This isn’t the UCLA that beat LSU back in 2021
With the season in full swing, it’s easier to get a read on how LSU’s opponents are going look when they come in. USC and Nicholls were mysteries, while South Carolina was tough to read. At this point, though, most other teams are starting to show who they are. Each week, I’ll be looking at LSU’s upcoming opponent and breaking down a game they played in the last two weeks. The questions that matter are simple: how did this happen and what does that mean for Saturday’s game?
If there’s any team where this feels appropriate, it’s UCLA. UCLA is coming off a 42-13 home loss to Indiana. That should not happen ever. It was Indiana’s largest road Big 10 win since a 63-32 clobbering of Wisconsin in 2001. The Bruins weren’t expected to be any good this year thanks to the late bailing of Chip Kelly and the void of talent on the roster. Despite that, Indiana made them look far worse than anyone imagined.
There were four key areas that allowed Indiana to blow the Bruins out of their own stadium, and each are areas LSU needs to exploit.
Unforced errors/bad luck:
This game could’ve been a bit closer, but the bad luck from two plays hurt tremendously. Indiana marched the ball down the field to open the game. The first thing UCLA wanted to do was anything except what they actually did. I can’t find the clip of the play on its own, so I’ll describe it to you. Ethan Garbers lined up in shotgun with T. J. Harden to his right. It’s an RPO designed to go to Harden, but Garbers saw a quick throw to his left and tries to do that. He hit Harden’s hand, the ball came loose and Indiana recovered at the 17. The Hoosiers scored a touchdown three plays later. The next drive ended with a 41-yard field goal miss by Mateen Bhaghani.
Those two drives killed UCLA. LSU may not get that lucky, but if the defense holds them and the offense can score, UCLA will fall into some traps. One way LSU can exploit that is in the secondary.
Critically bad DB play:
UCLA’s defense in general is worse than last year’s. They lost their DC to USC and lost their top three sackers to the NFL. I’ll get to the linemen, but it’s important to note some of the play by the DBs. Kanye Clark is a redshirt freshman, so he should be allowed some room to grow, but his decision making was off in this game. Perhaps the most notable miss any DB made was when he overran a short route by Elijah Sarratt. Sarratt leveled Clark at the end of the play on his way for a 16-yard gain. Missed coverages and bad plays hurt UCLA the entire game.
Overall, Indiana used a good mix of motion and RPO to force already bad DBs into even worse spots. LSU uses that already. Hope for more of it. However, LSU needs to enforce its will in the trenches, and this will be a cakewalk compared to what they dealt with at South Carolina.
Linemen getting bullied:
This was the key takeaway from watching this game: UCLA got bodied in the trenches. The defensive line got neutralized. They never got a sack, though part of that is thanks to Kurtis Rourke being good at making throws and avoiding pressure. Indiana ran for 4.2 yards per carry, 123 yards on 29 rushes, thanks to mashing UCLA. There were multiple runs where Indiana’s back wasn’t touched until at least three yards after the line of scrimmage, and the final TD was a walk-in 14-yard TD run.
On offense, UCLA’s line looked terrible. Garbers was under constant pressure, and while he handled it well with his pocket mobility, he got sacked a few times, including ones called back by penalty, and got hit on about half his throws. The run game got nowhere thanks to bad blocking. Eric Bieniemy is UCLA’s OC, and he’s back in a position where it’s impossible to tell if he’s good at his job because of the talent he’s been given. LSU needs to feast. They can generate pressure, we saw that Saturday morning, but they had their issues with creating good pockets for Nussmeier. Even if UCLA gets their chances, they didn’t show they could take advantage of them.
Advantages squandered:
It was tough to make the thing start with an “A,” but it works well enough. Indiana got penalized 14 times for 127 yards. Two of those were for targeting in the second half. The defensive penalties kept drives alive, and by some miracle, UCLA got 6 points from those two drives. When given chances to score, UCLA got burdened by the three areas of weakness above and crumbled under pressure. LSU needs to play a clean game so they don’t give UCLA anything to use and make it a game.
UCLA is a bad football team and losing to Indiana by 29 showed that off well. LSU should hope to be done with this game before the 4th quarter starts.