THESE ROUTES WERE MADE FOR WALKER

Bruins Walk all over Wildcats — Josh Rosen throws three TD passes, including two to Kenneth Walker III, in 45-24 rout of Arizona

u$c may own the LAPD, but UCLA owns Arizona.  Jim Mora’s Bruins have now beaten Rich Rodriguez’ Wildcats FIVE straight times, and once again, it was easy, with a 45-24 thumping.  The Bruin Defense continued its week-by-week improvement, playing stellar D for the third straight game, but this time, the Offense and Special Teams finally joined the party.  And during the Second Quarter, it didn’t look like the Offense was even invited to the party.

The Bruin Offense had its worst quarter of the season, missing on almost every 3rd down, with Quarterback Josh Rosen throwing a dozen incompletions (not ALL of them were drops).  The Bruins led 14-7 at Halftime, as “the unders” looked like a sure-thing bet.  Both Defenses had settled in and were dominating, as there were more punts than First Downs.  I don’t know what Mora said in the locker room during intermission, and I don’t know if he made adjustments, but the UCLA Offense that came out in the 3rd Quarter was the Offense that Bruin fans have been waiting for all year.

Rosen couldn’t miss, and the Receivers were making plays.  True Freshman Theo Howard caught a ball, made a great move, and took it to the house.  On their next possession, they drove for a Field Goal.  On their NEXT THREE possessions, they scored Touchdowns, putting the game out of reach.

Rosen passed for 350 yards and 3 TD’s (He also “ran” for one, on a QB sneak).  Kenneth Walker III caught 2 of the Rosen TD tosses, and amassed 114 yards Receiving on 4 catches.  Darren Andrews also broke the 100 yards Receiving mark, with NINE grabs for 108 yards, AND, he scored a Touchdown on a 26-yard fly sweep running play.

The Bruins also got a little bit of a ground game going.  After a miserable First Half Rushing, things picked up in the Second Half, with no help from Soso Jamabo.  Soso carried 6 times in this game, and never gained a single yard.  He ended up with negative 12 yards net.  Could it be that he had a quarrel with the Offensive Linemen, who then decided not to block for him?  Nate Starks did not have the same problems Jamabo did.  Starks gained 83 yards on 17 carries, breaking tackles and finding daylight with tough interior running.  Starks also made two great blocks that helped Walker and Howard score Touchdowns.  By the way, Jamabo DID contribute something:  He caught a short pass and scampered 33 yards.

The Bruin Defense looked great most of the day, with Jayon Brown (11 tackles) and Kenny Young (12 tackles) containing the run, and the running QB.  The D-Line controlled the Line of Scrimmage, and the D-Backs blanketed the Receivers, and delivered hard hits throughout the game.  They played great, especially on Third Down, and that last TD scored by Arizona was while UCLA had mostly reserves in the game.

There is one thing that you have to realize about this Defensive performance:  Arizona was missing their Starting QB, and then the back-up got injured.  Also, the Starting Running Back got injured, so the Arizona Offense was definitely not full-strength.  If you are wondering how they took Washington into Overtime but got killed by UCLA, these injuries may explain things.

Regardless, the Bruins won all three facets of the game, including Special Teams.  Ishmael Adams finally broke one on a kickoff return, for 52 yards (He also broke off a 14-yard run from scrimmage that set up a Nate Starks TD run).  Adams got injured, but Randall Goforth stepped in and returned a Kickoff 50 yards.  Add to that a 33-yard Punt Return by Adarius Pickett, and the fact that the Cats’ longest return of the day was 23 yards, and you can safely say the Bruins won the Special Teams battle.

The Bruins finally put together a complete game, and they have a 5-game winning streak over Zona to show for it.  Next week the Bruins travel to ASU, who got pummeled by sc yesterday, so they will be mad, and back at home, where they are undefeated.  The Bruins will have to put together another complete game to come home with the victory.

Speaking of victorious, the pics from Saturday came out pretty good.  Here are 77 more (16 game, 60 CHEER, and 1 miscellaneous).  Many more to come over the next 13 days…