeping UCLA’s offense from being elite.
Growing Pains
Against Texas A&M in particular dropped/tipped passes lead to drives being stalled, a turnover, and points crucially being left of of the board. Rosen didn’t have his best game either, missing receivers and throwing three interceptions.
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Had the offense been executing to it’s potential it’s hard to think that an overtime loss at A&M might have had a different result.
In addition to last season Jordan Payton, Thomas Duarte, and Devin Fuller led in all purpose yards by receivers in both the 2014 and 2015 seasons. Fuller and Payton were also the second and third leading receivers, behind Shaq Evans in the 2013 season.
This offseason presented a huge a turnover at the wide receiver position, that there hasn’t been in several years. Just like any other position, youth and inexperience always come along with hiccups.
Looking back, it would have been rather optomistic to think that new receivers were immediately going to match the production of three NFL draft picks.
This is combined with the fact that it’s still early in the season. Last year the Stanford offense was awful against Northwestern when it first debuted, scoring only 6 points. The Cardinal would go on to average 37 points a game, and never scored less than 30 after that first game.
Additionally Stanford didn’t make a dramatic change in scheme and kept the majority of the key skill position players from the previous season. UCLA experienced dramatic change to both.
With a combination new receivers, a new offense, and a new season, you’re looking at a potpourri of potential factors that could lead to a rough start. Pragmatically speaking, it would have been miraculous if the new season got off without a hitch given the circumstances.
Nov 21, 2015; Salt Lake City, UT, USA; UCLA Bruins quarterback Josh Rosen (3) drops back to pass during the second half against the Utah Utes at Rice-Eccles Stadium. UCLA won 17-9. Mandatory Credit: Russ Isabella-USA TODAY Sports
Moving Forward
Running back Soso Jamabo said in a post game interview, the only people who can stop the Bruins from marching down the field, are the Bruins themselves.
While this is a tall claim, there’s no question that UCLA has had flashes of brilliance and that if consistently strung together could produce one of the best offenses in the country.
Looking to the future, I believe this offense will improve week by week. There’s a lot to like about this offense.
Mandatory Credit: Ray Carlin-USA TODAY Sports
There’s no question to me that UCLA has the talent at the receiver/tight end position to have a terrifying passing attack. While UNLV is obviously a less talented defensive team than Texas A&M, there were clear signs that UCLA improved on its offensive execution, however, it still has yet to execute its potential.
UCLA’s success in the rest of the season will largely depend on how quickly UCLA can consistently fire on all cylinders.
Hopefully the Bruins can get to this as quickly as possible, as it’d be great to start off the school year by breaking the losing streak with Stanford!
In the video above, Rosen is hoping that someone from the receiving corp can step up, and become a reliable target for him similar to the role Payton played for him last season. Who do you think it will be?