UCLA lets one slip away?
By Jon Gold
Staff Writer
They had this one, they thought, had it in their eyes, had it in their hearts, had it on their hands.
Nine days after a back-alley whooping at No. 1 Oregon, a 60-13 loss that was worse than the final margin, the UCLA football actually seemed more depressed in the locker room on Saturday afternoon.
Here's the funny thing: The Bruins never led No. 15 Arizona on Saturday. They came in on an embarrassing two-game losing streak while the Wildcats had won six-of-seven.
Yet UCLA felt like it let one slip away, succumbing to the Wildcats, 29-21, on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in front of 53,408.
Only they didn't just let one slip away, but the whole Wildcat offense.
Backup quarterback Matt Scott was the greasiest of the Arizona bunch, a bar of Dial in a waterfall.
Scott accounted for 390 yards of offense and a touchdown, getting the start in a game-time decision over Nick Foles, who was out with a sprained knee.
Scott had 319 yards passing on 24-of-36 attempts, with a 41-yard touchdown to Juron Criner and an interception, and added 71 yards rushing on 12 carries.
Scott had 279 total yards in the first half as the Wildcats built a 19-7 lead.
"He can hurt you with his legs or with his arms, and he made a lot of great passes to compliment his running," Criner said of Scott. "He let us know how bad he wanted to be in there, and he showed it. He played balls to the wall, and he stepped up when we needed him to."
UCLA (3-5, 1-4) mounted a comeback behind Richard Brehaut in the second half, with Brehaut starting to find some of the rhythm that the Bruins have lacked all season in the passing game.
Brehaut lofted a beautiful pass to a streaking Randall Carroll down the right numbers for a 68-yard touchdown - the Bruins' longest touchdown throw since 2007 - on the team's first possession of the second half.
Arizona (7-1, 4-1) responded with a Greg Nwoko one-yard touchdown run that capped an 80-yard drive, and after the team's traded possessions, Brehaut again struck the Wildcats deep.
Brehaut hit junior wide receiver Josh Smith on a flawless flea flicker on the second play of the fourth quarter, a 49-yard touchdown connection that cut the Arizona lead to 26-21.
And that was it, the last time the Bruins capitalized on an opportunity.
And there were opportunities.
Sophomore cornerback Aaron Hester intercepted a Scott pass in the end zone on the Wildcats' next possession, and then a UCLA three-and-out.
The Bruins forced a relatively short drive on the Arizona possession, a six-play, 15-yard drive that resulted in a punt to UCLA that returner Taylor Embree coughed up, directly into the hands of teammate Christian Ramirez, who advanced the ball to the 50-yard line.
Then?
Five plays, eight yards, Jeff Locke punt.
"It's tough when you're so close, and you have all those opportunities in that fourth quarter to drive down and score," Brehaut said. "Unfortunately, we couldn't take advantage of those opportunities and finish like we need to. I'm just as upset as I was at the Oregon game. But obviously it is real tough when you get that close, and you have it in your fingertips and you can't finish it."
On Arizona's next possession, the Wildcats got the Bruins back for their flea-flickery trickery.
On 4th-and-3 from the Arizona 27-yard line, Wildcat linebacker Jake Fischer took a fake punt 29 yards to the UCLA 44-yard line, a field position shift that the Bruins could not overcome.
"I thought it was the right time to change the momentum," Arizona coach Mike Stoops said. "We thought it was there all day, and they took the bait and doubled our receivers. That's when you have to call those plays."
While UCLA ultimately forced a punt on the drive, the Bruins could not capitalize on the ensuing possession, with Brehaut sacked on third down - the first sack allowed by UCLA all game - and an incomplete pass on fourth.
After an Arizona field goal, the Bruins had a final possession, but Brehaut was sacked and fumbled the ball.
"It's much tougher, especially because we left some key plays out there on the field today," UCLA junior safety Tony Dye said. "There was never a doubt in my mind we weren't going to lose this game. We were going to win. ... It hurts a little bit more having that kind of confidence, and then losing at the last minute."
Awesome effort against an awesome team. I think it's all a matter of working out the kinks from here on out. Go Bruins!!
