UCLA Football: How Nate Johnson Feels About Utah's Offense In Victory

The Utes handed UCLA their first loss of the season, 14-7.

Your UCLA Bruins' dream of a perfect 2023 NCAA season was crushed over the weekend, against a buzzsaw of a Utah Utes defense.

Dante Moore and co. fell 14-7 to Utah last Saturday, and now gets a bye week to lick its wounds before an October 7th matchup against Washington State.

Despite the fact that his Utes are now 4-0 and vanquished one of the more formidable Pac-12 programs around, Michelle Bodkin of KSL Sports writes that Utah quarterback Nate Johnson was disappointed with his offense's performance. The team racked up just 219 total yards and prioritized running the ball (which it did 48 times) over passing it (which it did just 17 times).

“They didn’t really tell us they were going to do that till after the game,” Johnson revealed about his coaching staff's game plan. “As you could tell the fans were kind of mad because we were getting ‘booed’. I was a little upset. When plays went bad they played it conservative and relied a little too much on the run game."

The 6'1", 195-pound freshman out of Clovis, California threw for just 117 yards in the win, completing 9-of-17 passing attempts and notching one touchdown, while being sacked four times by a tough UCLA defense.

"I think we ran the ball 40 times last game [a 31-7 victory over the Weber State Wildcats] -- something crazy," Johnson said. "In my opinion, I think we should air it out more. We’ve got to get these receivers a chance to go make plays instead of just relying on our run game a little too much. In that conservative moment, you’ve got to keep playing. Whatever they are calling, you’ve just got to execute it.”

Don't forget to join our community at LA Sports Report, where we celebrate all things Bruins!