Everything Chip Kelly said after UCLA's 50-36 win over Arizona State
Dorian Thompson Robinson threw for 169 yards, ran for a career-best 120 yards, and found the endzone four total times to help power UCLA past Arizona State Saturday night, 50-36.
The Bruins went for 412 rushing yards as a team (adjusted for sacks) even without their lead tailback, Zach Charbonnet. After the game, coach Chip Kelly met with reporters to address Charbonnet’s situation and recap the win.
Here’s everything he said:
On Charbonnet’s status
“Zach was unavailable. Tried to go in warmups and then just couldn’t go. So, he was unavailable tonight.”
On the defensive performance
“I don’t think we did a great job tackling in the open field. We did a really good job of making (ASU QB Trenton Bourguet) throw to his check-downs but when he throws to the check-downs we have to rally and tackle. We’ll look at the tape to make the corrections, but I think as a whole group on the defensive side of the ball, we need to tackle better.”
On defensive coordinator Bill McGovern not being with the team
“He’s just unavailable. I did not want him to travel, so he was unavailable today.”
On topping 400 yards rushing without RB Zach Charbonnet
“You know, we were fortunate that we’ve used (Kazmeir Allen) a little bit, we used him at the end of the Stanford game. And I’ll give Kaz and Keegan credit, both of them are banged up a little bit themselves. I don’t think either of those guys were 100%. And then it was good to get Colson (Yankoff), the fact that we had a third back — it started to get thin there for a little bit there when Kaz went down. What are we down to? We only one other running back that traveled with us because it was on the road.
“The threat of Dorian on every play is really beneficial because when Dorian takes off… I don’t know what he had today but he had a really good day rushing the football, too. I think our guys up front understand our scheme and understand what we can do. So, I think we can attack you in different ways. It took all those guys, it took every single guy to finish out that football game.”
On QB Dorian Thompson-Robinson
“I think he kind of had to put it on his shoulders a little bit with not having Zach available to us as a team, so I think when you have a player like that who can step up like that… Really with Dorian, the great part about him is whatever we need, you know, we needed his legs at certain points in time and he made some critical plays for us, but he also stood in there and threw the ball really well for us, so he was a huge part of us getting back and finishing this thing off.”
On the drive at the end to put the game away after ASU got it back to six
“Yeah, it’s something we practice. We had moved the ball earlier. We had an exchange problem in the backfield and that’s what (caused) the fumble, but we were moving the ball on that drive also.
“We talk about it all the time, competitors respond whether it’s adversity or momentum swings or random acts that happen in a game. Competitors respond. Our offense, they knew we were up and if we either continued to hold onto the ball and run the clock our or score and make it a two-score game, there wasn’t going to be an opportunity for them to get back in it, so credit to those guys. I think it was all runs. We had a lot of contributions from all three of the running backs and from Dorian. When you can run the ball when people know you’re going to run the ball, that’s critical. I think our guys understand to be a really good football team you have to be good in four-minute offense and we were good in four-minute offense tonight.
On if ASU changed anything after halftime to get back in the game
“No, they were running the same things they were running in the first and second quarter. They do a good job with (Bourguet), he gets the ball out of his hands quickly. We knew that coming in. He threw for 435 last week against Colorado. He was their quarterback when they beat Washington here and they scored 45 in that game. Again, give him a little bit of credit.
“I thought we generated a better pass rush in the first and second quarter than we got in the third and fourth quarter. That’s part of it. Our ability to be great in coverage is a lot easier when we can get the quarterback off his spot. I think you give (Bourguet) credit. He took some shots today and he still stood in there and continued to throw the football. We’ll have to look at everything when we get the chance to watch the film.”
On whether McGovern will be back for next week’s game
“I can’t make any predictions. It’s just a weekly deal. Whether it’s Billy or Zach or whomever, we’ll take it as they come. We don’t make any of the decisions. We have a great medical staff and those guys will tell us exactly what’s going on and where we are.”