UCLA football fails to execute in blowout loss at home to Indiana

The word of the day at the Rose Bowl on Saturday Night was execution. Or the lack of it. The UCLA Bruins football team, playing in their first game as a member the Big Ten Conference, failed to execute on either side of the ball and got blown out on their home field by the Indiana Hoosiers, 42-13.

The late, great USC and Tampa Bay Buccaneers football coach John McKay was once asked after a game, "What do you think of your team's execution, coach?" McKay replied, "I'm in favor of it." A funny line and one that had to cross the mind of UCLA head coach DeShaun Foster after watching his team get dismantled by Indiana.

At his press conference after the game, Foster talked frequently about execution. "Indiana came out and played a great game," Foster said. "They came out and executed, played good. Our Guys didn't really execute. We have got to get in there and watch the film and find a way to get guys to execute. But you can't make any excuses. We lined up and got beat."

The Hoosiers left no doubt on this night that they were the better team. From the opening kickoff, the Hoosiers dominated on both sides of the ball. Indiana took the opening kickoff and drove 75 yards in 12 plays, scoring on a 3-yard touchdown pass to wide receiver Miles Cross from quarterback Kurtis Rourke.

On the first UCLA offensive play following the ensuing kickoff, a fumble by quarterback Ethan Garbers was recovered by the Hoosiers at the Bruins 17-yard line. Three plays later, Rourke connected with wide receiver Ke'Shawn Williams for a 14-yard touchdown pass, giving the Hoosiers a 14-0 lead halfway through the first quarter. The rout was on.

Rourke ended up throwing four touchdown passes, completing 25 of 33 passes for 307 yards. On third down, Rourke connected on all nine of his attempts for 128 yards, and eight of those nine completions led to either a first down or a touchdown. Rourke was named the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week.

That was the first time since Week 6 of the 2020 season that an Indiana player had won the Big Ten Offensive Player of the Week. The Hoosiers were 3-24 in Big Ten Conference play over the past three seasons. They have either improved significantly or this UCLA football team is in for a long season.

On the defensive side of the ball, UCLA had zero sacks and zero turnovers. Rourke had plenty of time to throw and his receivers were consistently open. Indiana had rushed for 123 yards and two touchdowns, averaging 4.2 yards per carry. UCLA was 7th in the nation in sacks last season with 43 and had 15 interceptions, but lost a lot of talented defensive players during the offseason and will likely need to look for immediate defensive and offensive talent in the transfer portal after the season is over.

On the offensive side, the UCLA offense produced 13 points, after scoring just 16 points in the first game against Hawaii. The new pro-style offense being implemented by Offensive Coordinator Eric Bieniemy is not working well to this point. The overall offensive talent on the UCLA roster may not be good enough to make a pro-style offense work at the college level.

Garbers is getting hit too much and is struggling to connect with receivers. In 2023, Garbers completed 67.1% of his passes, with 11 touchdown passes and just 3 interceptions in 11 games. This season, Garber has completed 54.1% of his passes, has 1 touchdown pass and has thrown 3 interceptions. Last season he rushed for 127 yards in 11 games, this season he has rushed for 68 yards in two games. He is running out of necessity.

Foster was asked about the play-calling from Bieniemy, and the answer was familiar. "Yeah, when you play football the plays are all the same," Foster said. "It's just that people call them differently. The wording is different. It's not like it's completely a foreign thing to them. It's not necessarily play-calling, it's an execution thing." Foster mentioned the word execution at least seven times in his press conference, as did Garbers and linebacker Oluwafemi Oladejo in their post-game press conference.

The next three games for the Bruins will be as tough as it gets. This Saturday, September 21, the Bruins will travel to Baton Rouge, Louisiana to take on the LSU Tigers. LSU is ranked No. 16 in the latest AP football Poll. The following week, the Bruins will return to the Rose Bowl to greet the Oregon Ducks, currently ranked No. 9 in the nation in the AP Poll.

The following week, the Bruins travel to the east coast to play the Penn State Nittany Lions, currently ranked No. 10 in the nation. This murderous trio of games will be a significant challenge for the struggling Bruins.

The LSU game will be televised locally on ABC beginning at 12:30 pm. LSU is 2-1 on the season, with their lone loss to USC in Las Vegas, 27-20 a few weeks ago. On top of LSU's 38-27 loss to UCLA in 2021 at the Rose Bowl, the 100,000 Bayou Bengal fans in attendance will be looking for revenge and any team from Southern California will do.