Osborne’s Near Sack Doesn’t Help : College football: Arizona nose guard harassed quarterback all night but came up just short on deciding play.

Chuck Osborne knew better, but so many things can become blurry during a chase.

Osborne, Arizona’s junior nose guard, had Utah quarterback Mike McCoy smothered--again--late in the fourth quarter of the Freedom Bowl Tuesday night. It looked as if Osborne would deliver the knockout blow the Wildcats wanted, but McCoy fired a pass as he fell that helped Utah to a 16-13 victory at Anaheim Stadium.

“I was just going for the tackle and I should have gone for his arm,” Osborne said. “The way we play defense, we emphasize the turnover.

“If I had just made a little better effort, I’m sure I could have knocked it down. I’m going to play this over in my mind forever.”

As was the case throughout the game, Osborne chased McCoy out of the pocket on the play--fourth and goal from the five-yard line. McCoy rolled to his right where Osborne caught him at the 11-yard line and threw him down. But as Osborne engulfed him, McCoy tossed a pass to Kevin Dyson in the right corner of the end zone with 3 minutes 34 seconds to play.

“I didn’t even see him get it off,” Osborne said. “I had him down on the ground and I thought the play was over--then I heard the crowd.

“If this was the NFL, he would have been in the grasp. But this isn’t (the NFL).”

Still, Osborne and his fellow Desert Swarm mates played an excellent game.

Osborne, selected honorable mention All-Pacific 10 Conference, had four tackles, including three for losses and two sacks. He entered the game with a team-leading 11 sacks.

Arizona limited Utah to 75 yards in 57 plays. Osborne said this was the most complete game the defense played this season.

“Our defensive backs played great tonight, which is what we thought would happen going in,” he said. “This was the craziest game I’ve ever been in.” Wildcat All-American junior defense end Tedy Bruschi prepared to congratulate his buddy on sack No. 3--then he heard the crowd too.

“We were after (McCoy) all night, and I thought Chuck had another one,” Bruschi said. “We pounded him the whole night, but he hung in there and made the play.”

Arizona senior cornerback Spencer Wray wasn’t as understanding about Utah’s good fortune.

“We completely dominated them for the whole game,” Wray said. “They couldn’t run on us, they couldn’t pass on us they couldn’t do anything.

“I thought he was going down. You couldn’t ask for us to play any better than we did.”

Arizona senior defensive end Akil Jackson said the Wildcats were bound to have a close one go against them because they’ve done the same things to other teams the last two years.

“It hurts bad,” he said. “I knew we were in for a fight, but to go down that way is tough.

“A lot of breaks have gone our way, so I guess we were due.”