UCLA Football: Utah Defeat Exposes Holes In Dante Moore's Game
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Sometimes, you learn more about a young player in defeat than you do in victory. You get to see how they truly are as a person and as a leader.
Over the weekend, your UCLA Bruins saw how true freshman Dante Moore handled his first defeat. The Bruins dropped their first game of the season, a 14-7 loss to the Utah Utes. UCLA had chances to win, but couldn’t quite make the big play when needed.
Moore played decently, but a first-play pick-six doomed the Bruins from the start. However, he persevered and continued to battle through the sloppy game.
“Moore’s first pass was intercepted and returned for a touchdown, and things didn’t get much better for a long time.”
He finished the game going 15-35, throwing for 234 yards and one touchdown. Moore was facing one of the better defenses in the country, and they exposed some of the flaws in his game.
“Facing constant pressure, Moore rushed several throws and fired the ball out of bounds a few other times to avoid sacks.”
But this is a chance for the young quarterback to learn from this game and improve. Not every matchup will be easy, and he should be ready for the next challenge after seeing how this one turned out.
Head coach Chip Kelly spoke about his young signal-caller and took some blame for the poor offense.
“I’m sure there’s some plays he’ll want back,” UCLA coach Chip Kelly said, adding there was plenty of blame to go around. “But there’s calls I want back.”
Moore took accountability for the loss and said that he needed to be better. This is an excellent sign from such a young player, and he should only continue to improve as the year progresses.
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