UCLA Beats Cal but Is Unable to Run It Up, 24-6 : Ground Game Struggles Again So Johnson Throws for 3 Scores

UCLA continued its mastery of California Saturday, but anybody expecting a tour de force from the Bruins was disappointed.

Even against the lowly Golden Bears, who rank last in the Pacific 10 Conference in rushing defense, UCLA wasn’t able to establish a running game, which was a matter of considerable consternation to Coach Terry Donahue.

“If we’re going to be a respectable team, the running game has got to come along and mature,” Donahue said in the aftermath of UCLA’s 24-6 victory. “It’s just not where it has to be for us to be a good team. We don’t block very well and we don’t stay on our blocks very long.”

Against Cal, it hardly mattered.

The Bruins rode the passing arm of freshman quarterback Bret Johnson to their 18th straight victory over the slumbering Bears.

Johnson, whose surprisingly consistent play has been one of the few bright spots for an offensive unit that includes eight starters from last season, completed 14 of 18 passes for 166 yards and three touchdowns.

Along with a workmanlike defensive effort by the Bruins that limited Cal to 239 total yards, Johnson’s passing and scrambling enabled UCLA to even its record at 2-2 while winning its Pacific 10 Conference opener.

Before a crowd of 50,183 at the Rose Bowl, Cal fell to 1-3 and 0-2 and, in all probability, was eliminated from the Rose Bowl race.

The Bears have beaten the Bruins only four times in 39 games since 1950, and not at all since 1971, but they trailed by only 7-3 late in the first half, when the game turned on a questionable call by Coach Bruce Snyder.

With 2 minutes 23 seconds left before halftime, Snyder ordered a fake punt and pass by punter Robbie Keen, a former high school quarterback, on fourth down at UCLA’s 48-yard line.

The play was designed to fool return man Shawn Wills into thinking Keen had punted the ball, but Keen heaved the ball from his own 40-yard line almost into the end zone, badly overthrowing teammate Darrin Greer, who ran untouched up the sideline because UCLA had only 10 players on the field.

“The idea is to confuse the other team,” Snyder said. “The deep man thinks it’s a punt and you go down and catch it for a touchdown, or (the receiver is blocked and) you pick up a pass-interfence penalty.

“There’s obviously some timing involved in that thing. We’d like to have the ball come down on about the five-yard line and have the return man get out of the way. And then we go down and catch it.

“At worst, you get a (pass-interference penalty).”

Actually, at worst the pass is incomplete, UCLA gets the ball at its 48-yard line, Johnson, with no timeouts available to him, drives the Bruins to a touchdown for a 14-3 halftime lead, and Cal never threatens again.

Snyder, though, refused to second-guess his decision.

“To play a team like UCLA, you have to be bold and you have to take advantage of every opportunity you have,” Snyder said. “We’d been working on that play and we thought, ‘Let’s give it a shot.’ I’d hate to be sitting here thinking, ‘Gee, we didn’t give it a shot and it might have worked.’ ”

And, in defense of Snyder, Wills was badly fooled. He signaled for a fair catch and ran away from the ball, believing that Keen had punted it and that it would wind up in the end zone for a touchback.

“We were taken totally by surprise,” Donahue said. “If the ball had been thrown better, it would have been a touchdown.”

But hadn’t he found the timing of the play a little curious?

“I really don’t know,” Donahue said diplomatically.

If Cal had punted, though, UCLA probably would have run out the clock, as is usually Donahue’s wont at the end of the first half.

Instead, the composed Johnson hit Scott Miller along the right sideline for 12 yards, Mike Farr on the left sideline for 13 yards and Farr again on the right side for 11 yards. A five-yard run by tailback Kevin Williams and a 10-yard pass to Paul Richardson put the Bruins at Cal’s two-yard line.

On third down from the five, Johnson lofted a pass into the far right corner of the end zone, where Richardson caught it behind cornerback Doug Parrish with only 20 seconds left before halftime.

“We were basically just trying to get the ball into the end zone,” Johnson said. “Fortunately, Paul ran a great route.”

Just as fortunate for the Bruins was Johnson’s perfect throw.

Johnson and Richardson hooked up again on a 48-yard touchdown pass play in the third quarter, increasing UCLA’s lead to 21-3.

