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The UCLA Bruins’ fairytale comes to an end at Bloomington. After a poor start to the season, the Bruins bounced back with three consecutive wins, giving their fans hope. But Tim Skipper faced a reality check in their 50-point loss to No.2 Indiana at Memorial Stadium. The team failed to reach the endzone throughout the game. In fact, the interim coach revealed the effects of the disastrous loss. Tim Skipper, on his recent appearance on UCLA Athletics (via Zoom conference call), revealed that they haven’t had a team meeting after losing to Indiana Hooisers. “No, we didn’t have an actual team meeting yet.” He confirmed that they will be having the meeting in the next couple of days. “We’ll do some bonding in the next couple of days. After the game, I addressed the team, and then we went to the airport, and we were there for a long time.” The coach has made it clear that their travel delay is the reason behind their routine Sunday team meeting, but that won’t affect their planning. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad “Just getting healthy, getting back right and doing all the rehab and everything they need to do to be able to help us once we get ready for game week next week,” the coach said. Focusing on getting bodies healthy is paramount, as RB Anthony Woods, who missed the game, didn’t travel with the team to Bloomington. Even starting left guard Eugene Brooks was injured later in the week of preparation, which forced them to a last-minute change against the strong Hoosiers. Tim Skipper took a positive approach after the embarrassing loss. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad “The thing you take from it is, you know how the top teams in this country and in this conference play, and you know how you need to play,” Skipper said. “So we need to figure out that we need to practice hard and we need to play hard and our style of play needs to be consistent all the time, and that would be the most disappointing thing is just our style of play wasn’t what it’s been.” This was the first loss for the UCLA Bruins since Tim Skipper was announced as the interim head coach, and the first 50-point loss since 2011. The postponement of the team meeting and the bye week might be helpful for Skipper to analyze what went wrong against Indiana before they host Nebraska at the Rose Bowl on November 8th. Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports Things Tim Skipper needs to address from UCLA’s 56-6 loss to Indiana The offensive struggle is one of the main reasons for UCLA’s loss against the Hooisers. Eugene Brooks’ absence had a big impact on the offensive line, as the OL failed to protect Nico Iamaleava. This led to the QB1 being sacked and throwing the pick-six on UCLA’s first two plays. He succumbed to a mere 18.4 QBR (lowest for the season) against the Hoosiers. His passing average was 4.2 against Indiana, which is his season low. This affected the Bruins’ overall game, as they only had 4.0 yards per pass and 3.5 yards per rush, with a poor third-down and fourth-down efficiency. ADVERTISEMENT Article continues below this ad UCLA also lost 82 yards through 8 penalties, and the defense was flagged six times. Tackling was the other major issue, as the Heisman QB Mendoza ran untouched on a 20-yard touchdown in the third quarter after UCLA’s defensive holding. The same thing happened to Alberto Mendoza, who also rushed freely for a 26-yard drive in the fourth quarter, which ended in a 4-yard rushing touchdown. Which led to Tim Skipper’s following admission. “You didn’t see the strain, you didn’t see the fanatical effort, those types of things, and you’re going to need to play that way when you play these top teams like we just did.” The interim coach must ensure that they have another win streak to reach the bowl game. But the chances look thinner with Nebraska, Ohio State, Washington, and USC on the road.
