UCLA Offers Little Defense

The UCLA defense, seeking an identity all season, has found one.

The Bruins tried the “Amoeba,” but that’s a little esoteric. And “Organized Chaos” is the kind of oxymoron that just doesn’t do for a major university.

Meet “The Sieve.”

Washington did Saturday before 70,444 and got a school record-tying five touchdowns and 145 rushing yards in 33 carries from Corey Dillon in a 41-21 victory that showed the 25th-ranked Huskies (4-2, 3-1 in the Pacific 10) had learned from getting hammered by Notre Dame a week earlier. Mainly, they learned how to dominate the line of scrimmage and the UCLA defense.

Oh, and they found the Bruin (2-4, 1-2) special teams aren’t so special either.

“They had a little over 300 [actually, 308] yards, but they didn’t have to go very far [to score],” UCLA Coach Bob Toledo said. “They pounded us pretty good. We didn’t do a very good job of tackling. We missed a lot of tackles.”

Many of them were on Dillon, who scored on touchdown runs of two, one, 11, five and one yards in tying Hugh McElhenny’s modern-day school record, set against Washington State in 1950.

No problem for Dillon.

“I was just cool, calm and collected and just knew I had to do my job and punch it in,” he said.

Punch he did, though in some cases he needed only to jab.

From the opening kickoff--well, the second version, which is the problem--Dillon found the way greased for him to get to the goal line by a defense that stifled the Bruins in the first half, by special teams that really were special and by UCLA mistakes.

One of them was made by Bruin tailback Skip Hicks, who fumbled for the second week in a row and fourth time this season. Three of them have been turned into touchdowns, including his drop in the second quarter Saturday on the Bruin 41.

It took Dillon one play from there to make the score 21-0.

By then, it was clear that Washington had put aside the problems it had found in losing, 54-20, to Notre Dame.

“That was a monkey we really needed to get off our backs,” Husky Coach Jim Lambright said. “I was more worried about coming off that game than I had been any game we’d played before.”

Not to worry. Washington has not lost two consecutive regular-season games since 1989.

One reason it didn’t happen Saturday was the game’s first play. UCLA kicked off, with several new faces on a coverage team that had proved porous all season, and never more so than last week against Arizona State.

The Bruins cruised downfield and Jerome Pathon was stopped by Eric Whitfield, one of the new kickoff teamers, on the Washington 15.

Good start, except that UCLA was guilty of encroachment on the play. The Bruins backed up five yards and Greg Andrasick kicked again. This time Pathon returned it 60 yards to the Bruin 34.

It was a sign of things to come.

“First of all, our kicking game gave them great field position most of the night,” Toledo said. “When you only have to go the short end of the field, you’re probably going to win a bunch of games.”

Washington wasted no time letting the Bruins know what was in store. Dillon ran for three yards, then six, then five, then four before Brock Huard passed to Fred Coleman for 14 yards to the UCLA two.

Then it was Dillon, for the first touchdown, with ease through guard.

“We just missed way too many tackles,” said UCLA linebacker Brian Willmer, who led both teams with 12 stops, many of them after teammates had faltered. “He was running hard and we tried to arm-tackle him. You can’t do that. You need to hit him head up and gang-tackle him.”

Dillon, a 220-pounder, carried four times in a row, took a screen pass 40 yards, another for 14, then carried twice more on a 14-play, 89-yard drive for the Huskies’ second touchdown, which he scored on a one-yard plunge.

His work was easier on his and Washington’s third score, which came a play after Tony Parrish returned Hicks’ fumble 30 yards, to the UCLA 11.

Hicks was benched for most of the rest of the game. The Pacific 10 Conference’s leading runner coming in, with a 101.2-yard per game average, he finished with eight yards in seven carries, one of those yards bringing the second Bruin touchdown, making the score 34-14 in the fourth quarter.

Dillon had been No. 1 in the conference before running into Notre Dame.

After his fourth touchdown, which followed Kyle Roberts’ interception of an underthrown Cade McNown pass, Washington held a 28-0 lead.

After receiving the second-half kickoff, UCLA put together a drive and scored on McNown’s quarterback sneak on fourth and goal from the Washington one.

It was countered by--who else?--Dillon, who finished a 47-yard drive that began, predictably enough, with Joe Jarzynka’s 38-yard return of a squib kick.

“There were so many plays in the game that helped them get that winning edge,” said McNown, who completed 17 of 31 passes for 218 yards and was chased all game long.

“There was a lot of hidden yardage, especially in the kicking game. They didn’t have to make very long drives.”

And when they had to, “The Sieve” was there, perhaps not giving up yards, but giving up 35 or more points for the fourth time this season.