Oregon State Wishbone Is No Turkey : Beavers: Offense proves almost impossible for Bruins to stop, even without threat of pass.

Flannel shirts, grunge bands, bell bottoms . . . wishbone offense.

It’s the 1970s all over again in the Great Northwest, and Saturday the Oregon State Beavers almost knocked the UCLA Bruins into another time zone.

No more flashbacks, please.

The Bruins escaped with their Pacific 10 Conference lives, skipping town with a 20-17 victory because some kid missed a game-tying field goal by inches, if that much.

The Bruins ran scared from a terminally terrible team that did not complete a forward pass against them. The Beavers attempted only two.

Give Oregon State credit. It can’t compete with the UCLAs and Washingtons when it comes to talent, but there are no recruiting coordinators for ingenuity.

Jerry Pettibone, the Beavers’ coach, has thrown a monkey wrench into the conference with an offense older than Earl Campbell and the Cotton Bowl.

Gray-hairs know it as the ‘Bone, referred to as the spread-option in these parts, and it had gone the way of the eight-track tape until Pettibone concluded it was his last, best chance to compete.

UCLA still doesn’t know how to stop it. Oregon State rushed for 338 yards, controlled the clock, kept the Bruins’ offense off the field and might have won if not for two Oregon State turnovers that led directly to 10 points.

The Beavers almost pulled off the upset with a third-string quarterback, Rahim Muhammad, and without Chad Paulson, the team’s best rusher, who was forced out of the game early because of a hamstring injury.

The ‘Bone is an offense of many faces.

“It’s a great equalizer of talent,” Pettibone said afterward.

The coach would not concede he could not beat UCLA without the offense, but came this close.

“I feel like it’s the right thing for Oregon State,” he said.

The players seem to like it. Most are young enough to think Pettibone might have invented it.

Army still uses the formation, the University of Hawaii dabbles in it. But that’s the short list.

“Yeah, it’s really strange,” said halfback J.J. Young, who rushed for 53 yards in 12 carries. “It’s weird, but I like it. You come out of the game beat up and exhausted, just running and blocking. They knew what was coming but they really couldn’t stop us.”

Young said the offense is very difficult to prepare for in less than a week.

“Somebody said it’s like going up against a left-handed boxer,” Young said. “You have to prepare totally different. It’s true. It kind of throws a quick left at them.”

Muhammad is the team’s quarterback in name only. Last week against USC, he did not complete a pass in five attempts. Against UCLA, he was 0 for 2.

Is it not a shock that Oregon State, which fell to 3-5 with the loss, could almost defeat a top-20 team without completing a pass?

“Not really,” Muhammad said. “We’re a rushing team.”

Five Beaver runners rushed for 50 yards or more. Cameron Reynolds led Oregon State with 76 yards in seven carries, including a 43-yard scoring run on an option pitch in the third quarter that gave his team the lead at 17-14.

‘When it’s perfectly executed, you can’t stop it,” Reynolds said. “We’re an assault offense. We’re hard nosed, we pound the ball up there, we’re in your face, we wear you out. We get you tired and make you wish you don’t have to come back and square up head to head.

“Lot of teams don’t like the cut blocks, but it’s that type of mentality.”

Of the offense, Reynolds boasts: “There’s not too many of them left in the nation today.”

For this, UCLA is grateful.