UCLA Falters Again in Second Half, 38-20

UCLA, self-destruction be thy middle name.

Holding a six-point halftime advantage Saturday and playing so well that they had not punted, the Bruins started the second half with possessions that resulted in a blocked field goal attempt and two interceptions. There also was an offensive pass-interference penalty (away from the ball) that negated a 72-yard touchdown pass play.

Oregon (6-4) took advantage of both interceptions, converting them into touchdowns that propelled the Ducks to a 38-20 victory over the Bruins before 46,433 at the Rose Bowl.

And so, for the first time in 26 years, UCLA has lost five consecutive games in one season. The Bruins, shut out in the second half for the second week in a row, are 3-7 and assured of their worst season since 1971.

Can it get any worse?

Well, up next is USC Saturday at the Coliseum.

“We just had a really bad second half,” UCLA Coach Terry Donahue said. “We’ve done that on several occasions this season. I don’t know if we just run out of gas or we don’t have the ability to play consecutive good halves of football.

“The first half, I thought we played like crazy--(on) both sides of the ball. We did a great job. The second half, we were really bad.”

Both interceptions were thrown by freshman quarterback Bret Johnson, who was supposed to share time with sophomore Jim Bonds, but kept Bonds on the sideline with a brilliant first half, completing 10 of 11 passes for 119 yards and leading four scoring drives to help UCLA to a 20-14 lead.

Johnson’s string of nine completions ended on the first possession of the second half.

Split end Mike Farr ran for 24 yards on a reverse on that possession, moving UCLA to Oregon’s 26. Farr’s run was the Bruins’ longest of the season.

Johnson then threw three incomplete passes, including one into the end zone that was tipped away by free safety Derek Horton, who would haunt Johnson again a few minutes later.

Alfredo Velasco, whose first-half field goals of 26 and 35 yards were the difference to that point, was brought on for a 44-yard attempt that never made it past the line of scrimmage.

Cornerback Chris Oldham sprinted around wingback Corwin Anthony, who was lined up on the right side, and batted down the kick. Anthony, lined up last week on the left side, was beaten by Stanford’s Kevin Scott, who blocked a 37-yard attempt by Velasco in the third quarter of a 17-14 Cardinal win.

“You just can’t go out and get field goals blocked,” Donahue said. “It’s just not acceptable. You’ve got to have people who can ‘double-bump,’ and we don’t have anybody in our program with the ability to do that, I guess.”

Oregon’s first possession of the half went three plays and out, but Johnson then sailed a pass over the head of tight end Charles Arbuckle and into the waiting arms of an appreciative Horton, who returned the interception 34 yards to UCLA’s 20-yard line.

“Our corner, Chris Oldham, got inside of his man and forced the quarterback to throw it high,” Horton said. “I just happened to be in my deep zone and the ball came right to me.”

Horton said he lost it in the lights for a moment.

Obviously.

He called it a good pass.

“Somebody said on the sidelines that (Arbuckle) was held,” Johnson said. “He probably wouldn’t have been able to make the catch, but he probably would have been able to break up the interception.”

Three plays later, Oregon moved ahead to stay.

Split end Tony Hargain scored the go-ahead touchdown, working himself free in the middle of the end zone and taking a nine-yard pass from quarterback Bill Musgrave to give the Ducks a 21-20 lead.

“It was a really bad play,” Donahue said.

What happened next, in Donahue’s opinion, was a really bad call, which he made clear to referee Gordon Riese in no uncertain terms.

Farr, running an out pattern, took a pass from Johnson in front of the UCLA bench, made a quick pivot to shake cornerback Daryl Reed and took off down the sideline, outsprinting Reed into the end zone.

The 72-yard play would have given UCLA the lead, but tight end Randy Austin was called for pass interference away from the play.

“It was on the same side of the field as the reception,” Riese said of Austin’s infraction, which was detected not by Riese, but by another official whom Riese declined to name. “The offensive man can’t go downfield and block the man if the ball crosses the line of scrimmage. If we think the foul has bearing on the play, we call the penalty.”

Donahue said that Austin was not blocking on the play, but rather trying to break loose from two defenders to run a pass route.

The official’s ruling, he said, was the play of the game. But, while he obviously disagreed with it, he declined to discuss it specifically.

“I’m not allowed to comment on the pass-interference call, which is a tremendous frustration for me,” he said. “I really wish I could. I’d give you an earful. I’d be on the Jim Healy show.”

UCLA’s fourth possession of the half resulted in another interception on another overthrown pass by Johnson, who stepped up into the pocket and rifled a high throw that bounced the hands of a leaping Scott Miller and into the hands of Reed, who returned the interception 17 yards to UCLA’s 39-yard line.

“I just delivered the ball a little too high,” said Johnson, who was lifted in favor of Bonds when UCLA got the ball back.

By that time, Oregon’s lead had grown to 28-20.

A sack of Musgrave by linebacker Marvcus Patton forced Oregon into a third-and-19 situation at the UCLA 48, but Musgrave found Hargain in the middle of the Bruin secondary and completed a 23-yard pass to his split end.

“I just tried to drop it into Hargain,” Musgrave said. “He jumps really well. I knew he’d go up and get it.”

The Ducks ran it in from the Bruins’ 25. Tailback Derek Loville, who carried 28 times for 119 yards, scored on a two-yard run through the left side to give the Ducks an eight-point lead with 14:05 left.

That might not sound like much, but in the second half of their last five games, the Bruins have produced only two touchdowns and three field goals, none of them in the last two weeks.

Oregon held the UCLA offense in check and added a 47-yard field goal by Gregg McCallum and a 29-yard touchdown run by Latin Berry in the last 5:58.

“We didn’t make any changes,” Oregon Coach Rich Brooks said of the Ducks’ second-half dominance. “We just tried to get a little bit fired up on defense.

“Obviously, we were soft in the first half. We talked about it at halftime and decided we were going to make a better effort.”

Against UCLA these days, that’s about all it takes.