NO RESTING FOR DEFENSE : UCLA Unit, Which Has Had More Ups Than Downs, May Set Game’s Tone Against USC

With their trial against USC coming up Saturday at the Rose Bowl, UCLA needs a witness for the defense.

It has been a most irregular regular season, obviously, for the 6-3-1 Bruins, and if they are going to finish by living up to their role as favorite--they are a 3 1/2-point pick--then that task may once again fall to the defensive unit.

Come to think of it, isn’t that the way it has been all season? If there’s a problem with the UCLA defense, it may be that it has generally been so consistent that it’s seldom noticed until something goes wrong. But when things go wrong. . . .

So somebody needs to answer this question: Which UCLA defense is going to show up Saturday?

Will it be the defense that let Stanford roll up 307 yards in the first half?

Or will it be the defense that held Stanford to 51 yards in the second half?

What can you say about a defense that caused five turnovers at Washington and held the Huskies to 227 total yards until the last 1 minute 29 seconds, then allowed an 84-yard drive to a game-tying field goal?

“I’d like to say we play consistently, but sometimes we do break down a little bit and I’m not sure why,” linebacker Ken Norton Jr. said.

Except for the Oklahoma game, in which the Sooners rushed for 470 yards and scored 5 touchdowns, there really haven’t been very many breakdowns on defense, mostly just cracks--but enough cracks to get noticed.

“When we played OU, the whole game was a breakdown,” nose guard Terry Tumey said.

Check how the defense played in the Bruins’ Pacific 10 Conference games:

Arizona State 16, UCLA 9--The Sun Devils took a big step toward the Rose Bowl game with 13 second-half points. After allowing 76 yards in the first half, the Bruins give up 235 yards in the second half.

UCLA 32, Arizona 25--It didn’t matter that the Wildcats had 343 yards in total offense, because the Bruin offense came up with 25 points in the fourth quarter.

UCLA 36, Cal 10; UCLA 54, Washington State 16; UCLA 49, Oregon State 0--In these wipeouts of conference also-rans, the Bruin defense held Cal to 49 yards rushing, limited Washington State to 233 yards in total offense and intercepted 8 passes by Oregon State.

Stanford 28, UCLA 23--Going into this game, the Bruins had allowed only five touchdowns in five Pac-10 games. But Stanford scored three touchdowns in the first half, during which the outcome was determined.

The game against Stanford was clearly the turning point of the season for UCLA and its defense. Not even a second half in which the Cardinal was virtually shut out could salvage that one.

“Stanford played up-tempo, which is the way we like it, but at times, we just had these mental breakdowns, especially in the first half,” said Tumey, adding that he had made one breakdown himself when he lined up on the wrong side of the center.

“Even though those things happen, you just can’t let them happen,” he said. “You find yourself trying to take those errors back. Sorry, but you can’t.”

After losing at home to Stanford, the Bruins traveled to Seattle and had to settle for a 17-17 tie because the defense was unable to kill Washington’s last drive.

Said Norton: “That last drive, all we had to do was stop them a couple of times. It’s too bad it had to come down to that.”

Said Tumey: “We played pretty good, but on that last drive, they just knew what to run.”

What it’s come down to for the UCLA defense is that there is very little margin for error, since the Bruin offense has not always made the most of its scoring opportunities. Norton said, however, that regardless of how the offense plays, it does not affect the defense.

“It doesn’t matter if the offense doesn’t get it done,” he said. “If we turn the ball over to them enough, I know they’ll get it done.”

And has the defense been getting it done? How the Bruins rank among the other conference teams reflects UCLA’s position in the standings.

The Bruins have the No. 4 overall defense among Pac-10 teams and are allowing an average of 311.3 yards a game. Washington, Arizona and Arizona State are 1-2-3.

On the ground, UCLA is giving up 135.5 yards a game, more than double the 71.2 yards the Bruins allowed last season when they defended against the run better than any team in the country.

At the same time, UCLA’s pass defense is the best in the Pac-10 and nearly 50 yards a game better than last year’s Bruin team, even though each of the experienced players in the secondary, except Craig Rutledge and Darryl Henley, have missed at least one game because of injury.

Rutledge, who made 12 tackles at Washington, now has 87 for the year and leads the team. Norton has 77. Linebacker Eric Smith is the leading pass rusher, and his 10 quarterback sacks were the best in the Pac-10 last week.

In most any other season, the Bruins would be fielding a unit that needed no defense. But this isn’t like any recent season.

If the Bruins lose Saturday and drop to 6-4-1, it would match their record in 1983, when they began 0-3-1 but still went on to defeat Illinois in the Rose Bowl, 45-9. The standards are high, though, at UCLA, where 6-4-1 is the worst record in the regular season since 1979. That was Coach Terry Donahue’s fourth year, when the Bruins went 5-6.

“Things may go in cycles, but I think you make your own cycles,” Rutledge said. “Obviously, we haven’t reached our potential, especially after listening to what was said about us at the beginning of the season.”

Tumey said the Bruin defense had played “up to par” all season, record aside.

“There were times when we couldn’t do anything wrong,” he said. “We’ve played hard and we’re always wanting to play hard. I guess it’s just a little late.”