Richardson, described by Donahue as UCLA’s fastest receiver, ran a simple post pattern, burning cornerback Travis Oliver and safety Ray Sanders.

Johnson hit him over the middle, streaking toward the end zone.

“When he broke for the (goal line), I just let it go and said to myself, ‘Don’t overthrow him’ because he was so wide open,” Johnson said.

Meanwhile, Cal’s highly regarded quarterback, Troy Taylor, found a lot of receivers open, but none of them behind the UCLA coverage.

“Everybody thinks that because we’re young, we can’t play,” cornerback Dion Lambert said of a UCLA secondary that, in Saturday’s starting lineup, included two sophomores and a true freshman, Carlton Gray. “Experience--that’s not really a factor. Experienced guys still get burned.”

Taylor completed 22 of 37 passes for 167 yards, but even after Cal recovered a fumble at UCLA’s four-yard line midway through the fourth quarter, Taylor was unable to get the Bears into the end zone.

Cal’s ball-control offense, ineffective in the Bears’ first three games, kept the UCLA defense on the field for almost 7 1/2 minutes in its first possession, driving 88 yards in 22 plays to UCLA’s one-yard line.

On third and goal, Taylor passed to slotback Junior Tagaloa in the far left corner of the end zone, but the touchdown was nullified because Tagaloa ran beyond the end line before re-entering the end zone.

Keen kicked a 19-yard field goal to give Cal a 3-0 lead.

Johnson responded by driving the Bruins back down the field to Cal’s one-yard line, where he fumbled on a third-down sneak.

“It just popped out,” Johnson said of the ball.

In the pileup that ensued, Cal cornerback Travis Oliver was kicked by UCLA center Frank Cornish, who was ejected from the game.

Cornish claimed his innocence, but Donahue said: “Generally, officiating crews don’t throw guys out unless they’re pretty sure. So, I would guess in this case that Frank probably retaliated to some other action.”

Taylor moved the Bears to UCLA’s 43-yard line, but a first-down pass intended for Brian Treggs was intercepted by linebacker Marvcus Patton.

Johnson, aided by a pass-interference penalty against Parrish on a third-down pass at UCLA’s 46-yard line, then drove the Bruins 71 yards to a touchdown that put them ahead to stay, 7-3.

Johnson, though, didn’t see the Bruins score.

Safety Darrin Greer blitzed on the third-down play at the 10-yard line, crashing into Johnson as he unloaded a pass to tight end Charles Arbuckle.

“If he does that,” Johnson said of Greer, “we’re supposed to improvise. I saw Charles break to the goal line and I threw where I thought he was going to be because I got hit just as soon as I threw it.”

The roar of the crowd told him Arbuckle caught the pass.

Donahue drew a different reaction from the crowd at the end, when he ordered backup quarterback Jim Bonds to fall on the ball at Cal’s four-yard line, allowing the clock to run out.

That, though, didn’t seem to bother him as much as the Bruins’ inability to move the ball consistently on the ground.

“Our running game has been very disappointing,” he said. “We’ve really tried to put an emphasis on the running game the last two weeks and tried to make some major practice changes to emphasis the running game.

“Quite frankly, we’re not blocking well up front.”

Well enough to beat Cal.

Bruin Notes

UCLA ran for only 141 yards in 45 carries, less than three yards a carry. . . . The victory was Coach Terry Donahue’s 71st in conference play, tying him with Washington’s Don James on the all-time Pac-10 list. . . . Paul Richardson, who caught only four passes last season, has nine receptions this season, including three for 63 yards Saturday. Richardson caught a 52-yard touchdown pass in UCLA’s 38-21 win over California last season. . . . Cornerback Carlton Gray was the first true freshman to start for the Bruins since Jan. 1, 1985, when tailback Gaston Green started in UCLA’s 39-37 Fiesta Bowl victory over Miami. A true freshman hadn’t started on defense for the Bruins since 1983, when cornerback Chuckie Miller started in a game against BYU. . . . Mike Farr’s three receptions gave him 106, moving him ahead of Willie Anderson and into fourth place on UCLA’s all-time list. He needs 23 receptions to overtake the Bruins’ all-time leader, Mike Sherrard.