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Bruins Don’t Do the Final Yardwork : UCLA: Oregon stops last play at goal line for 38-31 victory, wasting efforts of Abdul-Jabbar, McNown and Hicks.

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

The clock showed nothing but zeros. The game was over.

But UCLA tailback Karim Abdul-Jabbar, lying near the goal line on the south side of the Rose Bowl, pain shooting through his back, four Oregon Ducks pinning him to the grass, still didn’t know whether his team would win, lose or tie.

Saturday’s Pacific 10 opener between the Bruins and Ducks was that close.

Abdul-Jabbar, who had swept around left end from his two-yard line on the last play of the game only to meet a wall of Ducks on the goal line, looked in vain for an official with his arms raised. There would be none.

The Ducks had stopped Abdul-Jabbar at the one, had stopped a furious, last-minute Bruin drive to pull out a 38-31 victory in front of 42,537.

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Offensive tackle Jonathan Ogden slammed his helmet to the turf.

A day of heroics had ended in frustration for UCLA and redemption for Oregon, a team that came to town seeking the respect it felt it never regained after losing here Jan. 2 in the Rose Bowl.

The Ducks, defending conference champions, leave with a 3-0 record and their national ranking, currently at No. 20, sure to improve.

The 12th-ranked Bruins fall to 2-1. They have not won their conference opener since 1990.

“I feel sorry for our team,” freshman quarterback Cade McNown said, “because everybody worked their butts off to win.”

But that sorrow should be mixed with satisfaction considering the problems the Bruins, who at one point trailed, 21-3, overcame on offense to make it as close as they did.

They had one running back who, seven days earlier, was bruised in the back so severely that he had to leave the field walking backward. They had another running back who, a month earlier, underwent arthroscopic knee surgery. And they had a quarterback who, five weeks earlier, stepped onto a collegiate practice field for the first time.

All three, however, responded Saturday.

Abdul-Jabbar wasn’t sure until Friday night that he’d even play because of his bruised back.

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“I’d knew I’d be in pain,” he said, “but as long as I was not catching muscle spasms, I could play. I just sucked up the pain.”

Abdul-Jabbar wound up carrying 32 times, his biggest workload of the young season, rushing for 127 yards.

McNown, an 18-year-old who had played in parts of the previous two games in relief of injured starter Ryan Fien, got his first start Saturday.

He struggled at times and was yanked for the final 10 minutes of the first half by Coach Terry Donahue.

But McNown returned in the second half and led UCLA back from a 24-10 deficit to within a yard of at least a tie. He completed 12 of 24 passes for 183 yards with one interception, rushed for another 17 yards and a touchdown and threw a great block for the second week in a row, enabling Derek Ayers to score from 29 yards out on a reverse.

Skip Hicks, who injured his knee on the second full day of practice, has been offered the chance to redshirt this season. That no longer seems to be an option.

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Not after the third quarter Saturday.

Donahue didn’t bring Hicks in until the final two minutes of the third quarter. But Hicks didn’t wait long to make up for the time lost to rehabilitation.

On his first carry, Hicks exploded off right guard from UCLA’s 48-yard line, raced down the field, ran over Oregon defender Kenny Wheaton at the Duck 20-yard line, kept churning his legs and raced into the end zone.

“It was nice to have him back,” Donahue said.

Senior quarterback Rob Walker, dropped to third on the depth chart because of the emergence of McNown, also contributed during his brief period of playing time, teaming with Ayers on a 41-yard pass play for a touchdown.

All in all, it was a good day for the UCLA offense, which generated 230 yards on the ground and 230 through the air for a total of 460.

If they could have gotten the 461st yard on the final run by Abdul-Jabbar, it could have been a great day.

But while the offense had its moments of brilliance, the Bruin defense suffered from too many moments of confusion and collapse.

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Part of it was because of injuries. Middle linebacker Donnie Edwards was taken out in the first quarter because of a jammed back and never returned. Defensive end Vae Tata was removed after suffering a concussion on the second-half kickoff and never returned. And fellow defensive end Phillip Ward was in and out because of a bruised shoulder.

Part of the problem was an innovative Oregon offense that allowed quarterback Tony Graziani to roam far out of the pocket and pick the Bruins apart.

“People did not have their head in the game,” UCLA safety Ted Nwoke said. “I saw the quarterback running around and I said, ‘What in the world is going on?’ I didn’t think he was that good.”

Graziani was good enough to complete 19 of 35 passes for 255 yards, including touchdown passes of 21 yards to Josh Wilcox, and three yards to Cristin McLemore for the game-winner with 1:02 to play.

Oregon also scored on an 18-yard run by A.J. Jelks, an 11-yard run by Ricky Whittle and a seven-yard keeper by Graziani.

In the end, it came down to McNown needing to go 93 yards in the final minute.

He got 92 of those yards, the biggest play a 46-yard pass to Kevin Jordan to give UCLA a first and goal at the Oregon three.

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McNown gained a yard on first down, and UCLA was forced to take its final timeout with 12 seconds to play.

With no way to stop the clock, the Bruins tried two passes and both fell incomplete.

Then, on the final play of the game, they gave it to Abdul-Jabbar.

He dodged a defender inside and headed for the left corner of the end zone where four Ducks awaited him.

“You figure you can always get two yards,” Abdul-Jabbar said.

Not this time.

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