UCLA goes into Cal game with its back against the wall

The worst part about losing to a team like Utah is that it doesn’t allow for any mulligans. A loss to Oregon wasn’t expected, but it makes more sense than losing to the Utes.

With those two losses, UCLA is already out of the national championship conversation and dropped out of the Top 25 for the first time this season. The Bruins will need help from other teams — like a Utah loss — to contend for the Pac-12 title, but regardless, the team is going to have to win out do that. UCLA can’t afford another loss.

“Now, we have to win,” junior wide receiver Jordan Payton said. “Now, we have to do everything right. Now, our backs are fully against the wall. We have to play well now.”

The team has been here before. Last year, UCLA dropped two in a row, including a bad loss to Oregon, before turning around and winning its next three games.

That doesn’t mean it will be easy this time.

“It feels like the world is against you,” Payton said. “When you lose two in a row, it feels like you’ve lost 10. It’s two weeks of not winning, especially when guys have gotten kind of used to winning around here. Now, you’ve got to understand what’s going wrong.”

Other players, like quarterback Brett Hundley, are taking an opposite view and trying not to think about the big picture.

“You can think of it like that, but to me, I tend not to create excess pressure,” he said. “When we look at it, yeah, we would like to win out, and that’s what we need to do, but at the same time, we can’t focus on what you need to do in the whole scheme of things. You need to focus on this game.”

Whether or not Hundley thinks about it, the pressure is there for UCLA to win, not just at Cal this weekend but for the rest of the season. It’s different from trying to live up to the insane preseason expectations that surrounded this team, but it’s pressure nonetheless.

For more Bruin observations, follow Everett Cook on Twitter @everettcook