TheBrownBear

You are the first UCLA alum I've seen with this take. Chip was lazy, his recruiting was atrocious, he did minimal public interfacing and nothing to build excitement for the program which is why attendance absolutely cratered, and then he abandoned us at the worst time to take a coordinator position and left Foster (who was even worse, to be fair) without much in the way of talent. One bowl win in 6 seasons. Three winning seasons in six years. Finished ranked in the top 25 once and that was a season where he lost 3 of the last 4 including to that unranked Pitt team. Outside of the disastrous Neuheisal era, Chip had the worst tenure of any coach since Donahue. I don't disagree that UCLA is currently burdened with institutional limitations and the NIL has made the situation worse. And we desperately need a new AD. But I still think your expectations are too low. Mora (whom I was happy to see go by the end) proved you could recruit elite talent to UCLA.

Correct. Go watch some of his games from 2018-2021. Current Josh has lost more than a step from the earlier version. It's become apparent that he's no longer quick enough to reliably escape from pressure.

I'm a UCLA alum and I can attest to this.

True, but I just watched the All-22 and I've got to say I'm not impressed with Brady's route concepts. Too much mesh that took too much time to develop. Guys running into each other in the middle of the field making it very easy to defend. Might have been risky, but I would have liked to see Josh attacking the outside quickly like he did on that stop route to Gabe in the first half.

Based on the All-22, Shakir most likely gets 3-4 yards at most, but it would have been a sure first down.

You saw how much juice Hoecht brought in his very limited time on the field. We need fresh attitudes (and bodies). I agree with Success and posted the same in another thread. You could tell these guys were mentally burned out by how they approached the offseason/preseason. It was apparent with both Josh and McDermott - the two biggest leaders of the franchise. These guys were trying to take pressure off themselves, because they no longer had the emotional reserve to push through their perennial failures.

Yes, it may just come down to this. There's a lot of parity in the league and if you aren't ready to play you're not going to skirt by with a half-assed effort, even against the worst teams. Throw in injuries and a couple of key bad matchups (Dolphins and Falcons running games; Houston's ends and CBs) and you can end up with ugly road games like we've seen over the past six weeks.

I think we are mentally soft and frankly, organizationally, from top to bottom, just completely burned out by the seemingly endless close playoff losses at the hands of the Chiefs. You could see it in McDermott and Allen's demeanor and approach to the season during training camp/Hard Knocks - you could feel an organization with zero urgency or intensity. The emotional well is all tapped out and dry with these guys. Crazy as it sounds, I think we might be best served by collapsing a bit here and missing the playoffs entirely - hopefully, leads to a come to Jesus moment.

Josh just isn't a great on script QB. He can occasionally find that rhythm and then he's an all-time great in those moments. Overall, he relies too much on his athleticism and broken plays. Just look at the last two playoff losses. Ball in his hands and can't get it done.

Houston's defensive line dominated the game (they didn't really blitz) and our receivers couldn't get open quick enough. That was the story of the game. Still, we most likely win if we don't turn it over 3 times.

I laughed at this early today, but desperate times...

Was he even out there tonight?

The o-line got whooped tonight, but they were up against it and Brady did them no favors. I think they are fine in the short-to-mid term. The problem is the offensive scheme and the pathetic receiving corps. The D is a big issue with tons of holes to fill. Hairston and Bishop are promising playmakers. Walker might turn into something and Oliver is good when healthy, but we otherwise need replacements at safety, both ends (assuming Bosa walks), both linebacker slots, nickel corner and another starting caliber corner to push Benford.

Things looked pretty dire in 2021 and 2023, but we still somehow won the division, so I can't write us off completely. But, IDK, this year just feels different. I don't think we have the talent to get it done.

To be fair, those sideways passes were about the only things working today. In fact, we needed to do more of them. As soon as we tried to stretch the field in any way, Josh got pummeled.