Column: UCLA’s Josh Rosen looks in the mirror and takes responsibility in loss to Texas A&M
Reporting from College Station, Texas — On a Saturday that raised questions about his credentials as a top-tier quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate, Josh Rosen discovered something new.
His voice as a leader.
In the wake of the latest disappointment in the history of UCLA’s football program, Rosen addressed his teammates in the visiting locker room at Kyle Field.
“It won’t happen again,” he told them.
The quarterback is only 19, but had the courage to acknowledge what everyone saw in No. 16 UCLA’s 31-24 overtime defeat to Texas A&M.
He is still a sophomore, but had the fortitude to say what others were too kind to say.
“I played a pretty abysmal first half,” Rosen said.
He wasn’t finished. Not even close.
“It’s a quarterback-driven sport,” he said. “You can’t have a quarterback play that bad in the first half and expect to win.”
By demanding more of himself, Rosen will inspire his teammates to do the same. By taking responsibility, he will make others stare into the proverbial mirror as well.
The UCLA receivers who dropped passes? The linemen who blew blocking assignments? You’d better believe they will reevaluate their performances in the season-opening defeat after hearing their star player publicly castigate himself.
“He shoulders the loss,” Bruins running back Soso Jamabo said.
Rosen orchestrated a couple of fourth-quarter touchdown drives that erased a 15-point deficit and sent the game into overtime, but his focus was on the three passes the Aggies intercepted.
“I just can’t try and compete to be the best quarterback in the country and throw three picks,” he said.
The first occurred in the opening quarter, when defensive back Alex Sezer Jr. blitzed and hurled him toward the ground. Rather than take the sack, he tossed the football in the air and into the waiting hands of cornerback Priest Willis.
The Bruins scored only nine points in the first half, on three field goals by freshman J.J. Molson.
Rosen never mentioned the second interception, probably because it wasn’t his fault.
With the Bruins trailing, 24-9, his pass early in the fourth quarter went through the hands of receiver Alex Van Dyke, resulting in an interception by Justin Evans.
The final pick ended UCLA’s final drive in regulation, after Rosen had connected with receiver Kenneth Walker III on a 62-yard touchdown pass to tie the score, 24-24.
The Bruins had one last chance to win the game in regulation, as the defense had forced the Aggies to punt. UCLA started the drive at its 42-yard line.
With more than 100,000 fans in attendance, Kyle Field was rocking. To deal with the noise, UCLA implemented a silent count, in which one of the guards was supposed to tap center Scott Quessenberry to let him know when to snap the ball. But one of the officials brushed against Quessenberry, prompting him to prematurely hike the football.
The football dropped to the ground, but Rosen retrieved it, only to disregard something he said he has heard over and over in quarterback meetings: “Don’t turn a car crash into a fatality.”
“That’s exactly what I did,” he said.
Rosen saw Darren Andrews running across the middle of the field and fired the ball toward him. Evans cut off the pass for his second interception.
“I just thought I threw it over him, but I obviously didn’t,” Rosen said.
The regrets weren’t confined to the interceptions.
Rosen started to list the throws he wanted back, starting with passes to Walker and Eldridge Massington.
“Two posts,” he said.
There were passes to Austin Roberts.
“Seam to Austin on the right side,” he said. “Missed him again on a drag.”
In the end, his numbers were respectable, as he was completed 26 of 46 passes for 343 yards.
“I just wasn’t playing the way I should and the way that’s up to my standard,” Rosen said. “Not even damn close to my standard. I don’t care what any stats say. If I connected on some of those balls, I think we’d be on the positive side of the scoreboard.”
Rosen didn’t blame the newly installed pro-style offense, which required him to take most of his snaps from under center.
“I’m missing throws that you can’t miss in any offense,” he said.
He wouldn’t blame the passes that were dropped by his receivers, either. Or the constant pressure he was under, even though he was sacked five times.
“I wasn’t in the right frame of mind the first half,” Rosen said. “It just took too long to get going and that can’t happen if we want to be the team we want to be.”
Coach Jim Mora made it a point to credit Rosen for the comeback. Rosen wouldn’t hear it.
“Coach is going to go out and say ‘It was a team effort,’ and ‘We win and lose as a team,’ but I just can’t do that,” he said.
In the interview room after the game, Rosen was seated as he waited his turn to speak to reporters. Jamabo walked up behind him and massaged his shoulders.
“That’s one of my best friends,” Jamabo said. “I’ve got to be there for him when he’s down. He’s going to be there for me when I’m down.”
Jamabo might not have known it then, but Rosen already was.
Follow Dylan Hernandez on Twitter @dylanohernandez
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