SILVER LINING (NON-EXISTENT) PLAYBOOK

Buff-plugged — Despite #15 Colorado TRYING to give the game away, this Rosen-less Bruin SUCKFEST keeps SUC out of first place in the Pac-12 South, thanks to a dozen (mostly stupid) penalties, a dropped TD pass, a dropped Interception, three botched Field Goals, two allowed massive Punt Returns (one for a game-turning 4th quarter TD), a half-dozen play-ruining bad snaps, and last but not least horrible play-calling by the worst O.C. in school history

No, I wasn’t rooting AGAINST the Bruins so that u$c wouldn’t become tied for first place in the South Division of the Conference.  But… IF we have to lose, it might as well happen in a game that would hurt the trojans in the standings, and this one did.  UCLA, playing again without their undisputed leader and indispensable star QB Josh Rosen, failed to take advantage of a horrendous performance by Colorado, losing to the Buffaloes in Boulder 20-10.

#15 Colorado did NOT resemble a Top 20 team on Saturday night.  Their Quarterback Sefo Liufau hadn’t thrown an Interception all season long, but his streak of 148 straight passes without a Pick came to an end, as Tahaan Goodman snagged a tipped ball for the Bruins’ 1st INT of the game.  Cameron Judge also picked off the formerly un-pickable Buff tosser.  Both passes were horrible, with no chance whatsoever of being completed.  On another play, Liufau got pummeled by Takk McKinley — who had the best game of his career by far — and the ball flew in the air to be grabbed by Jayon Brown and returned deep into Colorado territory.  This wasn’t ruled an INT, but rather a lost fumble.  The hit by Takk also knocked Sefo out of the game temporarily, and his back-up came in and promptly got Picked by Randall Goforth.  Colorado also had an un-forced fumble inside the UCLA 5-yard line, which caused them to have to try a Field Goal instead of a TD.  So not counting that fumble (which they recovered), there were FOUR Buffalo Turnovers.  It was enough to keep UCLA in the game, but not enough to win it.

Along with those four Colorado GIVE-AWAYS (all but the Takk-caused fumble were GIFTS), the Buffaloes also committed just as many stupid fouls as the Bruins did, many of them MORE flagrant.  They had a guy get ejected for targeting, plus three Unsportsmanlike Conduct flags, one Taunting call, an Unnecessary Roughness violation, and a Roughing the Passer call late in the game as the Bruins were trying to get the comeback win.

Does this sound like the performance of a quality 6-2 (now 7-2) team that’s in First Place in the South?  Hell no.  It was their worst showing of the year, and the Coach was livid, screaming at at least one of the culprits on the sidelines.  But even with this pathetic Colorado meltdown, the Bruins still couldn’t muster a win.

The Bruins are even worse than Colorado, on Colorado’s worst day.  The Bruin Defense actually showed up and played well, holding the Buffalo Offense to only 1 TD.  Besides McKinley being a true NFL-bound stud, Jayon Brown was also a monster.  In addition to his fumble recovery-return, he also had at least a dozen tackles.  Kenny Young also made several good plays covering a lot of ground.  Interceptors Tahaan Goodman and Randall Goforth also contributed mightily with run-stopping and pass coverage, as did Jaleel Wadood.  The Buffs had very few big plays.  But the UCLA Defense made a few mistakes that were too costly:  Young got nailed for Facemasking, and Wadood and Brown each drew flags for Unsportsmanlike Conduct.  All three of those infractions happened on Colorado’s third quarter drive that led to a go-ahead Field Goal.  The Defense also had a stupid 12 Men on the Field call, in the Red Zone, and Goforth dropped a sure INT.  Still, the Bruin Defense was the least culpable unit in this loss.  They held Colorado to 7 points in the first half, as the Bruins led 10-7 at the break, thanks to a Mike Fafaul-to-Darren Andrews 39-yard TD pass.

The UCLA Special Teams also had some good moments, but their bad moments wiped out the good ones.  Rick Wade actually blocked a Field Goal, and Ishmael Adams had a 47-yard Kickoff return that led to the Andrews TD.  But the Special Teams giveth, and then taketh away.  UCLA missed two make-able Field Goals, and also had another one blocked.  That’s 9 points wasted right there.  As if that weren’t enough, the Punt Coverage team allowed two back-breaking returns:  A 42-yarder that led to the game-tying Field Goal in the 3rd, and a 68-yard Touchdown that turned the Bruin outlook bleak, because it made the score 20-10 with 5:27 left in the game.

And that brings us to the Offense.  Fafaul wasn’t dreadful, but he wasn’t very good either.  He threw only one Interception, and didn’t lose any fumbles.  But he missed open receivers, and tried to thread the needle unsuccessfully too many times to count.  His numbers would have looked a little better than 15-for-29 for only 185 if not for a huge drop by Soso Jamabo and a dropped TD pass by Eldridge Massington.  Also, Center Scott Quessenberry had a disastrous game, snapping the ball over Fafaul’s head about a half-dozen times.  Each one killed the timing of plays, making the Rush attempts get completely stuffed.  Plus, one of the snaps went clear over the QB’s head, resulting in a 22-yard loss to the UCLA 5-yard line.  Apparently, Scott was playing with an injured shoulder.  Too bad there is apparently too big of a drop-off to play the back-up.  So… Fafaul doesn’t have to shoulder all the blame.  I won’t even put it mostly on THE PLAYERS.  Let’s talk about the horrible excuse for an Offensive Coordinator, Kennedy Polamalu.  The former trojan just doesn’t show that he knows what he’s doing, at all.  He’s known for weeks that Fafaul is at the helm, so the gameplan should be structured to his minimal strengths.  They should be running quick slants, quick screens, and moving the pocket.  Fafaul is pretty good at throwing from a moving pocket.  And most importantly, don’t put him in 3rd-and-long situations, KNOWING that the Bruins can NOT Run at all.  They are LAST in the entire Nation in Rushing, so don’t rely on the Running Game and expect it to work, especially not on the road against a Top 20 Team with a respectable Defense.

But that’s exactly what Polamalu did.  They ran repeatedly with Soso Jamabo.  It didn’t work.  Jamabo had two good runs, of 9 and 11 yards, and the rest were stuffed for virtually nothing.  They averaged less than 3 yards a carry, for 3 reasons:  The Line can’t run block or open any holes; Soso is too slow at picking a running lane and attacking it, and there is no misdirection or creativity to the runs.  It always looks like the Defense knows exactly what’s coming.  Also, what happened to Nate Iese?  Did Polamalu forget he had him?  Last game he set records, this week he wasn’t targeted.  Jordan Lasley also got hot last week, but wasn’t a factor at all this game until very late in the contest.  It took Polamalu two and a half quarters to start throwing on 1st Down, and that’s when Fafaul started to get in rhythm and move the team.  Even considering all the human error, it falls on the Coordinator when the team with all the talent of UCLA scored only 1 TD all game.  I will be shocked and appalled if this guy still has his job next year, unless he beats SC in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of SC, if UCLA would have beaten Colorado tonight, the trojans would be tied for first with Colorado (who they already beat this year) and with Utah (who BeatSC this year).  If it ends in a 3-way tie, nobody knows how the tie-breaking rules will shake out.  But sc plays AT Washington soon, so that might keep them behind the other two teams.  Or maybe UCLA can beat troy at the Rose Bowl.  But based on tonight, you can’t seriously be RELYING on THAT.

OK… now here are some more new UCLA Cheerleader photos to soothe your weary souls (and eyes)…

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