UCLA will be without its best offensive weapon, QB Josh Rosen, in a tricky game against Utah due to a concussion.
Josh Rosen did not make the trip to Utah due to a concussion. #UCLA
— Thuc Nhi Nguyen (@thucnhi21) November 3, 2017
Rosen left the game against Washington on Saturday with what appeared to be a hand injury. It was to his non-throwing hand, and the cameras showed him flexing his hand and at one point stopping it from bleeding. He would return to the sideline in street clothes, and after the game reporter Bruce Feldman tweeted what many watching surmised, that the hand would be fine.
SOURCE: #UCLA star QB Josh Rosen’s hand injury from yesterday’s game is expected to be OK but staff will monitor as week progresses.
— Bruce Feldman (@BruceFeldmanCFB) October 29, 2017
UCLA was able to keep the concussion diagnosis quiet this week. It’s obvious that that is the injury Rosen sustained last week.
As Utah week began, Rosen didn’t practice on Monday. Rosen’s toughness was questioned during the game with ESPN’s Brock Huard implying that NFL scouts would use the situation as a demerit when evaluating him. Jim Mora clapped back hard against an insinuation that his QB wasn’t tough:
“I think it’s ludicrous that anyone would question Josh Rosen’s toughness when they don’t know the nature of his injury,” Mora said. “In all fairness to my comment, for a broadcaster to know zippo about what’s going on there to question the toughness of Josh Rosen, like, I guess it drives ratings, I don’t know.
“Maybe the producer was talking in his ear, I don’t know. But it doesn’t make any sense to me that Brock Huard has any way to ever question Josh Rosen. But that’s his job, so I do understand that that’s his job.”
Mora’s response makes even more sense now given that he was playing coy about Rosen’s actual injury. He wouldn’t give any details as to what was wrong with Rosen during that same press conference. Concussions are tricky, and hopefully Rosen ends up being OK in the long run. His 2016 season was ended due to injury, and we hope he can return to the field for the Bruins sometime this season.