The same old comments...more regrets...more plays left on the field...blah blah blah...there's no moral victories. Oregon State comes in next week...another great team.
I gota say, even though USC lost by 3 TDs...watching that game shows me how far behind we are as a program...for most of the game USC hung in there...even led briefly in the second half...their defense forced some 3 and outs on that crazy offense...
Doesn't look like we'll get to a bowl game this year...this is progress eh?
The reverse called by Chow when we had a first down cost us the game! I've said it all year. Brehaut should have been the starter. Ii think we found ourselves a quarterback today! Even though we lost, we gained a QB. That 68 yarder is what i (and I think for all Bruin fans when I say this) have been waiting for all year! Great job by Bre. Makes you wonder what the hell the coaches have been seeing or thinking all year. If it weren't for Bre we would have been blown out again!
Go Bruins!
Playing Prince even when he was hurt, even when he hadn't practiced, was immoral. Whoever practices, plays.
I hope it's not too late for Neu to get the players back on-board.
ulca34 I think you're mistaken. I'm not a huge Prince fan but I didn't see much from Brehaut except for those 2 big plays and that had more to do with the play calls than him making great throws. He was 13-27(that's less than 50%) he missed some wide open guys(Embree beat his man by 5 yards and he overthrew it by 10...). He had 2 turnovers and had -15 yards rushing. Not seeing the promise here...
Brehaut was good today. getting better and better and hopefully this team continues to improve.
Jon, I'm not taking anything away from the O line's performance today (grade = D+) but Brehaut had to bail the pocket to make that gorgeous throw to Carroll (which brought tears to my eyes and flashes of the good old days). Brehaut if you're reading this, SLIDE when you're scrambling! Also throw the ball away if the WR's are covered, why take the loss of yards, the pounding to the ground and a 3rd and long.
Can we all take Norm Chow and drive him like 20 cities away from Westwood and drop him off in a nice looking neighborhood and hope someone takes him in? I'll be happy to drive! Recievers had a good game today, but our scheme stinks.
UCLA had this one?? haha what game were you watching? UCLA never had the lead the entire game, and was only tied when the score was 7-7. How is that letting one slip away? I guess when you're used to getting blown out, losing by 8 at home seems like a great game.
I've got a king-size Duck hangover this morning, but at least a good night's sleep eased some of the pain from last night's beat-down.
At least the Trojans gave Oregon a game for a while, ucla was in the game to the very end, and Notre Dame got beat again. All in all, I would rather be a Los Angeles football fan than an Irish fan.
It seems the bruins took great delight in the Trojans' loss. Check out the ucla posters on the SC blog today if you want to seem some great writing.
Slip away? Never felt like we were as much in the game as Arizona miscues were keeping us around.
RuSure what game were you watching? Passing completions and missing receivers is pretty normal given he hasn't had many reps as a starter. When was the last time we saw Prince complete a pass over 15 yds? Brehaut had zip and that 68 yarder was a gorgeous pass placed perfectly! Looked like Cade for a brief second. It's no coincedence the passing game has opened up since Prince is out. Love Princes' heart, be he just doesn't have it and can't stay healthy. Godbless the kid though. Getting the ball to Carroll and Smith is what we need to keep doing!
Go Bruins! And go get dem Beaves next week!
Be Real, you bring up an interesting point. Aren't the Bruins really the Fighting Irish of the west? Think of it... Lots of highly touted high school players, all underachieving; and regardless of making coaching changes it has no effect on improving the program.
great effort by the gutty ones!! one thing UCLA will never, ever, do is quit. obviously we have issues in the quarterback dept that will simply not allow us to compete for the Pac10 champeenship, but the Bruins make us proud with their effort! it's the reason gutty Bruins win multiple champeenships every year, and soon, we will be in a major bowl game, i think next year or in two years for sure!
so unfortunate how some trOJies come on here to stick it to us...its not like they lit it up last night!! stay classy, trOJIes!! i am more than happy to acknowledge the trOJies played a fine, spirited game last night! oh well, some people just seem to revel in antagonizing others, c'est la vie!!!
NOT bad after being so short handed....maybe when ALL the parts are in place things will even get better