Toledo Takes Responsibility For Latest Bruin Problems

With 5 minutes, 36 seconds to play, the unveiling began, a shroud being pulled away slowly, until UCLA’s football season was revealed as a portrait on velvet. Junk that never quite became art.

Most of the reasons the Bruins are 3-5 overall and 2-3 in the Pacific 10 came out Saturday, showing why they are shuffling players with three games to play rather than looking toward a bowl game with high hopes and satisfaction in the first season under a new coach.

It was the players’ fault. It was the system’s fault. It was the coaches’ fault.

“I’ll take the blame,” said Coach Bob Toledo on Monday, speaking of the primary problem in UCLA’s final offensive series, but perhaps also the 5:36 of defense and offense that summed up the entire 480 minutes of the Bruin season.

Stanford had the ball, 80 yards away from what would become a 21-20 victory.

“We didn’t think they could go 80 yards and score on us,” Toledo said. “But we had three missed tackles for first downs on the drive.”

And receivers went uncovered. And Chad Hutchinson, Stanford’s freshman quarterback, went unchallenged by a senior-led defense after being sacked five times earlier in the game.

“We didn’t make plays when we needed to make plays,” Toledo said.

It was a defense that has had to make big plays to succeed, that had recovered three fumbles and intercepted a pass the week before in a victory over California. Against Stanford, the Bruins intercepted two passes but could not force a turnover in that drive.

And then there was the tackling.

On the only third down of the drive, Hutchinson threw a screen pass to Mike Mitchell, who was grabbed, but not held, by nose guard Weldon Forde.

He leads the team in tackles for losses with 11, but didn’t add to it on this play. A two-yard loss became a four-yard gain and a first down, and three plays, later the game-winning touchdown.

Why?

The problems were hinted at three weeks ago, when the Bruins blew a 21-point lead and lost to Arizona State, then the No. 4 team in the country, 42-34. The Sun Devils scored their final touchdown with 1:18 to play, and UCLA’s comeback attempt was aborted by an intercepted pass.

But Saturday was worse.

“I was embarrassed,” Toledo said.

The Bruins had the ball on their 22 with 51 seconds to play and three timeouts. They finished on the 24 with two timeouts remaining.

“Obviously, there was poor clock management in that last minute,” quarterback Cade McNown said.

What happened?

Well, McNown scrambled twice for a first down, spending 20 of the seconds.

“That’s inexperience too,” said Toledo.

With a first down on the UCLA 34, the rest of the wheels flew off, mostly because wide receiver Tod McBride couldn’t hear McNown. A short time later, it was shown that it really didn’t matter whether he heard.

The clock was started at 32 seconds after the ball was spotted, and McNown was trying to signal to McBride, the primary receiver.

McBride was holding his hands out as if to ask what McNown wanted.

With the clock ticking, McNown did not call for a snap and spike the ball, nor did he call time out. He didn’t have permission, because both options are reserved for the coaching staff, the way UCLA does things.

“We thought we could get the play in and the ball snapped in two or three seconds after the ball was spotted,” Toledo said. “We thought there was time.”

The play went off at 19 seconds.

“I’ll take the blame,” Toledo said. “I want to make that perfectly clear. We had two timeouts, and I should have called one there.”

Somebody should have, and McNown didn’t have the authority.

A penalty, and time was lost again. McNown had forgotten that when the ball was set after the penalty was stepped off, the clock started again.

It took seven more seconds, but this time, McBride had the signal.

He dropped the pass at midfield. It was one of four UCLA drops on Saturday, a situation that is becoming the norm. There is no receiver McNown can rely on in times of stress.

“I know they feel horrible about the drops,” McNown said. “They don’t need me coming down on them.”

Instead, the coaching staff is, with evaluation this week and playing time at stake. But none of the receivers have escaped the drops, and all of them have been used. It’s a lot to ask for a reversal of fortune now.

There were six seconds left, time enough for one more problem.

UCLA sent in tailback Skip Hicks, who reported to the huddle but failed to tell tight end Jamal Clark that he was the player being replaced.

The penalty was for illegal substitution, 12 players on the field.

Hicks was in to run a hook-and-lateral play, with the ball thrown to Jim McElroy, then lateraled back to Hicks.

McNown skipped the ball to McElroy, incomplete, with two seconds to play.

The game’s final play was a Hail Mary interception.

Missed tackles, miscommunication, missed passes, missed opportunities. Misery for UCLA.

“At the beginning of the year, spirits were high,” Kirschke said. “We thought realistically we could beat any team we played, but we had to play mistake-free.”

Instead, the Bruins have been mistake-prone, with no one escaping scrutiny and three more games to play.