LOS ANGELES_Josh Rosen, in his own words, may provide the most telling measure of his play each week.
The UCLA quarterback's self-assessments were unforgiving after bumpy performances against Texas A&M and Brigham Young. Then there was his critique Saturday, which lightened considerably despite the Bruins' loss to Stanford.
Rosen used cheery buzzwords such as "executed" and "content" and "did pretty well" after completing 18 of 27 passes for 248 yards and a touchdown, as if he had mental conditioning coach Trevor Moawad speaking into an earpiece.
Even if it was only a tiny step toward becoming the player Rosen wants to be, he'll take it after an underwhelming start to his sophomore season. He has nearly as many interceptions (four) as touchdown passes (five) through four games, the biggest reason the Bruins rank eighth in pass efficiency in the Pac-12 Conference.
"The numbers aren't staggering," Coach Jim Mora acknowledged Tuesday during a conference call with reporters.
Like Rosen, Mora said he was encouraged by what he saw from the quarterback against Stanford. Mora said Rosen was doing a better job of working through progressions to find open receivers, making smarter decisions and taking care of the ball. Rosen has had only one pass intercepted in his last three games.
Still, there were regrets. Rosen said he should not have thrown across his body on a third-quarter pass to Ishmael Adams that was dropped, suggesting he could have run for a first down. He also wasn't happy about forcing a pass to Kenneth Walker III in the front of the end zone that arrived late, allowing a defender to push Walker out of bounds.
"Overall, I think I played pretty well," Rosen said, "but I wasn't happy with the result, and as a quarterback and a leader of the team you have to do whatever it takes to win and I didn't do it."
Rosen's completion rate (61.6 percent) is a tick higher than it was last season (60 percent), but he has not passed for more than two touchdowns in a game and already has been sacked 10 times after being sacked only 14 times last season.
UCLA quarterbacks coach Marques Tuiasosopo said he likes the way things are trending, pointing to a missed read early in the Stanford game when Rosen failed to spot tight end Nate Iese streaking toward the end zone uncovered only to find Iese for a touchdown later in the game.
"It's all part of his process of him becoming the quarterback that he can be," Tuiasosopo said. "It's like watering bamboo. You water it for the first few months and it doesn't grow. And you're wondering what the heck's going on, and all of the sudden it just sprouts out and you can't stop it from growing. We're just going to stay the course."
Rosen could benefit from Mora vowing to shorten his receiver rotation against Arizona on Saturday at the Rose Bowl, presumably allowing the quarterback to choose from his most trusted targets.
Tuiasosopo also continually challenges Rosen to improve, though there's no one more willing to tweak Rosen after a bad game than Rosen himself.
"I love him because he takes it the hardest," Tuiasosopo said. "A lot of people don't see that and he comes back every day and brings it. As a coach, that's all you can ask for."
