COLLEGE FOOTBALL : Arizona Can Only Wonder After Loss : Wildcats: Domination of their offense brings no easy answers, but Bruins say it was control of line.

It would be an understatement to say that Arizona had offensive problems for most of its 17-10 loss to UCLA on Saturday at the Rose Bowl.

Their first-half offensive drives ended like this: punt, fumble returned for a touchdown, punt, missed field-goal attempt, fumble, punt, punt and punt.

Until their final two drives of the game, the Wildcats averaged only 2.4 yards per play and basically did not know why they were struggling to reach the end zone.

“We would execute good for a couple of plays and then we would do something to set us back,” said running back Gary Taylor, who gained 101 yards in 20 carries. “They started blitzing us, but that wasn’t anything new. They just caught us a few times, and we acted like we didn’t know that it was coming.”

Arizona Coach Dick Tomey tried everything to get his team in sync offensively from rotating quarterbacks to trick plays. But nothing seemed to work as the Wildcats were held without a point until five minutes remained in the game.

“We knew that we were in a game where both defenses were dominant, but we didn’t have anyone make a play to get us going,” Tomey said. “We really wasted some opportunities in the first half and then we went through a stretch where we didn’t have any at all.”

Senior quarterback Dan White, who only two seasons ago led the Wildcats to an upset victory over the Miami Hurricanes in the Fiesta Bowl, started but was ineffective against UCLA’s blitzing defense. He was replaced late in the first quarter by sophomore Brady Batten, who had as many problems as White.

“They just did a real good job of getting pressure inside against us,” Batten said. “They really disturbed our flow of the game and got us out of rhythm.”

UCLA defensive tackle George Kase said the Wildcats’ problem was their game plan.

“They tried to come out and bloody our noses and run the ball down our throats,” said Kase, who had eight unassisted tackles--including two for losses. “But they were not successful. We really controlled the line of scrimmage.”

UCLA took a 17-0 lead on Karim Abdul-Jabbar’s spectacular 14-yard run after catching a pass from Ryan Fien with nearly eight minutes remaining in the game. Then the Wildcats finally decided to make some plays themselves.

With Arizona trailing, 17-3, thanks to a gift field goal after an Abdul-Jabbar fumble at the UCLA 18-yard line, the Wildcats turned to Batten for the second time in the game to spark their rally.

Batten, who replaced White again after being benched at halftime, first connected with Kevin Schmidtke on a 51-yard pass play and then passed 17 yards to Cary Taylor for a touchdown to cut UCLA’s lead to 17-10 with 4:12 remaining.

“We knew that there was way too much time left for us just to chalk up the game as a loss,” Gary Taylor said. “All we had to do was to start executing.”

After a UCLA punt, the Wildcats had one last chance and Batten quickly drove them into Bruin territory. After two key fourth-down conversions, Arizona had the ball on UCLA’s 36-yard line before Batten’s final pass was intercepted by Paul Guidry to end the game.

“We’re not real strong right now, and it showed,” Tomey said. “I guess in trying to find a positive from the game, it would be that we kept thinking that we could win the game until the very end. It would have been a wonderful thing if we could have won the game. But we didn’t. I just hoped that we captured that belief that we can always come back and win.”