UCLA QB Rosen leads comeback for the ages … Around about 10 PM last evening we started to write a report seriously questioning whether UCLA QB Josh Rosen was really an elite prospect. No question Rosen throws an elegant ball when he has a clean pocket with the time to survey the field and the room to step into his throws. However, when there was traffic around him, Rosen’s mechanics were all over the place. And throughout the first half plus last night in their season opener against Texas A&M, Rosen was under almost constant pressure. As a result, by the middle of the third quarter, the Bruins were down 44-10 and appeared to be going nowhere in a hurry. But cue the comeback. In the 4th quarter alone, Rosen completed 19 of 26 passes for almost 300 yards and 4 scores, including the game-winner with just 47 seconds on the clock. Despite the dramatic comeback win in which Rosen may have dispelled some of the questions about his leadership intangibles, we still aren’t totally sold on his potential as an elite prospect. He clearly has the arm strength and the gunslinger’s mentality, but we weren’t sure we saw the consistent accuracy and solid footwork. For the night, Rosen completed 35 of 59 passes (which is actually less than 60%) for 491 yards and those 4 scores. And while Rosen didn’t throw any picks, there were as many as a half dozen ill-advised passes on the night, including several during the rally, that could just as well have been picked off. Stay tuned. In fact, it wasn’t a particularly great opening weekend for any of top QB prospects for the upcoming draft. USC’s Sam Darnold, the consensus #1 prospect overall for 2018, for example, had a couple of picks as the Trojans struggled to put away Western Michigan 49-31, while Wyoming’s Josh Allen was held to just 174 yards in the Cowboys 24-3 loss at Iowa as he completed 23 of 40 passes and had two picks of his own.
