UCLA Football: 3 takeaways from disappointing loss at Cincinnati

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PASADENA, CA – OCTOBER 20: Linebacker Colin Schooler #7 of the Arizona Wildcats pullls at the jersey of quarterback Dorian Thompson-Robinson #7 of the UCLA Bruins as offensive lineman Jake Burton #73 of the UCLA Bruins tries to block Schooler during the first half of the NCAA college football game at the Rose Bowl on October 20, 2018 in Pasadena, California. The Bruins defeated the Wildcats 31-30. (Photo by Victor Decolongon/Getty Images) /

2. UCLA is a very young team — and it played like it

Dorian Thompson-Robinson has not played a lot of football. He started one year of high school football, and he’s a true sophomore playing in one of the more complex offenses in the country. They had issues along the offensive line all night.

Although they didn’t have star running back Joshua Kelley for the game due to a knee injury, the Bruins could not get the run game going at all totaling just 62 yards on the ground.

Thompson-Robinson seemed confused by the coverage the Bearcats were throwing his way, and it seemed as if the play-calling was a bit vanilla and conservative by UCLA head coach Chip Kelly.

Desmond Ridder torched UCLA’s young and inexperienced secondary throwing only eight incomplete passes. There didn’t seem to be much communication and cohesion along the Bruins’ offensive line either. They weren’t able to get the running game going (Kelley didn’t play) at all.

Tonight’s game proved this is a larger rebuild than people thought.

Granted, this is only game one, but there were a lot of mistakes and miscues on both sides of the ball. You did see flashes of what’s to come, however. You saw true freshman tackle Sean Rhyan shut down defensive ends Kevin Mouhon and Ethan Tucky for most of the game and Thompson-Robinson threw a beautiful touchdown pass to Demetric Felton.

There was some good for the Bruins tonight, but mostly bad and ugly.

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