UCLA Throws Arizona State for 31-23 Loss : Aikman’s Passing and Brown’s Rushing Help Give Bruins a Key Win

Despite the pouring rain, the slippery field, the 70,754 raucous fans at hostile Sun Devil Stadium and the early injuries to starting tailback Gaston Green and starting fullback Mel Farr, UCLA somehow managed to beat Arizona State, 31-23, Saturday and remain the only unbeaten team in Pacific 10 play.

UCLA is 7-1 overall, 5-0 in the conference, and one step closer to the Rose Bowl game on New Year’s Day.

The Bruins managed it behind the passing of junior quarterback Troy Aikman, who finished with a total of 328 yards and two touchdown passes. And behind the 134-yard, two-touchdown rushing effort of sophomore Brian Brown, who surprised none of his teammates, least of all Green, with his big day.

And they managed it with a daring little decision by Coach Terry Donahue to go for a quarterback sneak on a fourth-and-one, eight yards from the goal line. It came at a time when Bruin spirits really needed the boost a touchdown would give them more than they needed the three points from a field goal.

Donahue said, “The players were saying, hey, let’s go for it. If we can’t get a yard, we don’t deserve to win the game. They wanted to go for it . . .

“The whole thing was trying to get a little momentum going. That touchdown was real instrumental. That got us cranked up.

“I was real cranked up for this game, myself. This is where my career started. (He won his first game as UCLA coach here in 1976.) The fans were getting me cranked up, being so loud. I just felt very strongly that this was a real important game today.”

So he let Aikman go for the yard, and Aikman got it. And on the next play, Aikman passed seven yards to Paco Craig for the touchdown that, finally, midway through the third quarter, put the Bruins in control.

The Bruins led, 17-9, and the game was far from over. But there was a feeling on the sideline that the tide had turned.

Oh, what a difference a halftime break can make.

It was looking bleak for the Bruins in the early going, until the sun came shining through.

When Green (his right arm numb from a neck injury) headed to the training room at the end of the first half, along with Mel Farr (hamstring trouble) and tight end Joe Pickert (scheduled for arthroscopic surgery on his right knee), the skies were still dark, and the Bruins were being shut out, 9-0.

That’s unheard of. These Bruins increased the NCAA record for scoring in 189 straight games, but that streak was in danger. It seemed the Bruins would never get on the scoreboard.

The UCLA defense had been excellent, holding Arizona State to four first downs and 104 yards, and limiting all three ASU scoring drives to field goals. Alan Zendejas had given the Sun Devils their halftime lead with kicks of 37, 29 and 38 yards.

Two of those field goals were the direct result of UCLA’s rare mistakes--a ball intercepted when it bounced off the hands of receiver Mike Farr, a fumble lost by tailback Eric Ball, a penalty for an illegal substitution on an ASU punt that kept the drive alive.

If that kept up, the Sun Devils, the league’s defending champion, would likely be back in the Rose Bowl game.

But the second half was a new game.

Aikman came out passing, and the Sun Devils’ injury-riddled secondary was no match for him.

As ASU Coach John Cooper put it, “They really came alive in the second half. Troy Aikman made the big plays all afternoon. He was probably the difference in the ball game today. I’ve been saying ever since he went to UCLA that he’s a great quarterback.”

UCLA (which had won the coin toss and elected to take its choice at the start of the second half) elected to receive the second-half kickoff. Aikman included a 34-yard pass to split end Flipper Anderson (one of a career high seven Anderson caught Saturday) for 34 yards to help set up a 35-yard touchdown pass to Craig.

After a reverse from Darryl Henley to David Keating on a punt return that Keating ran back for 39 yards, the Bruins were starting their second touchdown drive from the ASU 28. That was the drive that Aikman kept alive with the big fourth-down play.

Cooper noted, “You can’t give a great football team like UCLA big plays and expect to win.”

Donahue said that the reverse has been in the Bruin repertoire for years, but just had not yet been used this year.

The Sun Devils used an identical reverse on a punt at their next opportunity, getting a 46-yard return by Lynn James to set up a touchdown drive.

By that time ASU starting quarterback John Walker had given way to Danny Ford.

Ford moved the team the needed 35 yards on a drive that ended with a one-yard push through the right side of the line by ASU fullback Channing Williams. Williams was the Sun Devils’ leading rusher with 64 yards.

The Sun Devils attempted a two-point conversion, which would have tied the score. But Bruin linebacker Melvin Jackson stopped Ford to squelch that idea.

In the fourth quarter, Aikman put the Bruins up, 24-15 on a quick 79-yard drive that featured first-down passes to Anderson, Mike Farr and tight end Corwin Anthony, before Brown scored from the 8.

Arizona State put together its most impressive drive of the game, then, as Ford completed a 13-yard pass to split end Aaron Cox when he needed 13 yards on a fourth-down play. But when the Sun Devils tried, again, to pass for a crucial fourth-down from the Bruins’ 26, the pass was short.

Cooper said: “We’re not getting great plays out of our quarterback. I thought Walker played OK. Then we threw Danny in and he played well. But UCLA put a lot of pressure on them. I don’t blame either quarterback for losing the game. They’re good quarterbacks, but they’re not great quarterbacks like Aikman.”

The Bruins’ last touchdown was a quick strike, a surprise even for Brown, who was the one to break away on the 74-yard run.

Brown said: “It was a sprint draw. I cut back and there was just no one there.”

Green, who spent the entire second half watching from the sideline, knowing that a national television audience was not seeing him further his Heisman Trophy bid, still was all smiles when asked about Brown’s big run.

“It happened so fast, I didn’t see it all!” Green said. “Brian is really good. It makes it a little bit easier to have to be out of a game when you know that there is somebody else who can come in and do the same type of things to help the team.

“You’ll see a lot more from him. He’s just starting to show what he can do.”

Green, who wound up with a minus 5 yards in 6 carries, left the tailback spot to Brown early in the first quarter when he reinjured himself on a sweep. When he was tackled by Nathan LaDuke he landed on his right shoulder, aggravating the pinched nerve problem that he suffered in practice last week. Green said that “it was scary” when the injury happened in practice because his whole arm went numb and he couldn’t lift it. The numbness went away quickly after the injury in the game, but the team doctors are suggesting that he let it rest for a game or two.

Brown’s touchdown made it 31-15 with 2:12 left on the clock. So Ford’s last-ditch passing effort, which ended in a touchdown pass to flanker Tony Johnson, did little more than give the Sun Devil fans hope that the onside kick in the final seconds might bring on a miracle.

It didn’t.

And Donahue celebrated in the final seconds with unusual vigor.

Anderson said: “That’s more emotional than I’ve ever seen him, swinging that towel around. We were looking at this game like they were the champions and we were the challengers, and we had to come in here and knock them out if we wanted to get to the Rose Bowl game.”

Donahue said, “This was a Pier Six brawl today. Arizona State fought with a tremendous amount of courage. And I thought UCLA did, too, to come back the way we did.”

But Donahue was not jumping to any conclusions about this game putting the Bruins back in the Rose Bowl game. He would say only that they are in control of their own destiny.

Donahue said, “We’re obviously on a collision course with USC (4-1 in conference play). USC is definitely still in the Rose Bowl race.”

UCLA will play Oregon State and Washington before meeting USC in the final game of the season.