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PASADENA — After practice last Wednesday, UCLA coach Chip Kelly pulled up a sheet of South Alabama’s statistics and showed them to his players. Among the more impressive numbers: The Jaguars were the top Group of Five team in ESPN’s overall efficiency rankings.
“But at the end of the day, it’s still our team versus their team,” Kelly said, as relayed by linebacker Carl Jones Jr. “And we got the better team.”
By a single point, it turned out.
The Bruins’ 32-31 win on Saturday at the Rose Bowl over South Alabama — which started its football program in 2009 and hasn’t had a winning season since becoming an FBS program in 2012 — staved off discussions that Kelly said would’ve likely involved the questions: “Who beat who?” and “Hey, did you see that score?”
“That’s a really, really good football team, and we knew this was going to be a close, back-and-forth football game all along,” Kelly said, “So there’s nothing they did that surprised us.”
That doesn’t mean similar discussions might not be taking place. On the plus side, UCLA is 3-0, all its preseason aspirations are within reach and its first Pac-12 game next week is against winless Colorado.
There is still plenty of time to make Saturday’s shaky win — which required a botched trick play by South Alabama and clutch kicking by Nicholas Barr–Mira to pull off — a footnote.
“We still have a lot of work to fix up,” Kelly said.
That may start with the defense, which was off to a strong start under new coordinator Bill McGovern. UCLA entered the game leading the Pac-12 in rushing defense, allowing 62 yards per game. It limited Bowling Green and Alabama State to an average of 236 yards per game, ranking 13th in the country in total defense.
South Alabama blew up those numbers.
The Jaguars had 399 yards of offense: 237 in the air and 162 on the ground. Running back La’Damian Webb gashed the Bruins’ defense in his 16 rushing attempts for 124 yards, and he added 42 more receiving yards. Quarterback Carter Bradley was 26 of 36 for 237 yards passing, going stride-for-stride with Dorian Thompson-Robinson.
“Hats off to them,” Jones said. “They were a great team. Offense was amazing. (Webb) could run the ball. (Bradley) could sling it.”
But the Bruins didn’t help themselves either.
Bradley was barely pressured at all, with Darius Muasau recording the defense’s lone quarterback hurry. The only tackle for loss came when Jones broke up the field-goal trick play and sacked the holder. Bradley had clear lanes to throw, especially on third down, where South Alabama was 9 for 13 on conversions.
“I thought the kid showed tremendous poise, tremendous ball location,” Kelly said, but he admitted UCLA “did not do a good enough job pressuring him today with a four-man rush.”
On the ground, Webb was slithery, but he had gaps to run through. On the nine-yard touchdown run in the second quarter that gave South Alabama a double-digit lead, Webb was practically untouched running straight up the middle and into the end zone. The Bruins allowed a 100-yard rushing performance for the first time since last November against Colorado.
“I thought the running back was outstanding,” Kelly said. “People bounced off of him, he broke tackles and they’ve got a good scheme offensively and did some nice things, so sometimes we’ve got to give them credit. They made some plays when they had to.”
In the end, the defense stopped South Alabama on third down when it mattered most, Thompson-Robinson and the offense delivered a near-perfect two-minute drill and Barr-Mira’s right foot was perfect the entire day.
UCLA’s offense, behind Thompson-Robinson and a sturdy back in Zach Charbonnet, is expected to remain one of the most explosive in the Pac-12, if not the country.
It’s the defense that could determine the season’s trajectory.
“The offense is going to change, but the defense is going to be the same every week,” defensive back Mo Osling said. “So just fine-tuning it.”
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